Topic:
The past perfect is used to say things like "I had eaten before she arrived." Learn it in this lesson.
The Past Perfect Tense
This verb tense allows us to express an action that occurred prior to something else.
An example in English: I had met Julia before the party.
Before we begin, it may be useful to contrast this tense with the Present Perfect that we learned in the prior unit.
Present Perfect:
I have finished my homework.
He terminado mi tarea.
Past Perfect:
I had finished my homework before her call.
Había terminado mi tarea antes de su llamada.
So the past perfect tense requires a subsequent action or condition to make sense. In this case, her call is the later action.
Note that this later action need not be mentioned in the same sentence. Consider this sentence:
Habíamos hablado con Juan.
(We had spoken with Juan.)
It is apparent that something else is being discussed, though we don't know what it is without hearing the earlier part of the conversation.
Forming the Past Perfect
To form the past perfect, use the imperfect tense of haber and the past participle of the verb.
Past Perfect Conjugation of cerrar (to close)
Había cerrado la ventana antes de la tormenta.
He had closed the window before the storm.
Irregular Past Perfect
If the past participle is irregular, then of course that still applies to the past perfect tense.
The following forms of escribir mean I had written, you had written, etc.:
Past Perfect Conjugation of escribir
The Little-Used Preterite Perfect
You can also form a past perfect tense with the preterite forms of the auxiliary verb haber.
Although the Preterite Perfect tense is not common, it does sometimes appear in formal writing and literary works.
When used, it implies that the action occurs immediately before the other time reference.
For example, Cuando hubo salido, empecé a llorar. (When she had left, I began to cry.)
That is a perfectly acceptable usage, but in typical spoken Spanish this would instead be expressed in one of these two ways:
Cuando había salido, empecé a llorar. (Using the past perfect of salir)
or
Cuando salió, empecé a llorar. (Using the preterite of salir)
Because it is not frequently used, you will not be asked to provide the Preterite Perfect in any of the exercises here.
Practice the Past Perfect
OK, let's head to the exercises to practice this tense.
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On to the Exercises and the Quiz
To practice the verb forms in this lesson, click Practice Exercises below.
Whenever you want, you can take the quiz for this lesson.
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