SCENARIO
Imagine
you are talking to a relative, a friend or a colleague. Maybe you are
catching up with today's events. The other person says to you
something like: "tell me, what have you done today?".
In
Spanish, he/ she could choose to be less formal and say to you:
Dime,
¿qué has hecho hoy?
On the
other hand, he/ she could choose to be more formal and say to you:
Dígame,
¿qué ha hecho (usted) hoy?
OUR
TIP
The question is an
invitation for you to talk about something you have/ haven't done
over a period of time. When saying what you have/ haven't
done, you DO NOT need to be concerned about the level of
formality in the other person's question. Your main concern should be
about communicating what you have/ haven't done. Perhaps you want to
say that, over a specific period of time, you:
- Have done something.
- Haven't done anything.
- Haven't
done something specific.
Here are some
examples of how you would say what you have/ haven't done:
- Hoy he escrito varias cartas* (Today I have written several letters).
- Hoy no he hecho nada* (Today I have done nothing).
- Hoy no he ido a trabajar* (Today I haven't gone to work).
Now you should
practice talking about the past to someone who says to you:
Dime,
¿qué has hecho hoy?
*Please
see grammar below
Grammar-The
Perfect
These
are examples of expressions using the perfect
to
talk about past completed actions. Remember that in Spanish the
perfect
is
used in a similar way to its counterpart in English. That is, the
perfect
defines past actions over a specific
period
of time which includes
the present. Some examples of the use of the perfect
are:
- He estado en Manila este año (I have been in Manila this year).
- ¿Has ido a ver a tus padres hoy? (have you gone to see your parents today).
- Pedro no me ha llamado por teléfono esta semana (Pedro hasn't phoned me this week).
- Hemos ido a Nueva York este año (we have gone to New York this year).
- ¿Habéis llegado de Barcelona hoy? (have you -plural arrived from Barcelona today?).
-
Tus padres no
han viajado este mes (your parents have
not travelled this month).
Now
you should practice using the perfect with some examples of your own.
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