Present Perfect
Say what you've done — and haven't yet — with ya, todavía, nunca, in live conversation.
The Spanish present perfect is haber + past participle: he, has, ha, hemos, han plus -ado for -ar verbs and -ido for the rest — He hablado con el director, ¿Has comido ya?. A short list of participles is irregular and never changes: hecho, visto, dicho, escrito, puesto, abierto, roto, vuelto. Use it for past actions that still touch the present — life experiences and recent events cued by ya, todavía no, nunca, alguna vez — and switch to the preterite for closed, dated past: He visitado Barcelona tres veces versus Visité Barcelona en 2020.
Below: the sentences the tense actually lives in, the Spain-vs-Latin-America split every learner should know, the participle slip-ups — and how &Be gets it into your speech through conversation, not participle drills.
Say this
Regional Spanish
Textbooks teach one word. Locals use several — pick your region's and stay consistent.
| English | Spain | Latin America |
|---|---|---|
| Have you eaten yet? | ¿has comido ya? | ¿ya comiste? |
| What did you do today? | ¿qué has hecho hoy? | ¿qué hiciste hoy? |
| Did you see...? | ¿has visto...? | ¿ya viste...? |
| I saw the movie | he visto la película | vi la película |
Watch out
The part no drill site can do
Carla
Your grammar teacher for this pack
No participle drills, nothing to conjugate on paper — in the Present Perfect lessons, Carla just asks you about your life and today catches up with the grammar. ¿Qué has hecho hoy? ¿Alguna vez has probado el ceviche? — you answer with ya, todavía no, nunca, for real. Then she plays the near-minimal pairs out loud — he visitado versus visité — and asks which feels right and why, until choosing the tense stops being a decision at all.
Blank mid-sentence and nothing bad happens — she waits. That's the practice, without unnecessary judgement.
Finish the 6 lessons and Present Perfect is yours — earned, not given.
First 10 lessons free · 10-minute spoken lessons · your AI coaching team remembers you
Quick answers
Conjugate haber in the present — he, has, ha, hemos, habéis, han — and add the participle: hablado, comido, vivido. Hemos vivido aquí tres años; Han llamado varias veces.
The core ten: hecho, visto, dicho, escrito, puesto, abierto, roto, vuelto, muerto, cubierto. They never inflect after haber — it's hecho, not hacido, and visto, not veído.
Present perfect when the past still connects to now — experiences and recency: He visitado Barcelona tres veces, Este mes he leído dos libros. Preterite for a closed, dated past: Visité Barcelona en 2020, El año pasado leí cinco libros.
Much less than Spain. Mexico asks ¿ya comiste? where Spain says ¿has comido?, and in Argentina the tense has nearly vanished from speech. It survives everywhere for life experience — Siempre he querido aprender a cocinar — and softeners like he estado pensando...
Right before the haber block: Ya he terminado el informe; Todavía no he recibido la respuesta; Nunca he viajado a Japón. For 'ever' questions: ¿Alguna vez has probado el ceviche?
