1. Past Perfect (Pluperfect)

2. The past perfect isn’t hard to explain, but we don’t always use it when we should. The past perfect (also called “pluperfect”) is the past of the past. Juan had already eaten when we arrived. Both actions (“eaten” and “arrived”) are in the past. But the eating happened before the arriving. So “arrived” is past, and “had eaten” is the past of that—the past of the past.

3. Pluperfect (Past Perfect) (Pluscuamperfecto) The past perfect (also called the pluperfect and, in Spanish, the pluscuamperfecto), remember, is the past of the past and translates with “had” in English. ALL perfect tenses get a helping verb and a past participle: present perfecthe has eaten past perfect he had eaten future perfecthe will have eaten conditional perfecthe would have eaten

4. As you saw, the present perfect tense has a set of helping verbs that come from “haber”: hehemos hashabéis hahan The same is true of the past perfect. The helping verbs for the past perfect are the imperfect form of “haber”: había habladohabíamos hablado habías habladohabíais hablado había habladohabían hablado

5. Don’t forget how to form the past participle: Drop the –ar and add –ado: hablarhabladonadarnadado pensarpensadoalmorzaralmorzado llegarllegadoestarestado Drop the –er or –ir and add –ido: comercomidopoderpodido leerleídoquererquerido asistirasistidovenirvenido And don’t forget the irregular ones: volvervuelto ponerpuesto abrirabiertocubrircubierto escribirescritovervisto morirmuertodecirdicho hacerhechoromperroto

6. Note that the endings on “haber” for the past perfect are the endings for the imperfect tense: había habíamos habías habíais había habían Perfect ALWAYS means that you’ll have a form of “haber” (have, has, or had in English) and a past participle. The present perfect is the PRESENT tense of “haber” + the past participle. The past perfect tense is the IMPERFECT (PAST) tense of “haber” + the past participle. Guess what the future perfect tense is composed of. But that’s another lesson.

7. Click here to go to a brief practice exercise.here Click here to go to your homework.here