Learn why Spanish pluperfect tense verbs are actually simpler than they sound!

Pluperfect past tense verb conjugation in Spanish in the indicative mood. What’s it for and how it works.

Spanish pluperfect past indicative verbs, or its official name in Spanish: pretérito pluscuanperfecto. We know it sounds complicated, but it’s actually simple. That’s what we will look into in this post. Now, if you are looking for a full explanation on Spanish verb conjugation, check out this post. Keep in mind that we are only talking about the indicative mood. That is the one that talks about actions from an objective point of view.
 
And remember, the best way to learn all tenses is with practice.

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Spanish pluperfect past indicative verbs

Let’s look into what the Spanish pluperfect indicative tense is.

The pretérito pluscuanperfecto is a variation of the past perfect tense. This is one of the tenses you will use to talk about actions that happened in the past. In English, we call it pluperfect tense.
The pluperfect past is both a compound and a relative tense.
 
It is compound because you need to use two verbs to conjugate it. One will be a form of the verb haber (to be), and the other will be the past participle of the action you are talking about.
 
And it’s also a relative tense. This means the verb does not refer to a precise moment in time, but it relies on another verb to specify it.

How the Spanish pluperfect indicative verbs work

You will use this tense to talk about something that happened in the past. But you will put it on top of another action that happened in the past. So, to put it in a different way, you use this tense to talk about two actions in the past. But it let’s you specify that one of those actions is further in the past. That’s how it is relative.

Let’s go for an example with hablar:

We will take the verb hablar (speak). Its past participle form is hablado. So the pluperfect conjugation is había hablado. This translates to “had spoken”, and as you can see, it’s somewhat of a double past. Hablado (spoken) refers to an action in the past. And so does the auxiliary verb había (had).
 
Now we will expand on this example. Here’s a longer phrase:
 
Cuando llamó Pedro, yo ya había hablado con Ana.
 
This translates to: “When Pedro called, I had already spoken to Ana.” One action we are talking about is the call we recieved from Pedro. And the other action is that we spoke to Ana. As you can see, the pluperfect tense allows you to make clear that you spoke to Ana before Pedro called. That means speaking to Ana is further in the past than recieving Pedro’s call.

Let’s try another example of Spanish pluperfect past verbs. Nevar:

Cuando tú llegaste, ya había nevado.
(When you came, it had already snowed.)
 
In this phrase, we can understand that the action “snowing” happened before the “coming”. Había nevado, before tú llegaste. Note that this is the informal form; the formal would be Cuando usted llegó, ya había nevado.
 
Using this two actions together in the phrase shows they are relative; they relate to each other. Both actions happened in the past. But the pluperfect conjugation había nevado makes it clear which happened before.

Conjugating the Spanish pluperfect indicative verbs

Now that you have a clear idea of what it is and how it works, let’s look into how to use it.
 
As we said, the pluperfect tense is compound. It needs a form of the auxiliary verb “to be”, combined with a past participle. Participles are special forms of verbs that work as adjectives. Yet, they don’t lose their qualities as verbs. To put it in another way, they are verbal adjectives that construct compound verbs. They participate in creating a compound expression.

Participle conjugation

So, to conjugate the pluperfect past tense, first you need to make a participle. To do this, you take the infinitive form of the verb, remove the -ar, -er, -ir ending, and replace it with either -ado, or -ido.
 
For example, in the infinitive verb comer (eat), you drop the -er ending and replace it -ido. You get comido.
 
Here’s another one: if we take the verb pedir (ask, request, order). Drop -ir ending and replace with –ido. You get pedido.
Another verb we’ve used before in this article es: nevar (to snow). Drop the -ar and replace with -ado. You get nevado.

Auxiliary conjugation

This is pretty strait forward. For the pluperfect conjugation, your auxiliary verb will be haber. The past tense of this auxiliary varies with the person and number. Había is the form for the first, second (formal) and third person singular. Habías is for the second person singular (informal). Habíamos is for the first person plural. Habíais is for the second (informal) person plural. Habían is for second (formal) and third person plural. (You’ll find a detail chart at the bottom of this post.)

