![]() For example:Įnglish: I’m watching a movie that I have already seen.Įspañol: Estoy viendo una película que ya había visto. Having said that, you can also use the past perfect tense for actions that are happening in the present moment. In this example, this second verb ( hablar) isn’t conjugated in the past but the ‘ antes de‘ and the past perfect implies the sequence occurred before the present moment. I had already done something when something else occurred.Įnglish: I had already spoken with him before speaking with her.Įspañol: Ya había hablado con él antes de hablar con ella. It implies an action was completed prior to another action in the past.Īnother common word you’ll find with this tense is ‘already’. You need to use the past perfect tense for the translation in Spanish. Something had happened prior to something else The next thing you need to think about is finding the right time to throw the Spanish past perfect into conversation. When to use the Spanish past perfect tense ![]() If you can’t remember how to form a past participle check out this post. Next, you need to form a past participle out of the verb you want to use. Here is a list of the past imperfect conjugations of haber: Person If you want to conjugate a verb in the the past perfect tense, you need two things: a past participle and a conjugation of the verb haber in the past imperfect tense. I had already finished my homework when my dad asked me to do it.Īs you can see, the word ‘already’ is important here because it tells you that one event is finished before another event starts.įor any event that finished prior to another event, you’ll need the Spanish past perfect to describe it. I had already woken up when my alarm sounded. …well, this is because the past perfect tense describes an event that occurs before another event. ![]() I mentioned earlier that you may have to combine the past perfect with the past simple or past imperfect… In other words, this tense is great for telling stories in Spanish. The past perfect tense, also known as el pretérito pluscuamperfecto, is really useful for describing a sequence of events in the past. So what is the past perfect tense in Spanish used for? Printable Version: Download this PDF version of the rules for the Past Perfect Tense to use as a study reference.Ī quick introduction to the past perfect tense So, in today’s post, you’ll learn when to use the Spanish past perfect tense, how to form it, and I’ll show you a few key phrases that will help you learn this tense quickly. Moreover, while researching this post I realised that one Spanish phrase conjugated in the past perfect occurs more frequently than ‘ otra vez‘ or ‘ se llama‘ in conversational Spanish. In fact, you’ll only need to focus on a few really common phrases to get a strong feel for this tense. You may also be tempted to use the present perfect when you really should be using the past perfect.īut, that doesn’t mean you can’t quickly learn how to use this tense properly. This is because you’ll often have to use the past perfect with other tenses such as the past simple or past imperfect. The Spanish past perfect is definitely not the easiest tense to use.
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