Forming the Past Participle in Spanish: examples & exercises

Hello! Welcome to a new lesson on Spanish grammar. On this occasion, we will learn how to form the past participle of verbs in Spanish, a non-personal form of the verb that works as a complement to different grammatical tenses in the language, such as the present perfect and the passive voice. We will explain the rules the easiest way possible and contextualize them with simple examples and grammar exercises. Let’s start…

What is the past participle in Spanish?

The participle in Spanish is a non-personal form of the verb that will often end in the suffixes “-ado/-ada” and “-ido/ida” in its regular form, and with it, we can form grammatical tenses like the present perfect (pretérito perfecto) or past perfect (pretérito pluscuamperfecto) to say things like “He llegado” (I have arrived) or “Yo había dicho” (I had said). The participle will also be used in the passive voice and as a complement to the verbs “SER/ESTAR” (to be) to make sentences such as: “Mi teléfono está muerto” (My phone is dead) and “El libro fue escrito en 1908” (The book was written in 1908)

In simple terms, the past participle in Spanish will require a change on the verb’s ending so that it can be used in grammatical tenses such as the perfect past tense, the future tense, the passive voice and others. The participle in Spanish plays the same functions as in English, and just like in that language, we must know the correct verb conjugation in participle so that the verb itself agrees with all the parts of the sentence.

Forming the regular past participle of verbs in Spanish

First, it is important that you know that we follow rules when we form the participle of verbs in Spanish, although there are also verbs in Spanish that have an irregular participle. Next, we will explain the basic rules you need to know to form the participle in Spanish:

From -AR to -ADO

Verbs that end in -AR in their infinitive form in Spanish, will change their ending to -ADO. Pay attention to the following sentences:

From -ER to – IDO

When verbs end in -ER in infinitive, they will change their ending to -IDO to form the past participle in Spanish.

From -IR to – IDO

Finally, when verbs end in -IR in infinitive, the ending will be replaced by the suffix -IDO to form the participle in Spanish.

Double participles in Spanish

There are three specific verbs that have double participles in Spanish, that is, a regular and irregular form. These verbs are: Freír (fry), Imprimir(print) and Proveer(provide). Here are some examples of basic sentences with these verbs using their participle in Spanish.

Forming the irregular past participle of verbs in Spanish

There are many common verbs that have irregular participles in Spanish. For such verbs, the rules that we presented earlier to form the participle do not apply. For example, the verb “Abrir”(to open) would be conjugated as “Abrido” if we followed the rules, but since “Abrir” has an irregular participle, the correct thing is to say “Abierto”. Similarly to what happens to common irregular verbs in the present tense, you must memorize these irregular past participle forms, and most likely, you will many mistakes as you keep working on this.

Keep in mind that verbs in the participle in Spanish can also used as adjectives when the verb plays that function in the sentence. For example, the sentence “It is open” would not be translated as “Está abrir” (using the infinitive), but as “Está abierto”, using the verb “abrir” in the past participle. Here you have a list of verbs with irregular participles in Spanish, plus some sample sentences with them:

Interactive quiz: