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¿Ha firmado el gerente el contrato hoy?

¿Ha firmado el gerente el contrato hoy?
Has the manager signed the contract today?
From Lesson 150:Present perfect versus preterite·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about ¿Ha firmado el gerente el contrato hoy?

Why do we use "ha firmado" here instead of the simple past?
Because of the word hoy (today). In Spain, when an action happens in a time period that isn't finished yet (like today, this week, or this year), you use the present perfect (ha firmado) rather than the simple past (firmó).
Why is the subject "el gerente" placed after the verb?
In Spanish questions, it is very common to invert the word order and put the subject (el gerente) right after the verb (ha firmado). You could also say ¿El gerente ha firmado el contrato hoy? but putting the verb first sounds very natural.
Could I put the subject in the middle of the verb, like "¿Ha el gerente firmado..."?
No, that is a common mistake for English speakers! In Spanish, you can never separate the two parts of a perfect tense. The helper verb (ha) and the past participle (firmado) must always stay glued together.
What if the manager is a woman, does the word "gerente" change?
The noun itself doesn't change its ending, but the article does. If the manager is a woman, you would say la gerente.

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