Learn how to form and use the present perfect tense
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Fernando: “Have you solved your Spanish dilemma?” Como siempre estoy acompañado de JP. JP ¿cómo estas? |
| JP: Muy bien gracias. ¿Tú Fernando? |
| Fernando: Muy bien. |
| JP: Now, Fernando, tell us what’s going on in today’s lesson. |
| Fernando: En esta lección vamos a revisar el tiempo presente perfecto. La conversación toma lugar en la oficina y la conversación es entre Margarita y Leonardo. Estarán utilizando el registro familiar. |
| JP: All right. Let’s listen without further ado. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Margarita: Creo que me van a despedir esta tarde. Lo presiento. |
| Leonardo: Qué mala noticia. Pero para ser sincero, tus presentimientos siempre han estado equivocados. |
| Margarita: Tal vez, pero estos últimos meses no he trabajado como debería. Mi desempeño no ha sido el ideal. |
| Leonardo: Eso sí. He tenido que asumir todo el trabajo que has dejado de hacer y llego bien tarde a casa. Si te despiden te reemplazarán con alguien que sí trabaja. |
| Margarita: ¡Qué malo! La otra es que si me despiden, te van a dar todo mi trabajo y llegarás todavía más tarde a casa. |
| Leonardo: ¡Esto es un dilema que sólo a mí me afectará! |
| Margarita: I think they're going to fire me this afternoon. I can feel it. |
| Leonardo: What bad news. But to be honest, your premonitions have always been wrong. |
| Margarita: Maybe, but these last few months I have not worked as I should. My performance has not been ideal. |
| Leonardo: That's true. I've had to assume all the work that you've stopped doing and I get home very late. If they fired you, they would replace you with someone who actually works. |
| Margarita: That's awful. The other thing is if they fire me, they're going to give you all my work and you'll get home even later. |
| Leonardo: This is a dilemma that only affects me! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| JP: Fernando, we’re back. Margarita and Leonardo are at the office, and Margarita is not feeling very secure about her job. |
| Fernando: Al parecer no. Parece ser que ha estado de floja. “Creo que me van a despedir esta tarde. Lo presiento.” |
| JP: Ok, “I think they are going to fire me this afternoon. I can feel it. I can tell.” “Lo presiento”. That’s the verb “presentir”, ”sentir” is “to feel”, “presentir” is “to feel before it”. |
| Fernando: Y Leonardo sintiendo un poco de empatía hacia ella le dice “Que mala noticia” |
| JP: “What bad news.” |
| Fernando: “Pero para ser sincero, tus presentimientos siempre han estado equivocados.” |
| JP: “But, those feelings of yours are always wrong.” I wonder what she had feelings about. |
| Fernando: Pero sí, Margarita le contesta: “Tal vez, pero estos últimos meses no he trabajado como debería.” |
| JP: “I haven’t been working like I should’ve been.” So, we have the verb “deber” in the Conditional, “debería” – “I should”. “Como debería” – “as I should have”. |
| Fernando: “Mi desempeño no ha sido el ideal.” |
| JP: So, “Mi desemeño”, I translated that as “my performance”. So, “I haven’t been performing it”, “it hasn’t been great”, “Hasn’t been the ideal”. |
| Fernando: Para nada. Digo, para que tenga el presentimiento de que la van a despedir. |
| JP: So, Leonardo agrees with her. |
| Fernando: En este caso sí. “Eso sí” comienza. “He tenido que asumir todo el trabajo que has dejado de hacer y llego bien tarde a casa”. |
| JP: “I’ve had to assume all the work that you’ve left.” Now, the grammatical thing that we see again and again in this dialogue is “preterito perfecto”, we call the Present Perfect in English. “He tenido, has dejado”, in last sense, we heard “no has ido”, and before that Leonardo said “tus presentimientos siempre han estado equivocados”. We’re going to talk about this “preterito perfecto” in the grammar section. But in this sense, “he tenido que asumir todo el trabajo que has dejado” – “I’ve had to assume”. All right. And that’s the direct translation: “I have had to assume all the work that you’ve had left.” |
| Fernando: “Si te despiden te reemplazarán con alguien que sí trabaja.” |
| JP: And then we have an If/Then sense. “If they fire you, they shall replace you with someone who does work.” |
