Spanish/Tenses/Indicative/Perfect/Imperfect

-AR / -ER / -IRconjugationexampletranslation-AR / -ER / -IRhablarto speakYohabía + past participlehabía habladoI had spokenTúhabías + past participlehabías habladoYou had spokenÉlhabía + past participlehabía habladoHe had spokenNosotroshabíamos + past participlehabíamos habladoWe had spokenVosotroshabíais + past participlehabíais habladoYou all had spokenElloshabían + past participlehabían habladoThey had spoken Some things to note: This tense (and all perfect tenses) uses a form of the irregular helping verb haber (meaning to have done). As this is the pluperfect indicative, it takes the simple imperfect indicative form of haber. The past participle of a regular verb is formed by adding -ado to the stem of an -AR verb, and -ido to the stem of an -ER or -IR verb. As the structure for this tense is a form of haber with the past participle, there are no irregular verbs in this tense. Any irregularity would come from a verb with an irregular past participle, but the haber + past participle structure still holds true. While the past participle is oftentimes the same word as the adjective form of a verb (las palabras habladas - the spoken words), the past participle itself is not an adjective, and therefore does not have to "agree" with the subject. Regardless of the subject's gender or number, the past participle remains the same. Ellas habían hablado, NOT ellas habían habladas. Be careful not to confuse the past participle with the gerund. había hablado, not había hablando.