Compare Travel Stories in Spanish

Quick Answer

¡Hola!Learn how to compare travel stories in Spanish in this article and the lessons above! Specifically, learn how to do the following in Spanish:

• ask about experiences in the past

• talk about trips

• use vocabulary and phrases related to tourism

Vocabulary

Let's start off with the vocab words in these lessons!

Adjectives

Spanish	English
acuático	water
cautivador	enchanting
divino	divine
empedrado	cobblestone
muchísimo	a lot of, lots of
natural	natural
turquesa	turquoise

examples
Hemos practicado deportes acuáticos. We've practiced water sports.
He visitado muchos países cautivadores. I've visited many enchanting countries.
Han disfrutado de playas divinas. They've enjoyed divine beaches.

Nouns

Spanish	English
la Catedral del Mar	Cathedral of the Sea
Centroamérica	Central America
el Cono Sur	Southern Cone
las ruinas	ruins
la selva	jungle
Sudamérica	South America
la tradición	tradition
la zona	area

examples
¿Has visitado el Cono Sur? Have you visited the Southern Cone?
Nunca hemos visitado Centroamérica. We've never visited Central America.
Hemos explorado las ruinas antiguas. We've explored the ancient ruins.

Geography of the Spanish-Speaking World

In these lessons, you learned about the Cono Sur, Centroamérica, and Sudamérica. But, do you know where each region is located?

Let’s start up north, in Centroamérica. Central America is the southernmost part of North America. It includes the countries between Mexico and South America: Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama.

Sudamérica, or South America is the continent that starts south of Panama. It has twelve sovereign states, many of which are Spanish-speaking.

Finally, the Cono Sur, or Southern Cone, refers to the southern half of South America. The Cono Sur is made up of Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay.

What’s América?

Now that we’ve talked about Central and South America, let’s take a moment to reflect on the word América in Spanish. Note that, in Spanish, América is just one big continent. So, if you’re from the United States, be careful if you decide to refer to yourself as americano(American). Yes, you may be americano, but—American from where? It’s often best to use the term estadounidenseto refer to someone from the US.

The Present Perfect

In these lessons, you reviewed the present perfect. The Spanish present perfect el pretérito perfecto compuestoo el antepresenteis used to talk about things that started in the past and which continue or repeat in the present. It's also used to talk about things that have happened in the recent past.

How Do You Form the Present Perfect in Spanish?

Present Perfect Indicative Formula

present indicative of haber + past participle of another verb

As a reminder, this is how we conjugate haber in the present indicative:

Pronoun(s)	Conjugation
yo	he
tú	has
vos	has
él, ella	ha
usted	ha
nosotros, nosotras	hemos
vosotros, vosotras	habéis
ellos, ellas	han
ustedes	han

Past Participles

Regular Past Participles

An essential part of using the present perfect correctly is knowing how to form the past participle.

To form the past participle of a regular verb, you drop the infinitive ending (-ar, -er, -ir) and add -ado to the stem of -ar verbs and -ido to the stem of -er and -ir verbs. This is equivalent to adding -ed to many verbs in English.

Irregular Past Participles

Quite a few Spanish verbs have irregular past participles that don't end in -ado or -ido. Let's take a look at some common ones!

Infinitive	Spanish Past Participle	Translation
abrir	abierto	opened
morir	muerto	died
absolver	absuelto	absolved
poner	puesto	put
cubrir	cubierto	covered
decir	dicho	said
romper	roto	broken
escribir	escrito	written
resolver	resuelto	resolved
satisfacer	satisfecho	satisfied
hacer	hecho	done
ver	visto	seen
volver	vuelto	returned

Let’s take a look at some examples of the present perfect that we saw in these lessons:

examples

¿Has visitado el Cono Sur?

Have you visited the Southern Cone?

No he explorado esa zona nunca.

I haven't explored that area before.

Hemos explorado las ruinas antiguas.

We've explored the ancient ruins.

Present Perfect Trigger Words

Here are some key words that trigger the use of the present perfect.

Key Word in Spanish	Translation
durante+ noun	during + *noun*
en tu vida	in your life
nunca	never

When to Use the Present Perfect

Talking about Life Experiences

We use the present perfect to talk about life experiences and things you have done, without saying specifically when you did them. It is also used to talk about how many times you've done something.

examples
¿Has hecho el Camino de Santiago? Have you walked the Camino de Santiago?
Nunca he oído hablar de él. I've never heard of it.

examples

¿Has hecho el Camino de Santiago?

Have you walked the Camino de Santiago?

Nunca he oído hablar de él.

I've never heard of it.

Recent Completed Actions

We also use the present perfect to talk about recent finished actions that have a present result.

Unfinished Situations

Finally, we use the present perfect to talk about situations that started in the past and continue until now.

Latin America, Spain, and the Present Perfect

For talking about actions that happened in the recent past, the present perfect is more widely used in Spain than in Latin America. It's more common to hear the preterite, or simple past, used in Latin America to talk about something that just happened. To talk about something that was just done, it's also very common to use acabar deor the simple past, especially in Latin America.