| Fernando: “¡Qué malo!” Le contesta Margarita a Leonardo. “La otra es que si me despiden,” aquí es donde se está desquitando, creo. |
| JP: Right. |
| Fernando: “ te van a dar todo mi trabajo y llegarás todavía más tarde a casa.” |
| JP: Ok. It’s going to get even worse if she gets fired, right? For Leonardo. |
| Fernando: A lo que contesta, “¡Esto es un dilema que sólo a mí me afectará!” |
| JP: So, Leonardo is making a joke here saying it’s all about him. |
| Fernando: Sí, a Leonardo nadamas le va a afectar. Digo, Margarita pues puede estar en su casa y va a seguir haciendo lo mismo que es nada. |
| JP: Right. |
| Fernando: Sí. |
| JP: Shall we move to the vocabulary? |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Fernando: El dilema. |
| JP: “Dilemma” |
| Fernando: el di-le-ma, el dilema. Presentir |
| JP: “To have a premonition”, “to have a feeling” |
| Fernando: pre-sen-tir, presentir. El presentimiento. |
| JP: “Premonition” |
| Fernando: el pre-sen-ti-mien-to, el presentimiento. El desempeño. |
| JP: “Performance” |
| Fernando: el de-sem-pe-ño, el desempeño. Despedir |
| JP: “To say goodbye”, “to fire” |
| Fernando: des-pe-dir, despedir. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| JP: Ok, let’s take a look at some of these vocabularies that we heard in the dialogue. |
| Fernando: Empecemos con presentir. |
| JP: “Presentir”. I think I already said this in the breakdown. “Presentir” is “to have that feeling that something is going to happen”. |
| Fernando: Sí, es un verbo. Tener un sentimiento, una premonición. |
| JP: Ok, what’s next? |
| Fernando: Una palabra muy relacionada. EL presentimiento. |
| JP: This is the noun that’s related to “presentir. El presentimiento”. |
| Fernando: EL sustantivo. |
| JP: And it’s the… it’s a premonition, so this is the feeling, whereas as “presentir” is “to have that feeling”. |
| Fernando: Exactamente. Despedir. |
| JP: “Despedir”. Now, this usually means “to say goodbye”. And especially if it’s in the reflexive, like “despedirse” would be like “me despido”. |
| Fernando: Me despido. |
| JP: Hasta luego. |
| Fernando: Tú te despides. Nosotros…. |
| JP: But it can also be used non-reflexively, and in this case Margarita is where the boss is going to say goodbye to her. As in “they’re going to fire her”. |
| Fernando: La vana despedir. |
| JP: “They’re going to fire her.” So, in this case, “despedir” means “to fire”. |
| Fernando: Exacto. El desempeño. |
| JP: El desempeño. |
| Fernando: Que ha de ser por eso que la van a despedir. |
| JP: Ok, “performance”. El desempeño. |
| Fernando: La última es el dilema. |
| JP: “El dilema”. Ok, now that sounds exactly the same in English, “dilemma”. “Dilema”. We spell it with two “m”, in Spanish it’s spelled with one “m”, right? Now, the one thing I do want to point out with “dilema” is that it’s a Greek word. And in Greek “dilema” is masculine. So, in Spanish, it is also masculine. What about it ends in an “a”? Yes, it’s one of those masculine Greek words that end in an “a” in Spanish. |
| Fernando: En este caso no nos metemos con los griegos. |
| JP: That’s right. Shall we go on to the grammar? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Fernando: Okey JP, esta sección de gramática parece ser un poquito más simple. |
| JP: Yes, today we’re going to talk about the Present Perfect. Now, in Spanish this is often called “el preterito perfecto”, we can call it “preterito perfecto”, sometimes I call it the “presente perfecto”, the two terms are used interchangeably. Now, basically, this is the tense that you use when you have a past action that’s important in the present. Now, we heard this quite a few times in the dialogue. For example, when Leonardo says that Margarita’s premonitions have always been wrong. |
| Fernando: Siempre han estado equivocados. |
| JP: “ Siempre han estado equivocados.”. So, these premonitions being wrong are actions of the past, right? She was wrong, she was wrong, she was wrong. Then I would say it’s important now and the reason why it’s important now it’s because the feeling that she’s having in the present is wrong, as well. Ok, so he’s expressing an action in the past that has some relevance in the present. Margarita also uses the Present Perfect when she says “My performance has not been ideal.” |
| Fernando: “Mi desempeño no ha sido ideal.” |
