Cuando llegué ya te habías ido: the past perfect
n this article we will look at the pretérito pluscuamperfecto de indefinido, similar to the past perfect in English, a verb tense used to express actions that occurred before other actions that also occurred in the past. It is a compound verb tense, formed with the verb haber in the pretérito imperfecto plus the past participle of the main verb. With this structure, the earlier action in time is introduced, and the later action is generally introduced in the pretérito indefinido. Thus, we will see the formation of this verb tense, its most frequent uses and examples. Let's go!
Formation of the pretérito pluscuamperfecto.
This verb tense is formed with the pretérito imperfecto of the verb haber plus the past participle of the main verb. Regular participles are obtained by removing the ending from verbs (-ar, -er, -ir) in order to obtain the root, and adding to this root the endings –ado for verbs ending in -ar and –ido for verbs ending in -er and -ir: cantar: cantado, comer: comido, vivir: vivido. Of course, there are irregular participles, and many of them are used very frequently. Here you can read more about this topic.
Pretérito imperfecto de indicativo of the verb haber.
Yo había
Tú habías
Él/Ella/Usted había
Nosotros/as habíamos
Vosotros/as habíais
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes habían
Uses of the pretérito pluscuamperfecto.
The main use of the pretérito pluscuamperfecto is to introduce completed actions in the past that occurred previously to another action that was also in the past.
Cuando llegué a casa, mis padres ya habían cenado. (When I arrived home, my parents had already had dinner). (First: my parents had dinner / Then: I arrived).
María se dio cuenta de que había perdido las llaves. (María realized that she had lost her keys). (First: María lost her keys / Then: she realized).
In some cases the order of the sentence can be reversed: mis padres ya habían cenado cuando llegué a casa is valid, but de que había perdido las llaves María se dio cuenta is not. The reason for this will be material for another article but, to simplify, if the subordinate clause completes the meaning of the verb in the main clause, the order cannot be changed. That is, if we cannot separate both clauses without losing the meaning of the main one: María se dio cuenta, without deictic (that is, from real context), cataphoric (something later in the discourse or text) or anaphoric (something earlier in the discourse or text) markers does not convey any message, because darse cuenta needs a direct object. On the other hand, if we say llegué or mis padres cenaron we convey a message in both cases.
The pretérito pluscuamperfecto is also used to introduce consequences of past actions or situations:
Estaba muy cansada porque había trabajado toda la noche. (She was very tired because she had worked all night).
El jardín estaba seco porque no había llovido en semanas. (The garden was dry because it hadn’t rained in weeks).
No vino a la fiesta porque no había dormido bien. (He didn’t come to the party because he hadn’t slept well).
As seen in the examples, in this case we will often introduce, as a consequence of the past action, a state, that is, something lasting in time and not a specific action. In that case we use the pretérito imperfecto to introduce it, and not the pretérito indefinido as when we introduce actions.
Frequent uso with ya.
This verb tense is frequently used together with the adverb ya (already), which emphasizes the temporal anteriority of the action expressed in the pretérito pluscuamperfecto. This adverb, in this case, reinforces the idea that the introduced action was completed.
Cuando llegué al cine, la película había comenzado. (When I arrived at the cinema, the movie had started).
Cuando llegué al cine, la película ya había comenzado. (When I arrived at the cinema, the movie had already started). More emphatic.
Use with reflexive pronouns.
Reflexive pronouns always precede the verb haber.
Cuando llegaste, me había vestido. (When you arrived, I had gotten dressed).
Cuando llegaste, yo me había vestido.
Cuando llegaste, yo ya me había vestido.
We have reached the end. This verb tense is used very frequently in the language, so here I leave you exercises to practice it. And, although like all topics in language acquisition it has its difficulties and requires practice, at least in the languages I speak/learn it has its equivalents so, as I have written in other articles, comparative grammar helps comprehension. And in this particular topic, it helps a lot. Thanks for reading!
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