Spanish past tense explained

A GUIDE TO THE
SPANISH PAST TENSE
Present perfect/imperfect/preterit/pluperfect

, THE PRESENT PERFE
• The present perfect tense is used to talk an action in the (recent) past that has relevan
the present. This means that the actions usually continue into the present tense OR th
have ongoing results in the present.
• ¿Has ido a Colombia? -> have you gone to Colombia? [think of it like this: you are in
Colombia, and therefore I cannot see you]
• Él ha dormido 10 horas -> he has slept for 10 hours [and therefore is not tired anymor


• To form the present perfect tense, you need to conjugate our auxiliary verb haber into
present tense and add the past participle to it.

, HABER & THE PAST PARTICIP
YO HE In order to form the past
TÚ HAS participle, you need to
follow 3 simple steps:
ÉL/ HA
ELLA/ 1. Remove the ar/er/ir
USTED from the verb to leave
NOSOT HEMOS the stem.
ROS/AS 2. Add the correct ending
VOSOT HABÉIS to the verb stem to
ROS/AS reveal the past
participle. [ar verbs =
ELLOS/ HAN
ado & er/ir verbs =
AS
ido]
3. Add the past participle
to your sentence to
form the full present
perfect tense.