The Spanish pluperfect tense describes a past action that happened before another past action. In other words, it is used to say what someone or something had done. For example:
Like the perfect tense, the pluperfect tense has two parts that are never separated:
imperfect tense of haber | past participle | |
---|---|---|
(yo) | había | visto |
(tú) | habías | ido |
(él/ella/usted) | había | estudiado |
(nosotros) | habíamos | hablado |
(vosotros) | habíais | decidido |
(ellos/ellas/ustedes) | habían | comido |
The past participle is the equivalent of the English verb form ending in -ed and -en, eg watched, played, visited, eaten, spoken. It is formed by removing the -ar, -er or -ir from the infinitive and adding these endings:
-ar verbs → -ado
-er verbs → -ido
-ir verbs → -ido
Some verbs have irregular past participles. For example:
decir (to say) → dicho
escribir (to write) → escrito
hacer (to make/do) → hecho
ver (to see) → visto
Complete the following sentences with the correct form of the pluperfect tense.