WHAT'S THIS THING CALLED THE PRESENT PERFECT?

Remember the past participles?  Well, we don't just use them as adjectives.  We also 
use them with the "helping verb" HAVE to say things like:

I have worked a lot today.
What have you done?
Where has she gone?
We have been here all day.

That is, there is a form of HAVE, and then the PAST PARTICIPLE of the action.

Spanish works the same way.  HABER is the verb HAVE, when it's a helping verb.
So you need to conjugate HABER, and bring the PAST PARTICIPLE along for the ride:

ex:	He trabajado mucho hoy.  			(I have worked a lot today.)
ex:	¿Qué has hecho?  						(What have you done?)
ex:	¿Adónde se ha ido?  					(Where has she gone?)
ex:	Hemos estado aquí todo el día.  	(We have been here all day.)

This chart, courtesy of spanish.about.com, will help you see the conjugations clearly:



Present Perfect Indicative
	

		
yo  
		
I  

		
		
he .  
He comido 
		
I have eaten.

	

		
tú   

		
you (informal singular)  
		
has  
	
Has comido 
			
You have eaten. 

	


		
usted, él, ella   
		
you (formal singular), he, she  
		
ha  
	
ha comido 
		
	
You have eaten.
He/she has eaten. 

	

		
nosotros   
		
we  
		
hemos  
		
hemos comido 

		
We have eaten. 

	

		
vosotros   
		
you (informal plural)  
		
		
habéis  

	
Habéis comido 
	
You have eaten. 

	

		
ustedes, ellos, ellas   
		
you (formal plural), they  
han  

		
		
Han comido 
		
You/they have eaten. 



(courtesy: spanish.about.com)

Once you've got these down, you just need to remember to form the past participle:
AR  >>  ADO
ER  >>  IDO
IR  >>  IDO

And a little more to add to your feeling of this verb form:

Just by learning the conjugation of one verb, you can vastly increase the verb tenses 
and forms you have available in Spanish.

It may come as no surprise that the verb is haber, which is translated as the auxiliary 
verb "to have." As an auxiliary verb, haber in Spanish and "to have" in English are used 
to form the perfect tenses.

No, they aren't called the perfect tenses because they're better than the others. But one 
meaning of "perfect," one we don't see very often today outside of literature, is "complete." 
The perfect verb tenses, then, refer to completed actions (although they aren't the only way 
of referring to completed actions).

Contrast two ways of referring to something that happened in the past: He salido ("I have left") 
and estaba saliendo ("I was leaving"). In the first instance, it is clear that the act described 
by the verb is completed; it's something that was over by a specific time. But in the second case, 
there is no indication in the second structure when it was completed; in fact, the act of leaving 
still could be occurring.

In both English and Spanish, the perfect tenses are formed by using a form of the verb haber/"to 
have" followed by the past participle (el participio in Spanish). In English, the participle typically 
is formed by adding "-ed" to verbs; the Spanish participle, which has origins related to the English 
participle, typically is formed by adding using the ending of -ado for -ar verbs and -ido for -er and 
-ir verbs. 

(courtesy: spanish.about.com)

SO WHAT'S WITH THIS "HAYA" FORM, THEN?

This is just the SUBJUNCTIVE form of HABER.  You use it the same way as the indicative PRESENT 
forms, but in the situations where the subjunctive is needed:

ex:	He leído el libro.  (I have read the book.)
		Quiero que hayas leído el libro.  (I want you to have read the book.)

		Has venido a mi casa.  (You have come to my house.)
		Estoy alegre de que hayas venido a mi casa.  (I'm happy that you've come to my house.

		Ella ha regresado temprano.  (She's come back early.)
		Deseo que haya regresado a casa temprano.  (I want her to have returned home early.)

		Ya hemos visto esta película.  (We've already seen this film.)
		Dudo que hayamos visto esta película.  (I doubt that we've seen this film.)

So the SUBJUNCTIVE forms of HABER are:

haya				hayamos
hayas				hayáis
haya 				hayan

AND IF I DIDN'T MEAN TO DO SOMETHING?

In English, if we want to not feel so responsible for an ocurrence, we might say something like:

But mom, my bike tire popped on me!
My book got lost on me!

And so on.  It's a way to deal with unplanned, unintentional ocurrences, where you want to stress 
that you really had no fault in the matter:

The VERB is REFLEXIVE, but the THING in question is doing the action:

ex:	se perdieron las llaves  	(the keys got lost)
ex:	se quemó la cena				(supper got burned)
ex:	se olvidó el libro			(the book got forgotten)

BUT, you usually need to express that these things happened TO SOMEONE in particular.
SO, we use an INDIRECT OBJECT PRONOUN (me, te, le, nos, os, les) to indicate to WHOM 
the thing happened.  

And the INDIRECT OBJECT PRONOUN goes AFTER the REFLEXIVE pronoun:

ex:	se me perdieron las llaves		(the keys got lost on me)
ex:	se le quemó la cena				(the supper got burned on her)
ex:	se nos olvidó el libro			(we forgot the book)

ex:	se me rompieron las gafas		(my glasses broke on me)

For now, practice using this with these four verbs:

PERDER
QUEMAR
OLVIDAR
ROMPER

Be open to the possibilities of other verbs being able to be used this way too.

COMPARISONS OF EQUALITY

Comparisons of Equality



When things being compared have equal characteristics, the comparison of equality is used.



The book is as good as the movie.

The boy is as tall as the girl.






To form the comparisons of equality using adjectives or adverbs, use the following formula:




tan + adjective (adverb) + como



El libro es tan bueno como la película.


