📖LearnModule 12 · Lesson 1 of 30Proficient User · CEFR C1, completedUnit 1 · La lengua literaria
El pretérito anterior, en su sitio
Module 12 of the free Spanish course (CEFR C1, completed), lesson 1 of 30: Module 1 of this band introduced the pretérito anterior. On this page: 10 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line, the conjugation table and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's QR.
The words
Spanish
English
Say it
apenas hubo entrado
as soon as he had come in (literary)
ah-PEH-nahs OO-boh ehn-TRAH-doh
no bien
no sooner (literary)
noh BYEHN
en cuanto
as soon as
ehn KWAHN-toh
sin decir palabra
without a word
seen deh-SEER pah-LAH-brah
a su alrededor
around him
ah soo ahl-reh-deh-DOHR
el acontecimiento
the event (in a narrative)
ehl ah-kohn-teh-see-MYEHN-toh
literario
literary
lee-teh-RAH-ryoh
el párrafo narrativo
the narrative paragraph
ehl PAH-rrah-foh nah-rrah-TEE-boh
idéntico en sentido
identical in meaning
ee-DEHN-tee-koh ehn sehn-TEE-doh
ella había entrado ya
she had already come in
EH-yah ah-BEE-ah ehn-TRAH-doh yah
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
La regla · The rule
Module 1 of this band introduced the pretérito anterior; here you read it by the paragraph. Apenas hubo entrado, miró a su alrededor y se sentó sin decir palabra. Hubo entrado is a form no one says: it lives after apenas, en cuanto, no bien and cuando, in narrative prose.
Y también · And also
Read it as the pluscuamperfecto and the meaning is identical: apenas hubo entrado = apenas había entrado. That is the whole trick — the literary form carries the same event as the everyday one, and the difference is register, not time. The tables here drill the everyday form.
Ojo · Watch out
hubo entrado is NOT the pretérito of haber alone: it is haber in the pretérito plus a participle, and it follows a time word — apenas, en cuanto, no bien. Read it; write había entrado.
entrar, pluscuamperfecto — the table
yo había entrado · tú habías entrado · él/ella/usted había entrado · nosotros habíamos entrado · ustedes habían entrado · ellos/ellas habían entrado
Do it now — on paper
Say all 10 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with apenas hubo entrado.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write out entrar, pluscuamperfecto in full from memory, every person, and check each form against the table above.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The Spanish Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Keep these words
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.