Learn Spanish (Latin America): La chica ha participado en el concurso, pero todavía no ha ganado el premio. - The girl has participated in the contest, but she has not won the prize yet.

We use the helper verb haber combined with a past participle. Here, ha means "she has". To get the past participles participado (participated) and ganado (won), we drop the "-ar" from the infinitives participar and ganar, and add "-ado".

Since we are talking about la chica (the girl), shouldn't the past participles be participada and ganada?

No. When you use a past participle with haber to form a tense like "has participated", the participle always ends in -o. It never changes to match the gender or number of the person doing the action.

Can I put no between ha and ganado, similar to "has not won" in English?

No, in Spanish, the helper verb (ha) and the past participle (ganado) act as a single unit and cannot be separated by other words. Negative words like no must always go before the conjugated helper verb haber.

How does todavía no work here?

Todavía generally means "still" or "yet". When placed right before no and a verb, todavía no means "not yet" or "still hasn't". In this sentence, it translates to "she has not won the prize yet".