Present perfect
The present perfect: hafa (or vera for motion verbs) + the supine. Ég hef borðað.
I can say what I have done and where I have been (Ég hef farið til Íslands).
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
Ég hef borðað hákarl.
I have eaten fermented shark.
Hún hefur séð norðurljósin.
She has seen the northern lights.
Ég er kominn heim.
I have come home.
Hefur þú farið til Íslands?
Have you been to Iceland?
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
I Have Done It: the Perfect
To say something has happened, Icelandic uses hafa + the supine (the -ð/-t form you met with geta):
- Ég hef borðað. - I have eaten.
- Ég hef farið til Akureyrar. - I have been to Akureyri.
- Hún hefur séð hvali. - She has seen whales.
A small group of motion/change verbs uses vera instead of hafa, and then the form behaves like an adjective and agrees: Ég er kominn (m) / komin (f) - I have arrived; Hún er farin - she is now gone.
Tip: the same motion verb can take either auxiliary - hafa for the experience (ég hef farið til Akureyrar = I have been to Akureyri) and vera for the resulting state (hún er farin = she is away now). Don't force vera onto every past action.
English (have eaten) and German (habe gegessen) work the same way. Russian and Ukrainian have no perfect tense - they use verbal aspect instead - so for those speakers this is a genuinely new structure: hafa + supine, not a past form.
Using a past form instead of the supine after hafa (Ég hef *borðaði instead of hef borðað). - Using hafa where vera is needed for motion/change verbs (Ég hef *kominn -> Ég er kominn). - Not agreeing the vera-form for gender (kona segir 'ég er komin', not kominn). - Russian/Ukrainian speakers reaching for aspect instead of building hafa + supine.
Ég hef borðað hákarl.
I have eaten fermented shark.
hafa + supine borðað.
Hún hefur séð norðurljósin.
She has seen the northern lights.
hefur + supine séð (from sjá).
Ég er kominn heim.
I have come home.
Motion verb koma uses vera + kominn, which agrees (m kominn / f komin).
Hefur þú farið til Íslands?
Have you been to Iceland?
Question: hefur þú + supine farið.
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in A2 course exercises