LALM - Learning Tasks: Gramática (Lesson)

Learning Tasks: Gramática

El Presente Perfecto (The Present Perfect)

The present perfect has two parts and is used to express how one "has done" an action. There is a presentation below which describes how this tense is structured. Pay close attention to the irregular conjugations as there are several; you will see them again on your quizzes and tests. Take notes as you view the material as you will be responsible for the content. Be sure your speakers are turned up!

Please watch the following video.

 

Present Perfect Tense.To form the present perfect in English, we us a conjugation of to have and a past participle. Past participles in English are words like eaten, written, and rung. We use them with to have in the sense of to have done or finished something. For example, I have finished my project, I have seen that man before, I have had enough examples.If you say, "I have eaten dinner already!" I may respond by suggesting instead that we rent the movie Titanic, to which you may reply, "Debbie, I have seen Titanic five times already." I may try again suggesting we go out to our favorite coffee house, to which you say, "Oh, no! Debbie, I have had too much caffeine!" At this point, I might say, "I have had enough!"

All of these verb constructions are in the Present Perfect Tense.

While you understand that these actions have taken place in the past (they have completed actions), they still have a sense of immediacy: They have taken place, but recently.

There is a wide variety in the construction of past participles in English. We say "I have walked," "I have sung," "I have written," and "I have gone." There are a lot of irregulars in English. Who hasn't wrestled with "swam" vs. "swum" or "swelled" vs. "swollen"?

But it is easier to form the past participle in Spanish: There are fewer irregularities but even the irregulars follow a pattern.

To form the present perfect in Spanish, we conjugate the verb "haber" in the present tense. Haber means "to have".

NOTE: Don't confuse haber with tener. Tener means "to possess or to own" and is not used to form the present perfect.

We put the form of haber together with a past participle in the same manner that we put estar together with a present participle to form the present progressive.

Here are the conjugations for haber:  

Yo, he, Tú, has,él, ella, ud., ha, nosotros, hemos, vosotros, habéis, ellos, ellas, uds., han

 

To form past participles in Spanish, we simply add -ado to the stem of -ar verbs and -ido to the stem of -er and -ir verbs.

For example, lets look at the ar verb estudiar. Estudi minus ar, we remove the infinitive ending. Estudi minus, we are left with our root. Estudi plus ado, we add the Ar ending ado. Estudiado. Yo he estudiado toda la noche, we add a conjugation of haber to form a sentence in the present perfect.

 

With -er and -ir verbs, drop the -er and -ir, and add -ido.

For example, let's look at perder.

The word perder

How do you find the past participle?

  1. Perder ---> er
  2. Perd-
  3. Perd + ido
  4. Perdido
  5. Yo he perdido mis llaves.

 

In the Perfect tenses, past participles are being used as part of a compound verb. So the endings stay the same in the same way that present participles remained unchanged no matter the gender or number of people involved:

  • Tomás ha terminado la tarea.
  • Alicia ha terminado la tarea.
  • Los estudiantes han terminado la tarea.
  • Nosotros hemos terminado la tarea.

 

Irregular Past Participles

Most past participles are formed by simply removing the last two letters of the infinitive and adding - ado for -ar verbs and - ido for -er and -ir verbs

But of course, there are some irregulars!

I like to think of them as the "chosen toes" because they end either in "-cho" or "sto/to."

Chart of Spanish irregular cho infinitives, past participle versions, and English meanings

Chart of Spanish irregular Sto infinitives, past participle versions, and English meanings

Chart of Spanish irregular To infinitives, past participle versions, and English meanings

And a there are a couple of funky "so" verbs:

                   verb                                participle                         English meaning

Chart of two unusual so verbs, apresar and imprimir

 

Some past participles need accent marks because they are -er or -ir verbs that have stems ending in a vowel.

These past participles are formed according to the regular pattern but need an accent mark on the vowel "i" to keep the "i" sound of "ido." Without an accent mark, the "i" would form a dipthong with the stronger vowel.

Chart of past participles that, when formed, require accent marks for proper pronunciation

 

How to Form The Present Perfect with Most Verbs

Please watch the video below.

 

Please complete the activity below.

 

Mandatos Informales: Informal Commands

In a previous module, you learned about formal commands. Informal commands are used with someone you know well. There are some presentations below which explain how these commands are formed. Pay close attention to the irregular commands as there are several; you will see them again on your quizzes and tests. Take notes as you view the material as you will be responsible for the content. Be sure your speakers are turned up!

Please watch the following video.

 

The informal commands (AKA telling your family & friends to do stuff!)

When we are with friends, siblings, or children, we can order them around more casually. There is a command form for this that is more casual than the Formal Command.

We can think of the formation of the tú commands in one of two ways: In the affirmative commands you use the 3rd person (él, ella, usted) singular present tense; or in the affirmative commands you use the regular Tú present tense form, but drop the "s".

For example, here are some common affirmative tú commands:

Chart of Spanish affirmative tú commands

Hurrah! Not too difficult!

And there are only 8 (eight!) irregular affirmative tú commands. You knew there had to be a couple!

Chart of Spanish irregular affirmative tú commands

 

Forming the negative commands in the informal is a bit trickier. The negative command form is actually the tú form of the present subjunctive and therefore similar to the formal commands (except that we add the tú marker: the "s".) Let's take a look. To form the negative tú commands, you need to first remember how to form the first person singular (Yo) in the present tense. Remember if the yo form is irregular, the command will be irregular. Let's try using an irregular: Hacer. First, we start with the infinitive of hacer:

  1. We need to conjugate it in the first person: Hago
  2. Now let's drop the o so we are left with Hag-
  3. Now we add the opposite ending * which for hacer is "-as", and add no [because we are making a negative command]*
  4. And we have our negative Tú command: No hagas

*By opposite ending we mean to add the vowel ending of the other type of verb: For verbs that end in " -ar ", we add " -es " instead of " -as" and for verbs that end in " -er/-ir ", we add " -as " instead of "-es."

 

Chart of Spanish irregular affirmative tú commands. All of the eight irregular affirmative commands follow the above pattern in the negative commands. Note that object pronouns always are placed before the verb in all negative commands.

Affirmative Tú Commands

Please watch the video below.

 

Tú Commands: Irregulars

Please watch the following video.

 

Informal Commands Review

Please complete the following activity.

 

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