⏱️ El pretérito perfecto — The Present Perfect
⏱️ El pretérito perfecto — The Present Perfect
| Person | Haber | Past participle example: comer |
|---|---|---|
| yo | he | comido |
| tú | has | comido |
| él / ella / usted | ha | comido |
| nosotros | hemos | comido |
| vosotros | habéis | comido |
| ellos / ustedes | han | comido |
Forming the past participle: -AR verbs → -ado (hablar → hablado · desayunar → desayunado · levantarse → levantado). -ER / -IR verbs → -ido (comer → comido · salir → salido · vivir → vivido). If the verb stem ends in a vowel, an accent is added to the i to prevent a diphthong: oír → oído · leer → leído · caer → caído.
Nine high-frequency verbs have irregular past participles. These must be memorised — they do not follow the -ado / -ido pattern. They appear frequently in AQA reading and listening texts and are expected in Higher writing.
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❌ Errores frecuentes — Common Mistakes
❌ Error 1: Hemos comidos juntos.
✅ Correcto: Hemos comido juntos.
Por qué importa: The past participle in the compound perfect tense is invariable — it never changes for gender or number. Comido stays comido whether the subject is yo, nosotros, or ellas. Adding -s to make it plural is wrong. The only context where a past participle does agree is when it is used as an adjective (e.g. La puerta está abierta — there, abierta agrees with the feminine puerta). In the perfect tense, never touch the participle.
❌ Error 2: Se hablan inglés en esta tienda.
✅ Correcto: Se habla inglés en esta tienda.
Por qué importa: In the se-passive, the verb must agree with the grammatical subject — the noun that follows it. Inglés is singular, so the verb is singular: se habla. The plural form se hablan would only be correct if the following noun were plural — for example, Se hablan muchos idiomas aquí. (Many languages are spoken here.) The se-passive IS sensitive to number, unlike the impersonal se + infinitive construction. Check what noun follows se and match the verb to it.
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