Past Participles in Spanish

A past participle is a verb form such as hablado, comido, hecho, or visto. In Spanish, past participles are used to form compound tenses such as the pretérito perfecto, and they can also be used as adjectives.

How to form regular past participles

For regular verbs, remove the infinitive ending and add:

• -ar → -ado
• -er → -ido
• -ir → -ido

Infinitive	Past participle
hablar	hablado
trabajar	trabajado
comer	comido
beber	bebido
vivir	vivido
salir	salido

Examples:

• He trabajado mucho hoy. — I have worked a lot today.
• ¿Has comido? — Have you eaten?
• Nunca hemos vivido allí. — We have never lived there.

Common irregular past participles

Some frequent verbs do not follow the regular -ado / -ido pattern.

Verb	Past participle	Meaning
abrir	abierto	opened
decir	dicho	said
escribir	escrito	written
hacer	hecho	done / made
morir	muerto	died / dead
poner	puesto	put
romper	roto	broken
ver	visto	seen
volver	vuelto	returned

Examples:

• He hecho la cena. — I have made dinner.
• ¿Has visto esta película? — Have you seen this film?
• Marta ha vuelto a casa. — Marta has returned home.
• Ya hemos abierto las ventanas. — We have already opened the windows.

Related verbs keep the irregular form

Many verbs formed from an irregular verb keep the same irregular past participle pattern.

For example:

• poner → puesto
• componer → compuesto
• proponer → propuesto

And:

• volver → vuelto
• devolver → devuelto

You do not need to memorize all of these at once. Learning the most common base forms first makes related verbs easier to recognize.

Past participles with

haber

When a past participle is used with haber to form a compound tense, its form does not change for gender or number.

• Ana ha llegado.
• Luis ha llegado.
• Ana y Marta han llegado.

Not:

• ❌ Ana ha llegada.
• ✅ Ana ha llegado.

This is the pattern used in the pretérito perfecto:

haber + past participle

• He comido.
• Has hablado.
• Han visto la película.

Past participles as adjectives

Past participles can also describe the state of a noun. In this use, they behave like adjectives and normally agree in gender and number.

Compare:

• He cerrado la puerta. — I have closed the door.
• La puerta está cerrada. — The door is closed.
• Han abierto las ventanas. — They have opened the windows.
• Las ventanas están abiertas. — The windows are open.

With haber, the participle stays unchanged. As an adjective, it agrees with the noun.

Past participles ending in

-ído

Some -er and -ir verbs whose stem ends in a vowel take an accent on í.

Examples:

• leer → leído
• oír → oído
• caer → caído
• traer → traído

Examples:

• He leído el libro. — I have read the book.
• Nunca he oído esa palabra. — I have never heard that word.

Common mistake

Do not make the participle agree with the subject when it follows haber.

• ❌ María ha escrita una carta.
• ✅ María ha escrito una carta.
• ❌ Ellas han vistas la película.
• ✅ Ellas han visto la película.

Quick rule

For regular verbs, use:

• -ar → -ado
• -er / -ir → -ido

With haber, the past participle does not change. Some common verbs have irregular forms such as hecho, visto, dicho, puesto, and vuelto.