B1 · The past
Past perfect (pluscuamperfecto)
What was already over when something else happened.
At a glance
- Remember
- había plus participle — before the past.
- When
- Before the past
- The past
- Past linked to the present
- The present
- The future
- Completed in the future
Before the past — What was already over by the time the story got there.
- Form
- (yo) había llegadoI had arrived
- Signal words
- ya
- todavía no
- nunca
- antes de
- cuando
- Trap
- Wrong:Cuando llegué, ellos ya tenían salido.Right:Cuando llegué, ellos ya habían salido.
Your turn
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The form
How the forms are built
Each row gives the meaning first, then the form in Spanish. The colours show what changes from one form to the next.
stem (regular) stem (irregular) tense marker auxiliary verb
| I had arrived | (yo) había llegado |
| you had gone out | (tú) habías salido |
| he, she had said; you (formal) had said | (él, ella, usted) había dicho |
| we had seen | (nosotros) habíamos visto |
| you (plural) had done | (vosotros) habíais hecho |
| they had come back; you (formal) had come back | (ellos, ellas, ustedes) habían vuelto |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
It names what was finished before another event.
Cuando llegué, ya se habían ido.When I arrived they had already gone.
haber goes in the imperfecto, the participle stays the same.
No habíamos entendido la pregunta.We had not understood the question.
ya, todavía no and nunca often come with it.
Nunca había visto tanta gente.I had never seen so many people.
In reported speech it replaces the perfecto and the indefinido.
Dijo que había perdido el tren.He said he had missed the train.
Example sentences
La reunión había empezado sin nosotros.The meeting had started without us.
Me di cuenta de que había olvidado el móvil.I realised I had forgotten my phone.
Nos contó lo que había pasado.He told us what had happened.
Cuando volvimos, alguien había cerrado la puerta.When we came back somebody had shut the door.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
The mistake is rarely the tense and nearly always the auxiliary: English speakers reach for tener because it is «to have». haber is the auxiliary; tener is the full verb for possession. Tenía hablado is not a Spanish sentence.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
The pluscuamperfecto is the imperfecto of haber plus a participle: había hablado, habías comido. It says that something was already finished before another point in the past.
The build is easy, because haber in the imperfecto is completely regular: había, habías, había, habíamos, habíais, habían. The participles are the same as in the perfecto.
It is used exactly like the English past perfect, so it gives English speakers almost no trouble — it is one of the few Spanish tenses that translates straight across.
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The verbs on this page, in every form: haber · llegar · decir · ir · empezar · cerrar · pasar · volver