Perfect Tense in Spanish Grammar
- When to use the perfect tense in Spanish
- How to conjugate the Spanish perfect tense
- Online exercises to improve your Spanish
- Lingolia Plus Spanish
Introduction
The Spanish perfect tense, also pretérito perfecto/pretérito perfecto compuesto de indicativo, is used for actions completed in the recent past that have a connection to the present. This tense is similar to the English present perfect tense and is conjugated with the auxiliary verb haber + past participle.
Learn the rules for conjugating and using the Spanish perfect tense with Lingolia’s Spanish grammar lesson. In the exercises, you can practise what you have learned. See subjunctive tenses for information on how to use the perfect subjunctive. In our section on tense comparison, you will find an overview of all the tenses in Spanish grammar.
Example

Esta semana Antonio ha ordenado su oficina.
Ha planeado mantener el orden en el futuro.
When to use the perfect tense in Spanish
We use the Spanish perfect tense to express:
- actions completed within a period of time that is still viewed as the present (hoy, esta mañana/semana, este mes/verano/año/siglo …)
- Example:
- Esta semana Antonio ha ordenado su oficina.This week, Antonio tidied up his office.
- completed actions whose results influence the present or future
- Example:
- Antonio ha ordenado su oficina.Antonio has tidied up his office.
- result: his office is tidy now
- Ha planeado mantener el orden en el futuro.He has decided to keep it organised in the future.
- result: his office will be tidy in future
How to conjugate the Spanish perfect tense
To conjugate the perfect tense in Spanish grammar, we need the present indicative form the verb haber followed by the past participle (participio pasado) of the main verb. See the table below:
Person | haber | Past Participle |
---|---|---|
yo | he |
hablado aprendido vivido |
tú | has | |
él/ella/usted | ha | |
nosotros/-as | hemos | |
vosotros/-as | habéis | |
ellos/ellas/ustedes | han |
The Spanish past participle
The past participle is formed by replacing the infinitive endings -ar, -er and -ir with the corresponding participle ending: -ar → -ado, -er/-ir → -ido.
- Example:
- hablar - hablado
- aprender - aprendido
- vivir - vivido
Reflexive Verbs
When the main verb is reflexive, we place the reflexive pronoun (me, te, se, nos, os, se) before the auxiliary verb haber.
- Example:
- beberse → Te has bebido el vaso de agua de un trago.You drank the glass of water in one go!
Irregular past participles
-
When an -ido ending is preceded by a vowel, we add an accent to the -i of the ending. This shows us that each vowel is spoken separately (i.e. not a diphthong).
- Example:
- leer – leído
- traer – traído
- Some Spanish verbs have two past participle forms: one regular and one irregular. Both forms are correct, although the usage varies in different regions of Spain and Latin America. The table below provides an overview of some of the most common irregular past participles:
Verb | Irregular Participle | Regular Participle |
---|---|---|
abriropen | abierto | |
decirsay | dicho | |
escribirwrite | escrito | |
hacerdo/make | hecho | |
freírfry | frito | freído |
imprimirprint | impreso | imprimido |
morirdie | muerto | |
ponerput | puesto | |
proveerprovide | provisto | proveído |
suscribirsign/subscribe | suscrito/suscripto | |
versee | visto | |
volverreturn | vuelto |
Irregular verbs and their derivatives
Verbs formed by adding a prefix to an irregular verb maintain the same irregularities in their participle forms:
- Examples:
- encubrir → encubierto
- descubrir → descubierto
- componer → compuesto
- posponer → pospuesto
- proponer → propuesto
- resolver → resuelto
- revolver → revuelto
- devolver → devuelto
- deshacer → deshecho
- prever → previsto