Spanish Past Participle – Learn and Practice

Welcome 😊 to our grammar lesson on the Spanish Past Participle (“El participio”).

The Past Participle is an important verb form that has several uses.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to form the Past Participle and use it in sentences.

You will also find a Quiz and Exercises to practice.

How to form the Past Participle

In Spanish, each verb has one Past Participle. Let’s study how we form it.

Regular past participles

Most verbs have a regular Past Participle. We form it this way:

• For verbs in -ar —> attach -ado to its stem
• For verbs in -er, -ir  —> attach -ido to its stem

Examples:

Verb	Past Participle
hablar to speak	hablado
comer to eat	comido
vivir to live	vivido
llamar to call	llamado
leer to read	leído
sentir to feel	sentido

Irregular past participles

Here are the most frequent verbs with an irregular Past Participle:

Verb	Past Participle
hacer to do	hecho
decir to say	dicho
ver to see	visto
escribir to write	escrito
romper to break	roto
poner to put	puesto
volver to come back	vuelto
resolver to solve	resuelto
satisfacer to satisfy	satisfecho
descubrir to discover	descubierto
morir to die	muerto

Uses of the Past Participle

Its most important uses are:

As part of perfect tenses

In Spanish, all perfect tenses consist of 2 words:

• First, is the verb haber conjugated in some tense.
• Second, the Past Participle of the verb expressing the action.

The perfect tenses in Spanish are:

• Present Perfect
• Past Perfect
• Preterite Perfect
• Future Perfect
• Conditional Perfect
• Present Perfect Subjunctive
• Past Perfect Subjunctive
• Future Perfect Subjunctive

Examples:

Yo he trabajado mucho hoy.
I’ve worked a lot today. (Present Perfect)

Esta semana no hemos jugado.
This week we haven’t played. (Present Perfect)

Vosotros habíais hecho las camas.
You guys had made the beds. (Past Perfect)

As an adjective

When we use the Past Participle as an adjective, its ending needs to match the gender and number of the noun it is connected with.

Here are some examples using the Past Participle of the verb “cerrar” (cerrado). Notice we adapt its ending to the gender and number of the noun:

El armario está cerrado.
The closet is closed. (masculine singular)

La puerta está cerrada.
The door is closed. (feminine singular)

Los armarios están cerrados.
The closets are closed. (masculine plural)

Las puertas parecen cerradas.
The doors seem closed. (feminine plural)

After “ser” to form the passive voice

To form the passive voice, we place the Past Participle right after the verb “ser”.

Here the Past Participle also needs to match the gender and number of the subject:

La canción es cantada.
The song is sung.

Los edificios son construidos por la compañía.
The buildings are built by the company.

Practice

Quiz

Take this short Quiz about the Past Participle:

Exercise 1

Form the Past Participle of the following verbs. Click on the gray spaces to see the solutions:

1) escuchar – escuchado
2) salir – salido
3) contar – contado
4) tener – tenido
5) hacer – hecho
6) decir – dicho
7) ver – visto
8) romper – roto

Exercise 2

In this exercise, we practice the Past Participle as part of a perfect tense: the Present Perfect.

Fill the gaps with the Past Participle of the verbs in brackets:

1) Nosotros hemos cerrado las puertas. (cerrar)
We have closed the doors.

2) Yo no he repasado la lección. (repasar)
I haven’t reviewed the lesson.

3) Hemos dormido muchas horas. (dormir)
We have slept many hours.

4) Gonzalo ha hecho las tareas. (hacer)
Gonzalo has made the homework.

5) ¿Vosotros habéis visto la película? (ver)
Have you guys seen the movie?

Exercise 3

In this exercise we practice the Past Participle as an adjective.

Fill the gaps with the Past Participle of the verbs in brackets, adapting its ending if needed, so that it matches the gender and number of the noun it is connected with.

1) Las puertas están cerradas . (cerrar)
The doors are closed.

2) Los libros están abiertos . (abrir)
The books are open.

3) La cama está hecha . (hacer)
The bed is made.

4) La televisión está rota . (romper)
The TV is broken.

5) El desayuno está preparado . (preparar)
Breakfast is ready.