The Spanish past participle: hablado, comido, hecho, escrito
One participle, two jobs · pick a verb and a thing
With haber · never changesHe abierto la puerta.
HeI-haveabiertoopenedla puerta.the door
eh ah-BYEHR-toh lah PWEHR-tah · “I have opened the door.”
As an adjective · agreesLa puerta está abierta.
La puertathe doorestáisabierta.open
lah PWEHR-tah es-TAH ah-BYEHR-tah · “The door is open.”
Why:After he, the participle is always abierto, whatever the object. As an adjective after estar it agrees with la puerta (feminine singular), so abierta. abrir is irregular: abierto, not abrido.
Short answer: the past participle is the “-ed” form: -ar → -ado (hablado), -er and -ir → -ido (comido, vivido). About a dozen common verbs are irregular: hecho, dicho, visto, escrito. After haber it never changes (he abierto la puerta); used as an adjective it agrees (la puerta está abierta).
Regular participles
-ado and -ido
Remove the infinitive ending and add -ado for -ar verbs, -ido for -er and -ir verbs. When the stem ends in a vowel, -ído gets a written accent so the two vowels are said separately: leído, oído, traído.
-ar → -ado
-er → -ido
vowel + -ído
Irregular participles
The dozen irregulars, in three sound families
The irregulars are some of the most frequent verbs, so you will hear them constantly. They fall into three families by ending: -cho, -to and -sto / -erto. Verbs built on them share the form: describir → descrito, deshacer → deshecho.
-cho
-to
-sto / -erto
Perfect tenses
Haber + participle: the compound tenses
With haber (“to have”, as a helper verb) the participle forms every perfect tense. Only haber changes; the participle stays exactly the same, and nothing can come between them. More in the perfect tense.
Tense
haber
+ participle
English
Present perfect
he
comido
I have eaten
Pluperfect
había
comido
I had eaten
Future perfect
habré
comido
I will have eaten
Conditional perfect
habría
comido
I would have eaten
Perfect subjunctive
(que) haya
comido
(that) I have eaten
Estar + participle
Estoy sentado: positions and states
Spanish describes a body position or a finished state with estar + participle, where English uses “-ing”: “I’m sitting” is estoy sentado, not a gerund. The participle agrees with the person or thing.
Participle clauses
Terminada la cena, salimos
In written and formal Spanish, a participle can open a sentence on its own, meaning “once … had been done”. It comes first and agrees with the noun that follows. You will meet this in news reports and literature.
Terminadafinishedla cena,the dinnersalimoswe-went-outa pasear.to walk
tehr-mee-NAH-dah lah THEH-nah, sah-LEE-mohs ah pah-seh-AR · “Once dinner was over, we went out for a walk.”Why:Terminada agrees with la cena.
Dichosaidesto,thisse fue.he-left
DEE-choh ES-toh, seh FWEH · “Having said this, he left.”Why:A fixed phrase, very common in writing: dicho esto.
Una vezonceaprobadaapprovedla ley,the lawentraráit-will-enteren vigor.into force
OO-nah beth ah-proh-BAH-dah lah LAY, en-trah-RAH en bee-GOR · “Once the law is approved, it will come into force.”Why:Una vez + participle is the most common version.
Double participles
Frito or freído: verbs with two participles
Three verbs have two accepted participles. Both work with haber; as an adjective, the short one is far more common.