The pluperfect tense
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:
- Ella había llamado antes de visitar (She had called before visiting).
- Nos habíamos acostado después de terminar nuestros deberes (We had gone to bed after finishing our homework).
- En el pasado habíamos jugado muy bien (In the past, we had played very well).
Like the perfect tense, the pluperfect tense has two parts that are never separated:
- The imperfect tense of the verbhaber
- The past participleWords that express a completed action. They usually end in '-ed' in English, eg watched, danced, visited.
| 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 |
| (yo) | |
| imperfect tense of haber | había |
| past participle | visto |
| (tú) | |
| imperfect tense of haber | habías |
| past participle | ido |
| (él/ella/usted) | |
| imperfect tense of haber | había |
| past participle | estudiado |
| (nosotros) | |
| imperfect tense of haber | habíamos |
| past participle | hablado |
| (vosotros) | |
| imperfect tense of haber | habíais |
| past participle | decidido |
| (ellos/ellas/ustedes) | |
| imperfect tense of haber | habían |
| past participle | comido |
The past participle is the equivalent of the English verbA 'doing' word; a word expressing action. 'Walk', 'talk', 'come', 'go', 'eat' and 'sleep' are all verbs. form ending in -ed and -en, eg watched, played, visited, eaten, spoken. It is formed by removing the -ar, -er or -ir from the infinitiveThe form of the verb that has not been conjugated and is usually translated with 'to' in English, for example 'to play'. and adding these endings:
-ar verbs → -ado
-er verbs → -ido
-ir verbs → -ido
Some verbs have irregularSomething that does not follow regular patterns and may have a different form. past participles. For example:
decir (to say) → dicho
escribir (to write) → escrito
hacer (to make/do) → hecho
ver (to see) → visto
Question
Complete the following sentences with the correct form of the pluperfect tense.
- Ricardo no __________ _______________ (viajar) mucho durante su vida.
- Nosotros no __________ _______________ (hacer) muchas actividades.
- Ellos __________ _______________ (soñar) con ser futbolistas profesionales.
- Yo siempre __________ _______________ (querer) ser abogado.
- Ricardo no había viajado mucho durante su vida (Ricardo had not travelled much during his life).
- Nosotros no habíamos hecho muchas actividades (We had not done many activities).
- Ellos habían soñado con ser futbolistas profesionales (They had dreamed of being professional footballers).
- Yo siempre había querido ser abogado (I had always wanted to be a lawyer).