Learn Spanish (Spain): ¿Quién ha hecho esto? Necesitamos la prueba.

¿Quién ha hecho esto? Necesitamos la prueba.

Who has done this? We need the proof.

Breakdown of ¿Quién ha hecho esto? Necesitamos la prueba.

Questions & Answers about ¿Quién ha hecho esto? Necesitamos la prueba.

Why is the word "hecho" used instead of "hacido"?

Hecho is the irregular past participle of hacer (to do/make). Instead of following the regular -ido ending rule, hacer has a special form ending in -cho. You pair it with ha to say "has done".

Why do we use "ha" for "has" instead of "tiene"?

When you want to say someone "has done" something, you are using "has" as a helper verb. In Spanish, this helper verb is always haber (which gives us ha here). You only use tener (tiene) when talking about owning or possessing something.

Why is it "esto" and not "este" or "esta"?

Esto is the neuter version of "this". You use it when referring to an unidentified object, a general idea, or a situation, like "this thing that happened". If you were pointing at a specific known object, you would use masculine este or feminine esta.

Since "quién" means who, why not use the plural "quiénes" if we don't know how many people did it?

Just like in English, the default is to ask in the singular: "Who has done this?" (¿Quién ha hecho esto?). You would only use the plural quiénes han if you already strongly suspected that a group of people did it.

Does "la prueba" always mean "the proof"?