Presente Perfecto

Presente Perfecto (Present Perfect Tense)

El Presente Perfecto en el idioma inglés es un tiempo verbal que se utiliza para referirnos a acciones que suceden en un pasado reciente y que guardan alguna relación con el presente. Su equivalente en el idioma español es el Pretérito Perfecto:

I have sent the letter.

Yo he enviado la carta.

(Indica que la acción acaba de suceder)

Para poder construir la forma afirmativa del Presente Perfecto debemos utilizar como auxiliar el verbo TO HAVE en Presente Simple y acompañado por el verbo principal en su Pasado Participio (ya sean verbos regulares o verbos irregulares):

I have bought a new dress. Yo he comprado un nuevo vestido.

You have studied the lesson. Tú has estudiado la lección.

He has broken the window. Él ha roto la ventana.

She has lost the keys. Ella ha perdido las llaves.

Recuerden que a las 3º personas del singular deben colocar la “S” en elauxiliar ya que se trata del Presente Simple.

En cambio, para formar una interrogación deberemos colocar elauxiliar al comienzo de la oración, luego el sujeto y posteriormente el verbo principal también en Pasado Participio:

Have I bought a new dress? He comprado un nuevo vestido?

Have you studied the lesson? Has estudiado la lección?

Has he broken the window? Ha roto él la ventana?

Has she lost the keys? Ha perdido ella las llaves?

Por su parte, la forma negativa se forma poniendo la negación NOTentre el auxiliar y el verbo principal, por ejemplo:

I have not bought a new dress. Yo no he comprado un nuevo vestido.

You have not studied the lesson. Tú no has estudiado la lección.

He has not broken the window. Él no ha roto la ventana.

She has not lost the keys. Ella no ha perdido la llave.

También puede utilizarse la forma contraída de la negación colocando HAVEN’T o HASN’T según corresponda.

Cabe destacar que cuando hablamos en Presente Perfecto no debemos mencionar el momento en que se ha producido la acción, ya que de hacerlo deberíamos utilizar el Pasado Simple, por ejemplo:

I have sold my car.

Yo he vendido mi auto. (Presente Perfecto)I sold my car this morning.

Yo vendí mi auto esta mañana. (Pasado Simple)

Present perfect

The present perfect is a grammatical combination of the present tense and the perfect aspect, used to express a past event that has present consequences. The term is used particularly in the context of English grammar, where it refers to forms such as "I have left" and "Sue has died". These forms are present because they use the present tense of the auxiliary verb have, and perfect because they use that auxiliary in combination with the past participle of the main verb. (Other perfect constructions also exist, such as the past perfect: "I had eaten.")

Analogous forms are found in some other languages, and these may also be described as present perfects, although they often have other names, such as the German Perfekt and the French passé composé. They may also have different ranges of usage – for example, in both of the languages just mentioned, the forms in question serve as a general past tense, at least for completed actions. In English, completed actions in many contexts are referred to using the simple past verb form rather than the present perfect.

English also has a present perfect progressive (or present perfect continuous) form, which combines present tense with both perfect aspect and progressive (continuous) aspect: "I have been eating". In this case the action is not necessarily complete; the same is true of certain uses of the basic present perfect when the verb expresses a state or a habitual action: "I have lived here for five years."

Auxiliaries[edit source | editbeta]

In modern English, the auxiliary verb for forming the present perfect is always to have. A typical present perfect clause thus consists of the subject, the auxiliary have/has, and the past participle (third form) of the main verb. Examples:

• I have eaten some food.

• You have gone to school.

• He has already arrived in Catalonia.

• He has had child after child... (The Mask of Anarchy, Percy Shelley)

• Lovely tales that we have heard or read... (Endymion (poem), John Keats)

Early Modern English used both to have and to be as perfect auxiliaries. Examples of the second can be found in older texts:

• Madam, the Lady Valeria is come to visit you. (The Tragedy of Coriolanus, Shakespeare)

• Vext the dim sea: I am become a name... (Ulysses, Tennyson)

• Pillars are fallen at thy feet... (Marius amid the Ruins of Carthage, Lydia Maria Child)

• I am come in sorrow. (Lord Jim, Conrad)

In many other European languages, the equivalent of to have (e.g. German haben, French avoir) is used to form the present perfect (or their equivalent of the present perfect) for most or all verbs. However, the equivalent of to be (e.g. German sein, French être) serves as the auxiliary for other verbs in some languages, such as German, Dutch, French, and Italian (but not Spanish or Portuguese). Generally, the verbs that take to be as auxiliary are intransitive verbs denoting motion or change of state (e.g. to arrive, to go, to fall).

For more details, see Perfect constructions with auxiliaries.

In particular languages[edit source | editbeta]

In many European languages, including standard German, French and Italian, the present perfect verb form usually does not convey perfect aspect, but rather perfective aspect. In these languages, it has usurped the role of the simple past (i.e. preterite) in spoken language, and the simple past is now really only used in formal written language and literature. In standard English, Spanish, and Portuguese, by contrast, the present perfect and simple past are both common, and have distinct uses.

English[edit source | editbeta]

Examples

1) Actions started in the past and continuing in the present:

• We have had the same car for eleven years.

2) When the time period referred to has not finished:

• It has rained a lot this year.

3) Actions repeated in an unspecified period between the past and now:

• We have eaten at that restaurant many times.

4) Actions completed in the very recent past (+just):

• Have you just finished work?

5) When the precise time of the action is not important or not known:

• She's studied Japanese, Russian and English.

The present perfect in English is used chiefly for completed past actions

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