📖LearnModule 9 · Lesson 1 of 30Independent User · CEFR B2, completedUnit 1 · La narración escrita
Tres capas de pasado
Module 9 of the free Spanish course (CEFR B2, completed), lesson 1 of 30: Written narration uses three pasts at once. 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
yo había prometido
I had promised
yoh ah-BEE-ah proh-meh-TEE-doh
la capa
the layer
lah KAH-pah
prometer
to promise
proh-meh-TEHR
el relato
the narrative
ehl rreh-LAH-toh
contar con detalle
to tell in detail
kohn-TAR kohn deh-TAH-yeh
el orden cronológico
chronological order
ehl OHR-dehn kroh-noh-LOH-hee-koh
previamente
beforehand
preh-byah-MEHN-teh
a continuación
next (then)
ah kohn-tee-nwah-SYOHN
llovía
it was raining
yoh-BEE-ah
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
Written narration uses three pasts at once, and B2 is where you stop choosing them one at a time. The imperfecto paints, the pretérito moves, the pluscuamperfecto explains what came before.
Y también · And also
Llovía. Salí de todos modos, porque yo había prometido ir. Scene, event, earlier reason — three tenses, one sentence, and a reader who never has to ask when anything happened. Había sido, había prometido: the pluscuamperfecto of ser and of any -er verb, built the same way.
Ojo · Watch out
Three layers, three jobs: imperfecto paints, pretérito moves, pluscuamperfecto explains what was already true. One sentence may hold all three; do not flatten them into one tense.
ser, pluscuamperfecto — the table
yo había sido · tú habías sido · él/ella/usted había sido · nosotros habíamos sido · ustedes habían sido · ellos/ellas habían sido
prometer, pluscuamperfecto — the table
yo había prometido · tú habías prometido · él/ella/usted había prometido · nosotros habíamos prometido · ustedes habían prometido · ellos/ellas habían prometido
Do it now — on paper
Say all 9 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with yo había prometido.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write out ser, pluscuamperfecto and prometer, 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.