Past Participles & Present Perfect
I. Intro
In this lesson, we’re going to learn a simple but very useful new verb form - the past participle. In English, you can form the past participle of regular verbs by adding +ed to the base form of the verb. Examples of regular verb past participles in English are:
talked, walked, lived. The past participles of irregular verbs have irregular endings, and are usually formed with something other than -ed (often -en, or t), and some examples of this are
spoken, eaten, felt.
Past participles can:
- Express actions in the present perfect
- Function as adjectives
- Express the passive voice
Lucky for us, all of the above information is true in both English and in Spanish! Let’s take a look at how to form the past participle, and then how to use it in Spanish.
II. Forming the past participle
It’s easy. Start with the verb’s infinitive form, drop the -ar, -er, -ir ending and add the following ending:
| hablar | – ar | + ado | = | hablado |
| comer | – er | + ido | = | comido |
| vivir | – ir | + ido | = | vivido |
III. Irregular Past Participles
Some irregular verbs have irregular past participle forms, and must be memorized:
