Spanish perfect tenses: he hablado, había hablado and more
The perfect tenses are haber + past participle: he hablado, había hablado, habré hablado, habría hablado. The participle never changes: ella ha hablado, ellos han hablado.
In Spain the present perfect is the everyday tense for today and recent time; in most of Latin America the preterite does that job. Both are accepted in the course.
The essentials
- Present perfect for today, this week and life experience: he comido, ¿has estado en México?, todavía no lo he visto.
- Regular participles end in -ado and -ido; learn the irregular ones early: hecho, dicho, visto, escrito, puesto, vuelto.
- Pluperfect for what had already happened: cuando llegué, ya se había ido.
- Future and conditional perfect for what will or would have happened, and for guesses about the past: habrá salido.
- Nothing goes between haber and the participle: lo he visto, never he lo visto.
Every lesson on this topic
Each lesson has a full explanation, examples you can listen to, and exercises with answers.
A2 (the A2 course)
- The present perfect (he hablado) and when Spain uses it: He comido, has visto: today, this week, ya, todavía no, nunca
- Irregular participles: hecho, dicho, visto, escrito, puesto: Hecho, dicho, visto, escrito, puesto, abierto, vuelto, roto
B1 (the B1 course)
- The pluperfect: había hablado: Say what had already happened before another moment in the past.
B2 (the B2 course)
- The perfect subjunctive: haya hecho: Use haya + participle for completed actions after present triggers, ojalá, and time clauses about the future.
- Past hypotheses: si hubiera sabido, habría venido: Imagine a different past with hubiera / hubiese + participle, express regret with ojalá, and mix past and present hypotheses.
- Future and conditional perfect, including guesses about the past: Say what will have happened (habré terminado), what would have happened (habría ido), and guess about the past.
In the app, these lessons are taught one idea at a time with audio, practised with questions that explain the rule when you slip, and brought back for review on later days.
Other topics
- Ser vs estar, explained
- Por vs para, explained
- Preterite vs imperfect, explained
- The Spanish subjunctive, explained
- Gustar and verbs like it, explained
- Spanish reflexive verbs, explained
- Spanish object pronouns, explained
- Spanish commands (the imperative), explained
- Spanish future and conditional, explained
- The Spanish present tense and stem-changing verbs
- Tú vs usted (and vosotros vs ustedes), explained
- Spanish articles, gender and agreement, explained
- Spanish pronunciation and accent marks, explained