Make a New Friend in Spanish
Vocabulary
Let's start off with the vocab words in these lessons!
Nouns
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Asia | Asia |
| Bogotá | Bogota |
| la competencia | competition |
| la competición | competition |
| el cuento | story |
| la fotografía | photography |
| el merengue | merengue |
| la poesía | poetry |
| examples |
|---|
Talking About the Competition
In these lessons, you saw both competencia and competición used for competition. What’s the difference? It’s simple. According to Fundéu, competencia is the preferred term in Latin America, whereas competición is used more frequently in Spain to refer to a contest between two or more rivals.
Noun Phrases
| examples |
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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!
Let’s take a look at some examples of the present perfect that we saw in these lessons:
| examples |
|---|
Present Perfect Trigger Words
Here are some key words that trigger the use of the present perfect.
| Key Word in Spanish | Translation |
|---|---|
| alguna vez | ever |
| durante+ noun | for + noun |
| desde cuándo | how long |
| desde+ noun | since + noun |
| por+ time noun | for + time noun |
| toda+ possessive + vida | possessive + whole life |
Let’s take a look at some of these trigger words in context:
| examples |
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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.
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.
Quiz Yourself!
Want more practice with the vocabulary you learned in these lessons? Click here!
Spanish Conversation
Fantastic! Let's put the grammar and vocab from above to the test in the following example of a conversation in Spanish.
Want to learn more about how to make a new friend in Spanish? Check out the following articles!
