The perfect tenses use haber as the auxiliary verb plus the past participle. Note that “perfect” here does not mean flawless, but rather completed, indicating that perfect tenses and moods are those which describe a completed action at some point in time and possibility.

Perfect Tenses

Forming past participles isn't difficult:

• Regular — AR verbs: Drop the infinitive ending and add ado; hablar — hablado. —

• Regular — ER and — IR verbs: Drop the infinitive ending and add ido; aprender — aprendido, venir — venido. —

• Verbs with radical that ends in vowel: Drop the infinitive and add ído; leer — leído. —

A few past participles are simply irregular and will have to be memorized.