Spanish 6.3. Pluperfect Indicative Tense

The pluperfect indicative tense, literally the more than perfect, describes the past before the simple past in Spanish. If two actions took place in the past, the one that occurred before is often described in the pluperfect indicative tense. In case you encounter it in Spanish, the name of this tense is “el pretérito pluscuamperfecto.”

Conjugation

“Haber” in the imperfect + past participle

The pluperfect indicative uses the verb “haber” in the imperfect. The conjugation of the pluperfect is as follows:

		-ar ending hablar	-er ending comer	-ir ending vivir
yo	había	hablado	comido	vivido
tú	habías
él/ella/usted	había
nosotros/-as	habíamos
vosotros/-as	habíais
ellos/ellas/ustedes	habían

Examples

Here are some examples of the pluperfect indicative tense in Spanish:

Antes de conocernos, nunca había ido a España.	Before we met, I had never been to Spain.
Cuando visité a mi mamá, mi hermana ya había llegado.	When I visited my mom, my sister had already arrived.
Después de que el partido había sido cancelado, los espectadores se fueron a casa.	After the game had been canceled, the spectators went home.

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