Mixing it up with Spanish pluperfect past verbs

Yo había comido cuando se acabó la película.
(I had eaten when the movie was over.)
 
Cuando yo entré al restaurante, tú ya habías pedido. (Informal)
Cuanto yo entré al restaurante, usted ya había pedido. (Formal)
(When I came to the restaurant, you had already ordered.)

Further examples of Spanish pluperfect indicative verb conjugation

Now we will go for a full conjugation chart on all the verbs we used as examples along this post.

Hablar (speak)

  • Singular
    • First person: yo había hablado
    • Second person*: tú habías hablado (informal) / vos habías hablado (informal) / usted había hablado (formal)
    • Third person: él había hablado (masculine) / ella había hablado (femenine)
  • Plural
    • First person: nosotros habíamos hablado
    • Second person**: vosotros habíais hablado (masc. and neutral) / vosotras habíais hablado (fem.) / ustedes habían hablado (neutral)
    • Third person: ellos habían hablado (masc. and neutral) / ellas habían hablado (fem.)

Nevar (snow)

This is somewhat of a strange verb to conjugate. Yet, it’s a great example on a metaphorical expression.
  • Singular
    • First person: yo había nevado
    • Second person*: tú habías nevado (informal) / vos habías nevado (informal) / usted había nevado (formal)
    • Third person: él había nevado (masc.) / ella había nevado (fem.)
  • Plural
    • First person: nosotros habíamos nevado
    • Second person**: vosotros habíais nevado (masc. and neutral) / vosotras habíais nevado (fem.) / ustedes habían nevado (neutral)
    • Third person: ellos habían nevado (masc. and neutral) / ellas habían nevado (fem.)

Comer (eat)

  • Singular
    • First person: yo había comido
    • Second person*: tú habías comido (informal) / vos habías comido (informal) / usted había comido (formal)
    • Third person: él había comido (masc.) / ella había comido (fem.)
  • Plural
    • First person: nosotros habíamos comido
    • Second person**: vosotros habíais comido (masc. and neutral) / vosotras habíais comido (fem.) / ustedes habían comido (neutral)
    • Third person: ellos habían comido (masc. and neutral) / ellas habían comido (fem.)

Pedir (ask, request, order)

  • Singular
    • First person: yo había pedido
    • Second person*: tú habías pedido (informal) / vos habías pedido (informal) / usted había pedido (formal)
    • Third person: él había pedido (masc.) / ella había pedido (fem.)
  • Plural
    • First person: nosotros habíamos pedido
    • Second person**: vosotros habíais pedido (masc. and neutral) / vosotras habíais pedido (fem.) / ustedes habían pedido (neutral)
    • Third person: ellos habían pedido (masc. and neutral) / ellas habían pedido (fem.)
* Remember: each country and culture considers some of these variables as formal or informal. You can find more on that in this post. The short version: Usted is formal, we use it when talking to elders or in formal circumstances. The forms vos and tú are mostly considered informal, they tend to be the way to talk amongst friends or family. Yet, there are some exemptions. For example, in Argentina, vos is the standard use; and in Mexico it is common to use the tú form.
 
** The use of vosotros / vosotras is almost exclusively used in Spain. It is not common among Latin American countries. It’s almost considered snobbish or foreign. Most Latin American countries, if not all, use ustedes for the second person plural.
 
Note: Always consider that most pronouns in Spanish express gender. The common rule, in plural, is to use the masculine form if the gender if the group is either mixed or unknown.

PRO TIP

One of the best sources to check verb conjugation is the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española. You just look for the word and click on the button that says CONJUGAR that will appear next to the word.
Conjugar Real Academia Española
That will display the table for all the possible conjugations for that verb. Check it out here.

Learn more!

Go ahead to our Spanish Verb Conjugation article for more information. There you will find a general explanation on the variables, paradigmes and rules. You will also find an Index Chart with links to detailed articles on specific tenses, such as this one.
 
Last but never least, don’t forget to join our Spanish Conversation Program. Talking with native Spanish speakers is the best way to put your lessons to the test and get rid of any doubts.