【英文版西语语法】Irregular Spanish Past Participles

 A past participle (participio pasado) is a verbal form that can function as an adjective or as part of a perfect tense when used in conjunction with the verb haber.

Spanish has quite a few verbs with irregular past participles. Let's take a look at how to form them!

 

Accented Past Participle Forms

 

If an -er or -ir verb stem ends in a vowel, then the past participle is written with an accent over the i.

 

Here are some examples of past participles with an accented i.

 

Infinitive Verb Stem Spanish Past Participle English Past Participle

atraer

 

atra-

atraído

 

attracted

caer

 

ca-

caído

 

fallen

creer

 

cre-

creído

 

believed

leer

 

le-

leído

 

read

oír

 

o-

oído

 

heard

poseer

 

pose-

poseído

 

possessed

reír

 

re-

reído

 

laughed

sonreír

 

sonre-

sonreído

 

smiled

traer

 

tra-

traído

 

brought

Irregular Past Participles

 

Common irregular past participles include those in the table below.

 

Infinitive Spanish Past Participle English Past Participle

abrir

 

abierto

 

opened

morir

 

muerto

 

dead

absolver

 

absuelto

 

absolved

poner

 

puesto

 

put

cubrir

 

cubierto

 

covered

decir

 

dicho

 

said

romper

 

roto

 

broken

escribir

 

escrito

 

written

resolver

 

resuelto

 

resolved

satisfacer

 

satisfecho

 

satisfied

hacer

 

hecho

 

done/made

ver

 

visto

 

seen

volver

 

vuelto

 

returned

Many of the verbs in the table above can be used with prefixes to form other verbs with irregular past participles.

 

base Verb Verb + Prefix Spanish Past Participle English Past Participle

cubrir

descubrir

 

descubierto

 

discovered

volver

revolver

 

revuelto

 

scrambled

volver

devolver

 

devuelto

 

returned

volver

desenvolver

 

desenvuelto

 

unwrapped

hacer

deshacer

 

deshecho

 

undone

hacer

rehacer

 

rehecho

 

redone

Past Participle or Adjective?

 

In the past, many verbs in Spanish had two past participle forms: a regular form and an irregular form. Nowadays, the irregular forms are no longer considered past participles, but simply adjectives.

 

A few examples of these tricky pairs are shown in the table below. Keep in mind that only the forms in the "Past Participle" column in the table below can be used in compound tenses, such as the present perfect.

 

Infinitive Adjective Past Participle

atender

 

atento

 

atendido

 

bendecir

 

bendito

 

bendecido

 

confundir

 

confuso

 

confundido

 

corromper

 

corrupto

 

corrompido

 

despertar

 

despierto

 

despertado

 

maldecir

 

maldito

 

maldecido

 

poseer

 

poseso

 

poseído

 

presumir

 

presunto

 

presumido

 

suspender

 

suspenso

 

suspendido

 

The first example below shows the past participle of despertar being used in the present perfect, while the second example shows an adjective form related to despertar.

 

¿Has despertado a tu mamá?

Have you awoken your mother?

 

Los niños están despiertos.

The children are awake.

 

According to the Real Academia Española, only three verbs have two acceptable past participle forms, both of which can be used in perfect tenses.

 

Verb Past Participle 1 Past Participle 2

imprimir

 

imprimido

 

impreso

 

freír

 

freído

 

frito

 

proveer

 

proveído

 

provisto