He hablado, has comido, ha vivido — the recent past
The pretérito perfecto is the Spanish present perfect: haber (present) + past participle. It mirrors English "I have spoken, she has eaten".
He hablado con el jefe. (I have spoken to the boss.)
¿Has comido ya? (Have you eaten yet?)
Hemos vivido aquí dos años. (We have lived here for two years.)
Use it for the recent past and for life experiences — especially with hoy, esta semana, este año, ya, todavía no, alguna vez.
The helper verb — never translated as "to have possessions"
| yo | he | I have |
| tú | has | you have |
| él / ella / usted | ha | he / she has |
| nosotros | hemos | we have |
| vosotros | habéis | you all have |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | han | they have |
Key contrast: "to have" as in possession is tener. The auxiliary "have" of the perfect tense is haber — they are never interchangeable.
-ar → -ado · -er / -ir → -ido
hablar → hablado: He hablado con María. (I have spoken to María.)
comer → comido: Has comido mucho. (You have eaten a lot.)
vivir → vivido: Han vivido en Londres. (They have lived in London.)
The participle never changes in this tense — no gender, no plural: Ella ha hablado. Ellos han hablado.
The most common ones — learn these by heart
| hacer | hecho | done / made |
| ver | visto | seen |
| escribir | escrito | written |
| decir | dicho | said |
| poner | puesto | put |
| volver | vuelto | returned |
| abrir | abierto | opened |
| romper | roto | broken |
Recent past and experiences — vs the indefinido
Hoy he trabajado mucho. (Today I have worked a lot.)
¿Has estado alguna vez en México? (Have you ever been to Mexico?)
Ya hemos terminado. (We have already finished.)
Todavía no he visto esa película. (I have not seen that film yet.)
Perfecto markers: hoy, esta semana, este mes, este año, ya, todavía no, alguna vez.
Indefinido markers: ayer, anoche, la semana pasada, en 2020.
Esta semana he trabajado mucho — but — La semana pasada trabajé mucho.
Traps for English speakers
These are the classic English-speaker errors with the pretérito perfecto.