(The book is as good as the movie.)



El chico es tan alto como la chica.

(The boy is as tall as the girl.)





To form comparisons of equality with nouns, use the following formula:



tanto(-a,-os,-as) + noun + como



Juan tiene tanto dinero como María.

(as much money as)



Él tiene tanta paciencia como ella.

(as much patience as)


Tiene tantos libros como ella.

(as many books as)


Tiene tantas plumas como ella.


(as many pens as)





Choose the form of tanto to agree with the noun it modifies.



tanto dinero

tanta paciencia


tantos libros

tantas plumas






When actions (not things) are being compared, and there is no adjective, use the following formula:



verb + tanto + como



Sus estudiantes aprenden tanto como mis estudiantes.

(learn as much as)



Rosario cocina tanto como Josefina.

(cooks as much as)


Las naranjas cuestan tanto como las manzanas.

(cost as much as)





When actions (not things) are being compared, and there is an adjective, use the 
following formula:



verb + tan + adjective (masculine form) + como



Aquí se trabaja tan duro como ahí.


(work as hard as)


El niño juega tan poco como la niña.

(plays as little as)


Ellos duermen tan poco como ella.

(sleep as little as)


(courtesy: www.studyspanish.com)

FORMAL COMMANDS

A "command" is simply a statement where one person is telling another to do something.  
It doesn't have to be rude, or even done in anger.

"Please pass the salt" is a command form.
"Drop and give me 25" is another command form.
"Come here, please" is another.
"Go stand in the corner, young man" is yet another.

How to make them in Spanish?

The imperative form of verbs, used for giving commands, is one of the more unusual verb forms in 
Spanish. As a distinctive conjugation, it exists only with tú and vosotros, 
that is, in the familiar second person. Different conjugations are sometimes used in the affirmative 
(do something) and negative (don't). And because direct commands sometimes can sound rude or impolite, 
the imperative form is avoided sometimes in favor of other verb constructions. 

The imperative form of verbs is fairly easy to learn. For regular verbs, the familiar affirmative 
imperative (the one that goes with tú and vosotros) is formed simply by dropping 
the final letter (the r) of the infinitive, except for verbs ending in -ir, in which case 
the ending is changed to -e; in the plural, the final letter of the infinitive is changed to a 
d. That's all there is to it. For formal and negative commands, the subjunctive conjugation is 
used. 
The imperative form is equivalent to the use of the unconjugated verb in English without a subject. 
For example, if you're telling someone in English to look, the command is simply "look." The Spanish 
equivalent can be mira, mire, mirad or miren, depending on whom you are 
speaking to. The chart below shows the imperative forms; boldface is used to show the ends attached 
to verb stems: 



	

		

		
-ar verbs 
		
-er verbs 
		
-ir verbs 

	

		
infinitive  
		
hablar (to speak) 
		
comer (to eat) 

		
escribir (to write) 

	

		
singular familiar  
		
habla tú, no hables tú (speak, don't speak) 

		
come tú, no comas tú (eat, don't eat)  
		
escribe, no escribas tú (write, don't write) 

	

		
singular formal  
		
hable Ud., no hable Ud. (speak, don't speak) 
		
coma Ud., no coma Ud. (eat, don't eat) 

		
escriba Ud., no escriba Ud. (write, don't write)  

	

		
plural familiar  

		
hablad vosotros, no habléis vosotros (speak, don't speak) 
		
comed vosotros, no comáis vosotros (eat, don't eat) 

		
escribid vosotros, no escribáis vosotros (write, don't write)  

	

		
plural formal  

		
hablen Uds., no hablen Uds. (speak, don't speak) 
		
coman Uds., no coman Uds. (eat, don't eat) 

		
escriban Uds., no escriban Uds. (write, don't write)  



The pronouns are included in the above chart for clarity. When used, they follow the verb as shown. 
The familiar pronouns (tú and vosotros) are usually omitted in actual use unless 
needed for clarity or emphasis, while the formal pronouns (usted and ustedes) are more 
often used. 

Use of the imperative is fairly straightforward. Here are some guidelines for cases where its usage 
might not be obvious: 
The singular affirmative familiar imperative (used with tú) is usually regular. 
The irregular verbs are these eight, along with verbs derived from them: 
decir (to say), di; hacer (to make or do), haz; ir (to go), ve; 
poner (to put), pon; salir (to leave), sal; ser (to be), sé; 
tener (to have), ten; venir (to come), ven. All verbs are regular in the plural 
affirmative familiar imperative. 

The vosotros commands are rarely used in Latin America. Normally, the ustedes form is 
used when speaking even with children or relatives. 
Object pronouns and reflexive pronouns are attached to the affirmative commands and precede negative 
commands. Dime. (Tell me.) No me digas. (Don't tell me.) Escríbeme. 
(Write to me.) No me escribas. (Don't write to me.) As you can see, when a pronoun is attached 
an accent may need to be added to the verb to maintain the correct pronunciation. If there are both a 
direct and indirect object, the indirect object comes first. Démelo. (Give it to me.) 
No me lo dé. (Don't give it to me.) 

In written instructions, either the familiar or formal forms can be used, depending on the tone 
the writer wishes to convey as well as the audience. The familiar form generally comes across as 
friendlier. Haz clic aquí. (Click here.) Haga clic aquí. (Click here.) 
An impersonal command (discussed in a separate lesson) also can be used. 
Some writers put commands between exclamation points to help indicate that they are commands. 
When used in that way, the exclamation marks don't necessarily translate to written English. 
¡Escucha! (Listen.)
 

(courtesy: spanish.about.com)