📖LearnModule 6 · Lesson 2 of 30Independent User · CEFR B1, first halfUnit 1 · Contar — telling the past
El pluscuamperfecto — the past before the past
Module 6 of the free Spanish course (CEFR B1, first half), lesson 2 of 30: Some things happened BEFORE the story started. On this page: 9 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
ya
already
yah
nosotros habíamos comido
we had eaten
noh-SOH-trohs ah-BEE-ah-mohs koh-MEE-doh
había terminado
he had finished
ah-BEE-ah tehr-mee-NAH-doh
antes de salir
before leaving
AHN-tehs deh sah-LEER
la comida
the food
lah koh-MEE-dah
el día anterior
the day before
ehl DEE-ah ahn-teh-RYOHR
olvidar
to forget
ohl-bee-DAR
había olvidado las llaves
I had forgotten the keys
ah-BEE-ah ohl-bee-DAH-doh lahs YAH-behs
el participio
the participle
ehl par-tee-SEE-pyoh
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
Some things happened BEFORE the story started. Spanish gives them their own tense: the pluscuamperfecto — the imperfecto of haber (había) plus the participle. Yo ya había comido: I had already eaten. Había never changes its shape for the participle.
Y también · And also
Cuando él llegó, nosotros ya habíamos comido. Two pasts, clearly ordered: the eating came first. Ya (already) is this tense's favorite companion, and the participle is the same -ado / -ido form you know from the pretérito perfecto.
Ojo · Watch out
The pluscuamperfecto is había + participle: había comido. Never he había comido, and never había comí — the participle ends in -ado or -ido, whatever the person.
haber, imperfecto — the table
yo había · tú habías · él/ella/usted había · nosotros habíamos · ustedes habían · ellos/ellas habían
comer, pluscuamperfecto — the table
yo había comido · tú habías comido · él/ella/usted había comido · nosotros habíamos comido · ustedes habían comido · ellos/ellas habían comido
Do it now — on paper
Say all 9 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with ya.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write out haber, imperfecto and comer, 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.