Preterite vs. past perfect in Spanish grammar

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Preterite or past perfect?

In Spanish grammar, the preterite (el pretérito indefinido) and the past perfect (el pluscuamperfecto) both express repeated and one-time actions in the past. The preterite is the basic past tense; we use this to express things in a sequential order. The past perfect expresses an action that happened before another past action. In a nutshell: the past perfect is 'the past of the past'.

Learn the difference between the preterite and the past perfect in Spanish grammar, then put your knowledge to the test in the free exercises.

Example

Ayer hice una excursión en bicicleta hasta el pueblo de al lado. Ya había ido antes con mi primo Carlos, pero esta vez me atreví yo solo. En una ocasión, recorrimos más de cincuenta kilómetros por el bosque y llegamos a una zona de campamento. Como era domingo, habían ido muchas familias a pasar el día. ¡Lo pasamos estupendamente!

Preterite vs. past perfect in Spanish grammar

The Spanish past perfect tense is the past form of the preterite; it almost always appears together with the preterite in a compound sentence. The past perfect allows us to show that one past action happened before another past action.

Ejemplo:
Carmen había preparado durante meses las obras que presentó en la galería.Carmen had worked for months on the paintings that she showed at the gallery.
First, Carmen worked on her paintings, then she showed them at the gallery.

Order of the clauses

The order of the clauses does not always reflect the order of the actions, but this doesn’t matter because we can identify the order of events via the tenses: the action in the past perfect tense happened first, followed by the action in the preterite.

Ejemplo:
Carmen presentó en la galería las obras que había preparado durante meses.At the gallery, Carmen showed the paintings that she had worked on for months.

Signal words

Time indicators allow us to determine which tense to use. The following table shows the most common signal words for the past perfect:

Signal Word Examples
ya Ya me había levantado cuando sonó el despertador.I had already got up when my alarm went off.
el día/mes/año/etc. anterior/pasado Lucía recicló el papel de regalo que había usado las Navidades pasadas.Lucía recycled the wrapping paper that she had used last Christmas.
un día/mes/año/etc. antes Lorenzo leyó ante su clase el poema que había escrito la noche antes.Lorenzo read the poem that he had written the night before in front of the class.

Context

Sometimes there are no signal words present in the sentence. In this case, we have to decide which action occurred first based on the context.

Ejemplo:
Martina y sus amigos se comieron el pastel que ella había preparado por la mañana.Martina and her friends ate the cake that she had made that morning.
First Martina made the cake, then she and her friends ate it.