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Use of Spanish verb ’haber’ | ||
Tags: Verbs/Conjugation | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| ymapazagain Senior Member Australia myspace.com/amywiles Joined 6961 days ago 504 posts - 538 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: SpanishB2 | Message 1 of 11 21 November 2005 at 2:49am | IP Logged | |||||
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A Spanish friend told me (if i remember correctly) that to say I have lived is " he vivido"
I haven´t worked with the verb haber before so now I am trying to suss it out. If I want to say ´they have gone´is it "han ido"??? I´m using it in the following context... Después de han ido a la escuela... After they have gone to school... Is this correct or am I barking up the wrong tree? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7105 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 2 of 11 21 November 2005 at 4:27am | IP Logged | |||||
You are correct in that haber + the past particple is used to produce the perfect tense in Spanish. Spanish.about.com has an article on this here. However, in your example sentence you will need a que after the de as in: Después de que han ido a la escuela... Because you are using después de to introduce a subordinate clause with an inflected verb - most likely since the main clause will have a different subject. Contrast this with the use of the infinitive: Después de ir a la escuela... In addition, it's possible in English to produce a sentence that uses the "have" + participle construction that actually refers to an event that's not yet taken place: After they've gone to school, I'm going shopping. So deciding whether the perfect tense is applicable in Spanish requires the context of the full sentence. Andy. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ymapazagain Senior Member Australia myspace.com/amywiles Joined 6961 days ago 504 posts - 538 votes Speaks: English* Studies: SpanishB2 | Message 3 of 11 21 November 2005 at 4:49am | IP Logged | |||||
Thanks Andy! You´re answer will help me a lot if you can explain it in a way that is very simple to understand!!! I´m not good with all of the big words used to expain grammar. And my full sentence was going to be... After they have gone to school I can study Spanish Después de que han ido a la escuela puedo estudiar español. Correct? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7105 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 4 of 11 21 November 2005 at 5:12am | IP Logged | |||||
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Well your phrase is an example of the last point I made about the possibility of producing a sentence in English using "have" but which refers to a future event.
In other words, they haven't actually gone to school yet but they will be going. You can't use the Spanish perfect tense in the same manner. Keep them both in the present tense: Después de que van a la escuela puedo estudiar español. After they go to school I can study Spanish. As for the use of que, I'll try and explain it a bit better. they is the subject of the first part of the sentence - they are going. I is the subject of second part of the sentence I can study Spanish. Two different clauses or parts of the sentence, so después de que rather than después de. If on the other hand the sentence was: After I go to school, I can study Spanish This is the same as: After going to school, I can study Spanish The subject of both parts of the sentence is the same. I am both going and being able to study Spanish. This can therefore be simplified as: Después de ir a la escuela puedo estudiar español However, you could decide to retain the first construction: Después de que voy a la escuela puedo estudiar español. Again two separate clauses so que is required. I hope that clarified things... Andy. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7017 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 11 21 November 2005 at 10:07am | IP Logged | |||||
I would suggest the following: Después que se hayan ido a la escuela puedo estudiar español. OR Cuando se vayan a la escuela puedo estudiar español. This second version sounds more "natural" to me.
The last one sounds sounds OK but I don't like the sound of the other two. Edited by patuco on 21 November 2005 at 3:59pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7105 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 6 of 11 21 November 2005 at 10:25am | IP Logged | |||||
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You are, of course, correct. I should have used the present subjunctive following después de que because the meaning implies future action.
Andy. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ymapazagain Senior Member Australia myspace.com/amywiles Joined 6961 days ago 504 posts - 538 votes Speaks: English* Studies: SpanishB2 | Message 7 of 11 21 November 2005 at 3:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I just put this to my tutor and she said that a common mistake made by people (even native speakers) is using de in Despues 'de' que. She said that the meaning is still there but it just doesn´t sound right! Is that why you didn´t like the sound of Andy´s first two examples Patuco? She said the best phrase would be this...
Después que se van al colegio puedo estudiar español. She also told me la escuela is a really old way of saying school and no one really uses it these days. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7017 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 11 21 November 2005 at 4:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yes. In fact, I meant to write the following in my post: "Después que se hayan ido a la escuela puedo estudiar español." but I copied, pasted and forgot to remove the "de". (edited now)
It's used where I live almost exclusively. That's why it didn't sound out of place to me. However, she is right in that "colegio" is the preferred version for school referring to a building. The word "escuela" could be used when referring to a school of thought, e.g. "gente de la vieja escuela" = people of the old school. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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