Past Perfect Tense in Spanish Grammar
What is the past perfect tense in Spanish?
The past perfect, also the pluperfect (pretérito pluscuamperfecto de indicativo), is used for actions that took place before a certain time in the past. It is similar to the English past perfect tense.
Learn about the conjugation and usage of the Spanish pluperfect tense with Lingolia’s grammar rules, then test yourself in the exercises. See the subjunctive tenses for information on the conjugation and usage of the past perfect subjunctive. In tense comparison, you will find an overview of all the Spanish tenses.
Contents
Example
Aquel día, Carlos estaba radiante de felicidad.
Se había levantado muy temprano y había preparado la tarta de fresas más deliciosa de su vida.
Orgulloso, publicó una foto en sus redes sociales.
Había pasado toda la mañana en la cocina y la tarta había salido a pedir de boca.
How to use the past pefect tense in Spanish grammar
The Spanish past perfect tense is “the past of the past”.
It expresses an action that took place before another point or action in the past.
- Examples:
- Aquel día, Carlos estaba radiante de felicidad. Había preparado la tarta de fresas más deliciosa de su vida. That day, Carlos was radiant with happiness. He’d made the best strawberry cake of his whole life.
- Orgulloso, publicó una foto en sus redes sociales. La tarta había salido a pedir de boca. Feeling proud, he posted a photo to his social media. The cake had turned out perfectly.
How to conjugate the past perfect tense in Spanish grammar
To conjugate the past perfect (pretérito pluscuamperfecto), we use the imperfect form of the verb haber, followed by the participle of the main verb.
| Person | haber | Participle |
|---|---|---|
| yo | había |
hablado aprendido vivido |
| tú | habías | |
| él/ella/usted | había | |
| nosotros/-as | habíamos | |
| vosotros/-as | habíais | |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | habían |
Reflexive Verbs
When we use a reflexive verb in the past perfect, the reflexive pronoun (me, te, se, nos, os, se) always comes before the auxiliary verb haber.
- Example:
- levantarse → Ese día se había levantado muy temprano.That day, he had got up very early.
- Carlos = 3rd person singular, singular → reflexive pronoun se
How to form the Spanish participle
We form the Spanish participle by adding -ado or -ido to the root of the verb.
- add -ado to the root of -ar verbs
- Example:
- hablar → habladospeak → spoken
- add -ido to the root of -er and -ir verbs
- Example:
- aprender → aprendidolearn → learned
- vivir → vividolive → lived
Note
When the root of the verb ends in a vowel, the -i of the ending -ido takes an accent: -ído.
- Examples:
- leer → leídoread → read
- oír → oídohear → heard
- traer → traídobring → brought
Note: Participles that contain a dipthong (weak vowel + weak vowel) such as construido or huido do not take an accent.
Check out our Spanish-language page on accents to learn more about dipthongs.
Irregular participles
Certain verbs have an irregular participle form as shown in the table below:
| Verb | Irregular Participle | Regular Participle |
|---|---|---|
| abrir | abierto | |
| cubrir | cubierto | |
| decir | dicho | |
| escribir | escrito | |
| hacer | hecho | |
| freír* | frito | freído |
| imprimir* | impreso | imprimido |
| morir | muerto | |
| poner | puesto | |
| proveer* | provisto | proveído |
| romper | roto | |
| satisfacer | satisfecho | |
| suscribir** | suscrito/suscripto | |
| ver | visto | |
| volver | vuelto |
*Some verbs have two participle forms, one regular and one irregular. There is no difference in meaning and they can be used interchangeably.
**The participle suscripto is used in certain countries in Latin America.
Derivative irregular verbs
Many verbs are derivative; they are derived from irregular verbs by adding a prefix. Their participles are also irregular:
- Examples:
- encubrir → encubiertohide → hidden
- descubrir → descubiertodiscover → discovered
- componer → compuestocompose → composed
- posponer → pospuestopostpone → postponed
- proponer → propuestopropose → proposed
- revolver → revueltostir → stirred
- resolver → resueltoresolve → resolved
- devolver → devueltoreturn → returned
- deshacer → deshechoundo → undone
- predecir → predichopredict → predicted
- prever → previstoforecast → forecasted
Note: although derived from the irregular verb romper, the participle of the verb corromper is regular.
- Example:
- corromper → corrompidocorrupt → corrupted
- not:
corroto
