Spanish Preterit Perfect
To form the "pretérito anterior" (past perfect simple) of the indicative mood, we need to use the auxiliary verb "haber" (have) in its "pretérito perfecto simple" (past simple) and the past participle of another verb. To form the past participle of the regular verbs in Spanish, we need to take the verb as we find it in the dictionary and remove the last two letters. Then, if the verb ends in "-ar" we will add the ending "-ado" and if the verb ends in "-er" or "-ir" we will add the ending "-ido". Eg:
For the verbs ending in -ar:
| yo |  hube |
(I) |
| tú | hubiste |
(you) |
| Ud./él/ ella | hubo |
(you/he/she) |
| nosotros (as) | hubimos |
(we) |
| vosotros (as) | hubisteis |
(you guys) |
| Uds./ellos/ ellas | hubieron |
(you all/they) |
Example: We take the verb "hablar" (to speak). We remove the "-ar": We are left with "habl-" (the stem) and then we add "-ado". In this way we have the past participle of the verb "hablar" (to speak).
To conjugate the pretérito anterior (past perfect simple) of the verb"hablar" (to speak) we will use the "pretérito perfecto simple" (past simple) tense of the verb "haber" (to have) and the past participle of the verb "hablar" (to speak).
hablar (example sentences) (full conjugation)
| yo | hube hablado |
(I had spoken) |
| tú | hubiste hablado |
(you had spoken) |
| Ud./él/ ella | hubo hablado |
(you/he/she had spoken) |
| nosotros (as) | hubimos hablado |
(we had spoken) |
| vosotros (as) | hubisteis hablado |
(you guys had spoken) |
| Uds./ellos/ ellas | hubieron hablado |
(you all/they had spoken) |
Additional Information
Pretérito Pluscuanperfecto
Category: General Spanish