Daily routine, Higher: se-passive + present perfect (haber + pp)

SpanishAQAGCSEUnit: Theme 1: People & Lifestyle
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The basics

⏱ El pretĂ©rito perfecto — The Present Perfect

⏱ El pretĂ©rito perfecto — The Present Perfect

The present perfect is your gateway to Higher writing marks. Use it to describe recent events connected to now: things you have done today, this week, or this year. It is formed with two parts: the verb haber (an auxiliary, like "to have") + a past participle. The participle never changes — it is invariable.
Person Haber Past participle example: comer
yo he comido
tĂș has comido
Ă©l / ella / usted ha comido
nosotros hemos comido
vosotros habéis comido
ellos / ustedes han comido
⭐ The past participle is INVARIABLE. It never changes for gender or number in the compound perfect. Write hemos comido — never hemos comidos. This is one of the most penalised errors at Higher level.

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: oĂ­r → oĂ­do · leer → leĂ­do · caer → caĂ­do.

📅 Common time markers with the present perfect: hoy (today) · esta mañana (this morning) · esta semana (this week) · este año (this year) · ya (already) · todavĂ­a no (not yet). These time markers signal that the present perfect — not the preterite — is the appropriate tense.
Spotlight
Participios irregulares y ya / todavĂ­a no

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.

Exam tip

Earn the mark scheme marks

❌ Errores frecuentes — Common Mistakes

❌ Error 1: Hemos comidos juntos.

✅ Correcto: Hemos comido juntos.

Por quĂ© 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 estĂĄ abierta — there, abierta agrees with the feminine puerta). In the perfect tense, never touch the participle.

❌ Error 2: Se hablan inglĂ©s en esta tienda.

✅ Correcto: Se habla inglĂ©s en esta tienda.

Por quĂ© importa: In the se-passive, the verb must agree with the grammatical subject — the noun that follows it. InglĂ©s 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 aquĂ­. (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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