Learn Spanish (Spain): ¿Ya has visto la base? Los soldados están equipados. - Have you already seen the base? The soldiers are equipped.

¿Ya has visto la base? Los soldados están equipados.

Have you already seen the base? The soldiers are equipped.

Breakdown of ¿Ya has visto la base? Los soldados están equipados.

estar

to be (location/state)

ver

to see; to watch (TV, a film)

haber

to have (auxiliary)

already

Questions & Answers about ¿Ya has visto la base? Los soldados están equipados.

Why do we use están instead of son before equipados?

We use estar with a past participle to describe the result of an action or a state of being. The soldiers were equipped by someone earlier, and now they are in the state of being equipped. If we used son, it would mean the action of equipping them is happening right now, but están focuses on their current condition.

Why does equipados end in -os?

When a past participle is used with estar to describe a state, it acts exactly like an adjective. This means its ending has to match the noun it describes. Since los soldados is masculine and plural, equipado becomes equipados.

Notice how ya is placed before has visto. Can we put it between the two verbs like in English?

No, in Spanish you can never separate the helping verb (has) and the past participle (visto). Words like ya (already) must go either before the whole verb phrase, like ya has visto, or sometimes at the very end of the sentence.

Isn't the past participle of an -er verb supposed to end in -ido? Why is it visto?

Usually, yes! But the verb ver (to see) has a completely irregular past participle. Instead of the regular ending, it becomes visto. You just have to memorize this one for the present perfect tense.