Learning Spanish Verb Conjugation? Powerful guide for Past Perfect in the Indicative Mood

Past Perfect verb conjugation in Spanish

In this post, you will find a detailed explanation of perfect preterite conjugation in Spanish for the indicative mood. For a general explanation on Spanish verb conjugation, check out our main conjugation article.

Students enjoying what they were doing just now

Past perfect is about “just now”

The preterite perfect indicative points to an event or action that has just happened, sort of “as we speak”. For example, if you say he dicho que lo quiero, which translates to “I have said I wanted it”, the expression refers to a sentence you have just said. 

Here is another example: he visitado a mi amigo hoy. This phrase translates to “I have visited my friend today”. And, according to the Spanish tense of the verb he visitado in this context, implies that “visiting your friend” is what you have done just now, as if you are walking out of there, or you are coming from there right now. 

Note: As you may have noticed, this is a compound conjugation that relies on the verb haber (to have). He dicho, he visitado are the examples we have seen this far. You will find some more ahead, and at the end of this article you will find the conjugation table for the verb haber by itself.

But it may be a long “now”

This tense also refers to an action whose consequences or circumstances are related in some way to the present. An extreme example may be: los romanos nos han dejado el Coliseo, which translates to “the Roman people have left us the Coliseum”. Even though this building was built thousands of years ago, it still exists in the present day. That is what the form han dejado implies. It talks about something that was left, but still is. In a certain way, that which the verb expresses, even though it comes from a distant past, is part of the present.

Past perfect indicative can extend with the psychological present

As you have seen, this tense shows how flexible the present can be. An easy way to understand this is to think about it as a psychological present, and for that you have to consider the context and intention of the speaker. The degree to which an action could be thought of as present depends on the time frame that is relevant for the speaker or for the event. 

For example, in the phrase: esta mañana ha llovido (which translates to “it has rained this morning”), the psychological present is today. The morning is considered within the current day. This is in the Perfect Preterite tense. Now, in the phrase esta mañana llovió (which would translate to “it rained this morning”), the morning is thought of as further away. You can say that in this phrase, the psychological present is “the evening” or “the night”. This is an example of the Indefinite Preterite.  

Indefinite past and past perfect

This two tenses are similar in that they express actions or events that occurred before the moment of the word and it’s not emphatic on the passing by of such event, but on that it has already passed. For example, the phrases el concierto terminó (indefinite preterite) and el concierto ha terminado (perfect preterite), both refer to an event in the past. We can translate this phrases to “the concert finished” or “the concert has finished”. 

Both refer to a past event, but each one let’s the speaker relate to the event in different ways, or different levels of presence. If the event or action is close to the psychological present of the speaker, it is likely he/she would use the perfect preterite. There is no “hard rule” to determine the boundaries of this psychological present. It depends on context, intention and the point of view of the speaker.

Further examples of past perfect indicative conjugation

We are going to kick off this examples table with the verb haber. Then we will see the perfect preterite tense (pretérito perfecto) conjugation table for the words we used as examples. 

Haber (to have)

  • Singular
    • First person: yo he
    • Second person*: tú has (informal) / vos has (informal) / usted ha (formal)
    • Third person: él ha (masculine) / ella ha (femenine)
  • Plural
    • First person: nosotros hemos
    • Second person**: vosotros habéis (masc. and neutral) / vostras habéis (fem.) / ustedes han (neutral)
    • Third person: ellos han (masc. and neutral) / ellas han (fem)

Decir (to say)

  • Sigular
    • First person: yo he dicho
    • Second person*: tú has dicho (informal) / vos has dicho (informal) / usted ha dicho (formal)
    • Third person: él ha dicho (masc.) / ella ha dicho (fem.)
  • Plural
    • First person: nosotros hemos dicho
    • Second person**: vosotros habéis dicho (masc. and neutral) / vosotras habéis dicho (fem.) / ustedes han dicho (neutral)
    • Third person: ellos han dicho (masc. and neutral) / ellas han dicho (fem.)

Visitar (to visit)

  • Singular
    • First person: yo he visitado
    • Second person*: tú has visitado (informal) / vos has visitado (informal) / usted ha visitado (formal)
    • Third person: él ha visitado (masc.) / ella ha visitado (fem.)
  • Plural
    • First person: nosotros hemos visitado
    • Second person**: vosotros habéis visitado (masc. and neutral) / vosotras habéis visitado (fem.) / ustedes han visitado (neutral)
    • Third person: ellos han visitado (masc. and neutral) / ellas han visitado (fem.)

Dejar (to leave)

  • Singular
    • First person: yo he dejado
    • Second person*: tú has dejado (informal) / vos has dejado (informal) / usted ha dejado (formal)
    • Third person: él ha dejado (masc.) / ella ha dejado (fem.)
  • Plural
    • First person: nosotros hemos dejado
    • Second person**: vosotros habéis dejado (masc. and neutral) / vosotras habéis dejado (fem.) / ustesdes han dejado (neutral)
    • Third person: ellos han dejado (masc. and neutral) / ellas han dejado (fem.)

Terminar (to finish)

  • Singular
    • First person: yo he terminado
    • Second person*: tú has terminado (informal) / vos has terminado (informal) / usted ha terminado (formal)
    • Third person: él ha terminado (masc.) / ella ha terminado (fem.)
  • Plural
    • First person: nosotros hemos terminado
    • Second person**: vosotros habéis terminado (masc. and neutral) / vosotras habéis terminado (fem.) / ustedes han terminado (neutral)
    • Third person: ellos han terminado (masc. and neutral) / ellas han terminado (fem.)

* Remember that 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 the most respectful form, and 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. However, 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 and it’s considered snobbish or foreign. Most Latin American countries, if not all, use ustedes for the second person plural.

Note: Always consider that plural pronouns in Spanish are gendered. The common rule is to use the masculine form if the gender of the subjects in a group is either mixed or unknown.

PRO TIP

One of the best resources to check the proper form of a verb according to each tense is the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española. Just look for the word and click on the button that says CONJUGAR that will appear next to the word.

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, paradigms and rules on verb conjugation. You will also find an Index Chart with links to detailed articles on specific tenses, such as this one.