Overview

A past participle (el participio) is a very useful form of a verb which can function as an adjective or as a verb in conjunction with haber to form the perfect tenses.

Past Participles

To form the past participle of regular verbs, drop the infinitive ending (-ar, -er, -ir) and add -ado to the stem of -ar verbs and -ido to the stem of -er and -ir verbs. This is equivalent to adding -ed to many verbs in English.

How to Form the Past Participle

There are also a few irregular past participles:

No Diphthongs Here

If the stem of an -er or -ir verb ends in a, e, or o, -ido becomes -ído to prevent the vowels from forming a diphthong.

Stressed Past Participles

Irregular Just to be Irregular

There are also several verbs that are just irregular in their past participles:

Irregular Past Participles

Uses of the Past Participle

1. The Perfect Tenses

See the perfect tense references for a full explanation, examples, and irregulars. This is the most common use of the past participle and describes what a person "has" done in most cases. There are perfect tenses for all other tenses in Spanish (present perfect, past perfect, future perfect, conditional perfect, present perfect subjunctive, past perfect subjunctive, and future perfect subjunctive.)

Perfect Tense Formula

haber + past participle

• ¿Has viajado mucho a Uruguay? (Have you traveled a lot to Uruguay?)
• Habré leído todos sus libros. (I will have read all of his books.)

2. As an Adjective

Past participles that are used as adjectives must agree in gender and number to the nouns they modify.

• Me encantan huevos revueltos. (I love scrambled eggs.)
• Salimos por la puerta abierta. (We left through the open door.)

3. As a Predicative

Adjective When used in conjunction with a linking verb (ser, estar, parecer), past participles act as predicative adjectives. Functioning as adjectives, they must agree with the nouns they modify in gender and number.

• Mi novela favorita fue escrita por Gabriel García Márquez. (My favorite novel was written by Gabriel García Márquez.)
• Las puertas están cerradas. (The doors are closed.)
• Esta manzana parece podrida. (This apple seems rotten.)

Exercises

Part 1: Write the past participle form for each given infinitive.

Example: saltar -> saltado

1. bañar
2. leer
3. salir
4. bailar
5. dar
6. ir
7. comer
8. hablar
9. escribir
10. dormir

Part 2: For each sentence, fill in the blank with the correct past participle form from the infinitives in the word bank.

Example: Esta foto fue ___|\___|\___|\___| por me madre. -> tomado

Word Bank

mandar cerrar trabajar salir decidir

1. Paula ha ___|\___|\___|__ 50 horas esta semana.
2. Ya habíamos ___|\___|\___|__ cuando llegaste.
3. Esta puerta siempre está ___|\___|\___|\___|__.
4. Para mañana habré ___|\___|\___|\___|__ la carta.
5. ¿Has ___|\___|\___|\___|\___|_ qué quieres hacer?

Answers

Part 1

1. bañado
2. leído
3. salido
4. bailado
5. dado
6. ido
7. comido
8. hablado
9. escrito
10. dormido

Part 2

1. trabajado
2. salido
3. cerrada
4. mandado
5. decidido