| JP: “No ha sido ideal”, this is the Present Perfect of “ser”, “ha sido”. Now, what she’s saying is that this is a past action, her performance not being ideal is in the past. But because she’s using the Present Perfect, she’s saying it’s relevant in the present. And it’s relevant in the present because she might get fired over it. |
| Fernando: Puede que la despedida. |
| JP: Right. There’s a couple more examples, for example when Leonardo says “I’ve had to take up all the work that you left behind.” |
| Fernando: “ He tenido que asumir todo el trabajo que has dejado” |
| JP: That’s the good, “He tenido que asumir”. Now, here we have the expression “tener que” – “I have do to something” and in the past he had to “asumir” – he had to take up that work. So, it’s a past action. Why is it relevant in the present? He’s complaining about it, it’s annoying to him now. |
| Fernando: A lo que se le llama “venting”. |
| JP: That’s right. He’s venting about, so he can use the Present Perfect for venting. He says “ He tenido que asumir todo el trabajo que has dejado” – “all that work that you have left”. This is again, the Present Perfect when he says “has dejado”. This is the verb “dejar” and in fact the phrase is “dejar de hacer”. |
| Fernando: “Dejar de hacer”. He’s venting. |
| JP: He’s venting. Now, it was in the past that she stopped doing this work and in the present he’s still annoyed with it. |
| Fernando: Sigue estando un poco molesto. |
| JP: You know when linguists get together and talk about the Present Perfect, Fernando, we always talk about how we can use the Present Perfect for hot news. |
| Fernando: Danos un ejemplo. |
| JP: Ok, I remember in 1980’s when President Regan was assassinated, when they’d tried to assassinate President Regan… |
| Fernando: Cuando fue un intento de asesinato, sí. |
| JP: That’s right. And the news broke in to the soap opera that my grandmother was watching, and the newsman kept saying “The President has been shot.” |
| Fernando: Se le ha disparado en contra del presidente. |
| JP: Ok, “Se le ha disparado” that has a lot of grammar there. But you heard that it was “se le ha”, so, so, here we’re using the Present Perfect for hot news. It’s something that happened in the past, but it’s very relevant to all the people that are watching this television show. Right? Because they’re concerned, it’s hot news. Here’s another example. “The Supersonics have won the championship.” |
| Fernando: Eso nunca creo que ha pasado. |
| JP: Yes, it has. In 1978. |
| Fernando: Ah bueno. |
| JP: So, in 1978, all the newspapers had lines said: “The Supersonics have won the championship.” |
| Fernando: Los Supersónicos han ganado el campeonato. |
| JP: Something that happened in the past, when the game was over, but it’s relevant now, because we’re all celebrating, we all have reason to celebrate. |
| Fernando: Y ya nunca va a volver a pasar. |
| JP: Someday. |
| Fernando: NO, porque ya no existen los Supersónicos. |
| JP: Someday, Fernando. Ok. And we also talk about, this is the last thing I’m going to say for today, we also talk about the secret meaning aspects of the Present Perfect. |
| Fernando: El significado secreto. |
| JP: That’s right. For example, people insinuate a secret meaning when they use the Present Perfect. For example, Fernando just offered me food and I said “I’ve eaten, thanks.” |
| Fernando: He comido, gracias. |
| JP: “He comido, gracias”. It’s an action in the past, right? “I’ve eaten.” It’s relevant now, because I’m insinuating that I don’t want any food now, I’m not hungry. |
| Fernando: Claro |
| JP: So, the secret meaning of “he comido” is “I’m not hungry.” |
| Fernando: Muy buen ejemplo. ¿Estas cansado, JP? |
| JP: You’re trying an example out on me. |
| Fernando: Exacto. |
| JP: No. |
| Fernando: Porque te conozco y sé que sueles dormir en el trabajo. Por esto pregunto. |
| JP: Yes, I am tired and the reason why is I haven’t slept. |
| Fernando: No has dormido. |
| JP: Exactly. “No has dormido”, that’s the Present Perfect. Ok. In the past, was the action of not sleeping, and in the present it’s relevant because… |
| Fernando: Te estoy preguntando ahorita. |
| JP: Yes. But also, I’m tired, and that’s the secret meaning of “I haven’t slept.” |
Outro |
| Fernando: JP es hora de despedirnos. |
| JP: Hasta luego. |
| Fernando: Adios. |
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