Clarifying present perfect and sentir
So someone told me that I should conjugate the present perfect tense after a conjugated verb with no support from other links or textbooks. I searched online and I saw that the perfect infinitive does exist. So is this correct because I do not think so: "Siento te he estado ignorando"
Shouldn't it be "Siento haberte estado ignorando" or "Siento haber estado ingnorándote"
On this website: present perfect for dummies It says that "When using an object pronoun with the present perfect, the pronoun must precede the conjugated form of haber". So does that mean "Siento haberte estado ignorando" is wrong?
Also someone told me that to say "I am sorry for you", I can say "Lo siento por ti". I thought that I shouldn't use "lo" in front of sentir when I clarify what I feel sorry about (for you). Thus, shouldn't it be "Siento por ti"?
1 Answer
Present Perfect and Perfect Infinitive: these two tenses are used commonly in both languages, but they are very different.
In your original post, I believe you were saying "I feel I have been ignoring you." That English sentence is using the present perfect, and "I have" is therefore conjugated. The Spanish equivalent of the verb haber would be "he". Refer to this: English present perfect
In your recent post, the two sentences "Siento haberte estado ignorando" and "Siento haber estado ingnorándote" are using the conjugated form of the verb "to have" or "haber", i.e. are using the present perfect form: "I feel I have been ignoring you." Converting that sentence to a perfect infinitive form could not be grammatically correct: "I feel to have ignoring you."
If the perfect infinitive was being used, we would have a sentence like this: "I hope to have finished" or "Espero haber terminado." The verb "to have" or "haber" is in its infinitive form.
A present perfect form of that would be "I hope I have finished." or "Espero he terminado"
Regarding placement of "te". In your original post, "te" is the recipient of the action, i.e. the indirect object pronoun. In this link IO object pronouns we can see the placement of the IO pronoun is before the perfect tense conjugation: Carlos me ha hablado, Carlos has spoken to me.
In your original post, the placement of "te" I believe is possible in two positions:
Me siento te he estado ignorando or Me siento he estado ignorandote. See this page on position of object pronouns, specifically the section Present Progressive: object pronoun placement options
