Unit 10: Structures with “hacer,” introduction to perfect tenses, translation considerations (part 1)
10.5 The Past Participle
The past participle corresponds to the English “been,” “done,” “eaten,” “spoken,” etc., all irregular participles that stand out, as well as to regular past participles, that take the same form as the English simple past tense, as in “walked,” “desired,” “opened,” etc.
The regular past participles of verbs in Spanish are:
| –AR | –ER | –IR | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | pasar | comer | venir |
| Past Participle | pasado | comido | venido |
Like English, Spanish employs a number or irregular past participles. (These do not always correspond to verbs that are irregular in other tenses.)
| Infinitive | Past Participle |
|---|---|
| abrir | abierto (opened [open]) |
| cubrir | cubierto (covered) |
| decir | dicho (said, told) |
| descubrir | descubierto (discovered, uncovered) |
| escribir | escrito (written) |
| hacer | hecho (done, made) |
| morir | muerto (died [dead]) |
| poner | puesto (put) |
| resolver | resuelto (solved, resolved) |
| romper | roto (broken) |
| ver | visto (seen) |
| volver | vuelto (returned) |
Compound forms of these verbs, such as suponer (“to suppose”) and devolver (“to return”), have the same irregularity in their participles: supuesto, devuelto.
As in English, past participles may serve as adjectives and in this case they agree with the noun they modify. Sometimes they immediately follow the noun; others, they are separated from it, usually by ser or estar:
| Nos dio una respuesta bien pensada. | He gave us a well-thought answer. |
| La lámpara está rota. | The lamp is broken. |
| El poema “Y colgaríamos naranjas en cada nube” fue escrito por la costarricense Ana Istaru. | The poem “And We Would Hang Oranges on Each Cloud” was written by the Costa Rican Ana Istaru. |
The feminine forms of some past participles, as well as some masculine ones, may form nouns of related meaning, as these below that you have already seen:
| la comida | food, meal, evening meal |
| la llegada | arrival |
| el puesto | position, job, placement, stand (where something is sold) |
| la salida | exit, departure |
Additional nouns formed from past participles include:
| la bebida | beverage |
| la dicha | happiness, good fortune |
| el dicho | refrain, proverb |
| la entrada | entrance, entrée, ticket |
| los escritos | writings |
| el hecho | fact, deed |
| el/la muerto/-a | dead person |
| el pasado | past |
| la vista | view |
| la vuelta | return |
