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Learn matar conjugation in Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto

matar means: to kill, to blow away, to butcher, to cut down, to slaughter, to slay, to swat
Click to see all conjugation charts of matar in every tense

In this Spanish conjugation lesson we will see how to inflect the verb matar in the Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto tense of the Indicativo mood. It means we will see step by step how to create and translate forms of each grammatical person.

How to translate Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto to English

Note that the English phrases provided below next to each conjugation are not direct translations from Spanish to English. They are usually the closest general equivalents. The example differences are:
  • In Spanish conjugation, there is the form usted in the third person singular. But this person does not translate to the English third person singular. It translates to the so called formal you and uses the inflected form which is most often represented as he/she/it in English conjugation charts.
  • Similar situation happens in the third person plural, where ustedes translates to the English plural formal you but uses the form which corresponds to the they form in English.
  • Tenses are used differently in Spanish and English, so the actual translation should always take into account the context and focus on translating the meaning, not just words.
  • In both languages each verb may have multiple meanings and not every meaning translates directly to the other language. Here also, the context and focusing on the particular meaning helps to create the most accurate translation.

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Step by step instructions

Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto is a compound tense (Spanish: compuesto). It means that all of its conjugated forms consist of two words. In Spanish language, there are also simple tenses, where each conjugated verb form is one word long.

A compound tense is indicated by the ending of the auxiliary verb, not by the ending of the main verb, which is the case in Spanish simple tenses.In the compound tenses, every person’s form consist of two parts:
  • An inflected form of the auxiliary verb haber. In case of the Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto de Indicativo tense, we use the Presente de Indicativo (Present) conjugation of haber
  • Past Participle, which is always the same in every compound tense for a given verb
See the conjugation charts and this haber conjugation lesson to learn how to conjugate the auxiliary verb haber. That’s a separate topic, so for brevity we’re focusing on the parts derived from matar only in this lesson.In order to create the Participio form, we need a stem and an ending. We use the stem of the infinitive of the main verb, and a single ending, which depends on the conjugation group of the main verb. So we need to begin by splitting the infinitive into a stem and an ending. It’s easy to do – just remove two letters from the end of the infinitive and you have the ending – one of -ar, -er, -ir. What’s left is the stem.So in case of our verb:
  • the stem is: mat-
  • and the ending is: -ar
Based on the ending of the infinitive we can recognize that matar belongs to the -ar verb group. This group, in turn, uses the -ado ending in its Participio form. Putting all that together, our Participio is: matado.

Now, as we understand how both parts used by this tense are created separately, we can move on with creating the final conjugation forms.
In order to create the first person singular form, we need to take the first person singular form of haber conjugated in Presente de Indicativo, which is he. And to that we add the Participio matado to get he matado:
  • yo he matado – I have killed
Next, to create the form for the second person singular, we again simply take the second person singular form of haber from the Presente de Indicativo tense, and that is has. To this auxiliary verb we add the Participio matado (so the exact same word as previously) to get has matado:
  • tú has matado – you have killed
Similarly, if we want to create the form for the third person singular, we conjugate haber in the Presente tense and we use the corresponding person’s form (third person singular), namely ha. Then we also take the same Participio as for all other persons, and putting them together we get ha matado:
  • él ha matado – he has killed
  • ella ha matado – she has killed
  • usted ha matado – (formal) you have killed
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The first person plural has the form hemos matado. It’s created by following the same logic as in the other persons. We first take the form of the first person plural from haber conjugation in the Presente de Indicativo tense: hemos. Second, and to this word we again add the Participio of matar: matado to get hemos matado:
  • nosotros hemos matado – we have killed
  • nosotras hemos matado – (feminine) we have killed
Again, let’s do the same for the second person plural. We have to get the inflected form of the verb haber in the Presente de Indicativo tense, second person plural, and it is habéis. Next, we take the unchanged Participio, we join them, and we get habéis matado:
  • vosotros habéis matado – (plural) you have killed
  • vosotras habéis matado – (feminine, plural) you have killed
And finally, the last grammatical person on the list, the third person plural, has the form han matado. We create it in the exact same manner as in all the other grammatical persons. We need the third person plural of haber first, from its Presente conjugation. It is han. We add the Participio of matar again (matado) to get han matado:
  • ellos han matado – they have killed
  • ellas han matado – (feminine) they have killed
  • ustedes han matado – (formal, plural) you have killed

That’s it! The conjugation is now finished. Put together, the conjugation chart looks like this:

yohe matadoI have killed
has matadoyou have killed
él/ella/ustedha matadohe/she/it has killed
nosotros/nosotrashemos matadowe have killed
vosotros/vosotrashabéis matadoyou have killed
ellos/ellas/ustedeshan matadothey have killed
Click to see all conjugation charts of matar in every tense

But do not end your session yet – it’s important to repeat and practice the material in order to remember it. Check below for next steps.

Next Steps to Perfection

  • To practice this conjugation and test your skills try this Conjugation Exercise or the Memory Game
  • To see other conjugation lessons for this verb choose another tense:  
  • For exercises and examples related to matar visit our Exercise section
  • To see conjugation charts in all tenses for matar visit the Conjugator
  • To explore other learning materials visit the Study section

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