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3.3: Past Participles

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    164404
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    Participio pasado

    Past participles can be used as adjectives or verbs, but they always need an auxiliary verb. The auxiliary verb must be conjugated to the subject of the sentence and the past participle will stay in the same form; they do not conjugate. 

    Changing a verb into its past participle form is easy, just change ending "-ar" to "-ado" and endings "-er" and "-ir" to "-ido". In English, regular past participles end in "-ed", such as "closed". However, there are irregular forms in both Spanish and English.

    Participos pasados regulares

    Regular Past Participles in Spanish
    Infinitivo Participio pasado Inglés
    contaminar contaminado polluted
    proteger protegido protected
    destruir destruido destroyed

    Práctica 1

    Participios pasados irregulares

    There are some verbs with irregular past participles and they do not end in "-ado" or "-ido".

    Irregular Past Participles in Spanish
    Infinitivo Participio pasado Inglés
    abrir abierto opened
    cubrir cubierto covered
    descomponer descompuesto broken; not working
    describir descrito described
    escribir escrito written
    hacer hecho done; made
    morir muerto dead
    poner puesto put
    romper roto broken; torn; ripped
    resolver resuelto solved
    ver visto seen
    volver vuelto returned

    Verbs with an "-a", "-e", or "-o" as the last letter of the stem, after the infinitive ending is dropped, need an added accent mark on their past participle form, but only if the original verb ends in "-er" or "-ir". The accent mark must be placed on the "i" of "-ído".

    Past Participles with Accent Marks
    Infinitivo Participio pasado Inglés
    cre-er creído believed
    o-ír oído heard
    tra-er traído brought

    Participio pasado como adjetivo

    Previously, you have used past participles as adjectives. For example, "aburrido" is a past participle that derives from the verb "aburrir". When past participles are used as adjectives, the ending "o" must change to agree with the noun they describe. If "aburrido" is used to describe a female, you would use the feminine form "aburrida"; if it's plural, an "s" at the end would be added, "aburridos". 

    When using past participles as adjectives, most of the time the auxiliary verb used will be "estar".

    Ejemplos

    • El supermercado está cerrado. (The supermarket is closed.)
    • La mesa está puesta. Empecemos a comer. (The table is set. Let's start eating.)
    • Mis padres están enojados. (My parents are angry.)
    • Tu lápiz está roto. (Your pencil is broken.)
    • Marlene y Lupita están cansadas. (Marlene and Lupita are tired.)
    • Yo estoy aburrida. (I am bored.)

    Práctica 2


    3.3: Past Participles is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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