El Pasado Reciente - The Recent Past

What you'll learn

• The pretérito perfecto: haber + participle — he comido, has visto
• Regular participles — -ar becomes -ado, -er and -ir become -ido
• The eight irregulars you'll hear every day: hecho, dicho, visto, escrito, vuelto, puesto, abierto, roto
• The trigger words that demand the perfecto: hoy, esta semana, ya, todavía no, alguna vez
• Answering ¿qué tal el día? without freezing

Why it matters

This is the past tense Spaniards reach for first. Anything that happened today, this week, this year, or ever in your life takes the perfecto. If a textbook taught you ayer comí before hoy he comido, it was written for Mexico City, not Madrid.

Before you start

Module 7 — demonstratives, direct-object pronouns, and ir + a + infinitivo.