How can I remember all the irregular participles of the present perfect tense--like, hecho, dicho, frito, puesto, etc?

Answer 1

Use of a Mnemonic device can make memorization not only easy but fun! The following hilarious sentence will accelerate your recall of the irregular participles:

Hot dog!! My vicious poodle can eat fat aardvarks very rapidly.

Using the initial letter of each word, you have a way to recall all 11 irregulars:

Hecho - done or made/hacer

Dicho - said or told/decir

Muerto - died or dead/morir

Vuelto - returned/volver

Puesto - placed or put/poner

Cubierto - covered/cubrir

Escrito - written/escribir

Frito - fried/freir

Abierto - open or opened/abrir

Visto - seen/ver

Roto - broken/romper

ALSO, this device places the only 2 irregular participles that end in CHO (instead of TO) at the very beginning of the sentence. ¡Qué perfecto!

Otherwise, don't forget that:

1. Many participles also wear other sombreros by becoming adjectives or nouns IN ADDITION to being the action verb that follows the conjugation of "helping verb have"--HABER. Several examples are:
2. comida - meal, vista - view, hecho - fact, un dicho - a saying, muerto - dead
3. Forming the REGULAR participles is super easy:

For AR infinitives, drop the AR and add ADO

For ER & IR infinitives, drop the ER/IR and add IDO

1. The present tense conjugations of helping verb, HABER, are: he, has, ha, hemos, habéis, han and are translated as HAVE or HAS.

Answer 2

Hi! I hope this helps!

I wish I knew where I first heard this, so I could give credit where credit is due, but I have used the following to the tune of "If you're happy and you know it."

Abierto dicho hecho puesto roto (x2)

Cubierto visto vuelto

Y escrito frito muerto

Abierto dicho hecho puesto roto

What I know about learning languages is that eventually, you will acquire these forms so that they just "sound right to you." But what I know about classes is that often you are given a quiz or test on these specific grammar points far before your brain has acquired them naturally! It's in times like this that I like to try to make it fun for my students! Will you probably forget most of the "memorized list" either way? Yes. But some of it seems to stick better with music or movement, and can give you more "aha moments" down the line when you encounter these forms in a meaningful context, through reading or listening content that you are interested in.

Jamie E.