Spanish Tenses: The Pluperfect

19 Sep, 2009 in Uncategorized by Julio Foppoli

THE PLUPERFECT – EL PLUSCUAMPERFECTO

The situations in which you use this tense are the same both in English as in Spanish. It is used to show that an action in the past took place before another action in the past.

This tense, EL PASADO PROGRESIVO, is used when you say sentences such as…

I had finished. (when you arrived)	Había terminado.
They had studied (before the test)	Ellos habían estudiado(antes del exámen)
We had eaten (before we came)	Habíamos comido (antes de venir)
The movie had already started(when we entered the cinema)	La película habíacomenzado (cuando entramos al cine)
She had left (by the time we got there)	Ella había partido (cuando llegamos allí)

How to form EL PLUSCUAMPERFECTO in 3 easy steps

1 Take the verb in the infinitive form…				trabajar	comer	partir

2 Drop the infinitive ending…				trabaj-	com-	part-

3 Add the verb HABER in the past and past participle ending…
Yo	había	I had		trabajado	comido	partido
Tú	habías	You had (informal)		trabajado	comido	partido
Usted Él – Ella	había	You had (formal) s-he had		trabajado	comido	partido
Nosotros	habíamos	We had		trabajado	comido	partido
Vosotros	habíais	You all had		trabajado	comido	partido
Ustedes	habían	You all had		trabajado	comido	partido
Ellos	habían	They had		trabajado	comido	partido


Now it is your turn!
Conjugate the verbs in all the persons.

		(caminar)
Yo
Tú			Tip!
Usted Él – Ella			In verbs ending in -AR, the PAST PARTICIPLEform in English corresponds to the ending -ado in Spanish.
Nosotros
Vosotros
Ustedes
Ellos


		(beber)
Yo
Tú			Tip!
Usted Él – Ella			In verbs ending in -ER or -IR, the PAST PARTICIPLE form in English corresponds to the ending -ido in Spanish.
Nosotros
Vosotros
Ustedes
Ellos


		(vivir)
Yo
Tú
Usted Él – Ella
Nosotros
Vosotros
Ustedes
Ellos

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Published on 19 Sep, 2009 in Uncategorized by Julio Foppoli

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