Learn Spanish (Latin America): Habiendo notificado al juez, el abogado apela el veredicto. - Having notified the judge, the lawyer appeals the verdict.

Habiendo notificado al juez, el abogado apela el veredicto.

Having notified the judge, the lawyer appeals the verdict.

Breakdown of Habiendo notificado al juez, el abogado apela el veredicto.

personal 'a' + the (marks a human direct object)

Questions & Answers about Habiendo notificado al juez, el abogado apela el veredicto.

Why use habiendo notificado instead of just notificando?

Habiendo notificado is the perfect gerund. It clearly shows that the notification was completely finished before the lawyer appealed. If you used the simple gerund (notificando), it would imply that the lawyer was notifying the judge and appealing at the exact same time.

Could the perfect gerund here refer to someone else notifying the judge, rather than the lawyer?

Usually, no. When a sentence starts with a gerund phrase like habiendo notificado, Spanish expects it to share the same subject as the main clause. So, it is understood that el abogado is the one who performed both actions.

Why does the sentence use al juez instead of just el juez?

This is the mandatory personal a combined with el to form al. Because the judge is a specific person receiving the action (the direct object of the verb notificar), Spanish requires the personal a before the noun.

The main verb apela is in the present tense. Is it normal to use a perfect gerund with a present tense verb?

Yes, it is perfectly fine. The perfect gerund (habiendo notificado) simply tells us that this action happened earlier than the main verb. It doesn't matter what tense the main verb is in, as long as the gerund's action was completed first.