Learn Spanish (Spain): ¿Has visto el documental sobre la guerra? - Have you seen the documentary about the war?

¿Has visto el documental sobre la guerra?

Have you seen the documentary about the war?

Breakdown of ¿Has visto el documental sobre la guerra?

ver

to see; to watch (TV, a film)

Questions & Answers about ¿Has visto el documental sobre la guerra?

Why do we use has visto here instead of the simple past viste?

Has visto is the present perfect tense. In Spain, this is the natural choice when asking about general life experiences without a specific timeframe, just like saying Have you seen in English. You would use viste (the preterite) if you were asking about a specific, finished time, such as adding ayer (yesterday).

Since ver is an -er verb, why isn't the past participle vido?

Ver is one of the important verbs with an irregular past participle. Instead of following the normal rule and adding -ido, it changes entirely to visto. You simply have to memorize this form along with others like escrito (written) and hecho (done).

Is there a rule for the gender of words ending in -al like documental?

Yes, the vast majority of nouns ending in -al are masculine, which is why it is el documental. This is a handy pattern to remember because many of these words are identical to English, such as el animal, el hospital, and el festival.

Does sobre always mean about?

No. While here it means about or concerning a topic, sobre is also a very common preposition of place meaning on or over. For example, el libro está sobre la mesa means the book is on the table.