# 40. Past Perfect Tense

- **Time range:** 03:06:10 – 03:09:41  (duration 00:03:31)
- **Source:** [A Complete Guide To Every Fundamental In Spanish (The Conclusion)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=YHDZSHCt1DE&t=11170s)

---
**[03:06:10]** it to come the past perfect tense in Spanish works the same way has the present perfect tense but instead of indicating what someone has done it speaks about what someone had done hence

> **[on-screen 03:06:17]**
> The Past Perfect Talking about something that someone HAD done

**[03:06:18]** it's in the past like the present perfect the past perfect also uses the

> **[on-screen 03:06:21]**
> The Past Perfect Talking about something that someone HAD done “haber” + [a past participle]

**[03:06:22]** construction a plus a past participle but in this case the verb a has to be conjugated in a different way because the past perfect speaks of the imperfect past tense for yo you get yo ABIA I had

> **[on-screen 03:06:32]**
> The Past: “haber (to have done something):” + [a past participle] habia | habiamos habias habiais habia | habian

**[03:06:34]** plus any past participle you want for two you get to abas you had ABIA he had no AB we had AB I y' had and AOS Aban they had try not focusing on these

> **[on-screen 03:06:46]**
> The Past: “haber (to have done something):” + [a past participle] habia | habiam@s i Diais habias | hab habia abia

**[03:06:47]** pronouns because they're not that useful in conversation the past perfect is

> **[on-screen 03:06:49]**
> The Past Perfect (ya - already, placed before “haber”)

**[03:06:50]** often used with the word yah meaning already to indicate that an action had already occurred before another just like the present perfect the past perfect also maintains the construction a plus a past participle which cannot be separated therefore the word yah will always come before this construction

> **[on-screen 03:07:06]**
> The Past Perfect (ya - already, placed before “haber”) Ella ya habia salido

**[03:07:06]** saying a sentence like means she had left already or she

> **[on-screen 03:07:09]**
> The Past Perfect (ya - already, placed before “haber”) Ella ya habia salido She had left already She already had left

**[03:07:11]** already had left if you want to VIs ually translate the sentence similarly I

> **[on-screen 03:07:16]**
> The Past Perfect (ya - already, placed before “haber”) Yo ya habia estudiado

**[03:07:16]** say which means I had studied already or

> **[on-screen 03:07:18]**
> The Past Perfect (ya - already, placed before “haber”) Yo ya habia estudiado | had studied already | already had studied

**[03:07:20]** I already had studied however these sentences are too easy to utilize and often times you'll see more complicated phrases especially ones that involve the

> **[on-screen 03:07:26]**
> The Past Perfect (antes de + [noun/infinitive] > before)

**[03:07:27]** conjunction an plus a noun or an infinitive which means before for instance saying an means before this

> **[on-screen 03:07:33]**
> The Past Perfect (antes de + [noun/infinitive] > before) “antes de este ano” > before this year “antes de llegar” > before arriving

**[03:07:35]** year which is an easy phrase to understand but saying something like an dear means before arriving and I can use it in a sentence like an

> **[on-screen 03:07:42]**
> The Past Perfect (antes de + [noun/infinitive] > before) Antes de llegar a la escuela, yo ya habia comido Before arriving to the school, | had eaten already

**[03:07:47]** eaten already

> **[on-screen 03:07:49]**
> The Past Perfect (antes de + [noun/infinitive] > before) Antes de este mes, yo habia trabajado mucho Before this month, I had worked a lot

**[03:07:53]** lot of course you can say any sentence you want using the past perfect in Spanish including negatives reflexive

> **[on-screen 03:07:57]**
> The Past Perfect (negatives, reflexive verbs, DOPs & IOPs)

**[03:07:58]** verbs and direct and indirect object pronouns and as a matter of fact they're used the same way as in the present perfect saying a sentence like

> **[on-screen 03:08:06]**
> The Past Perfect (negatives, reflexive verbs, DOPs & IOPs) El me lo habia mostrado

**[03:08:06]** El means he had shown me it with me and

> **[on-screen 03:08:08]**
> The Past Perfect (negatives, reflexive verbs, DOPs & IOPs) El me lo habia mostrado He had shown me it

**[03:08:09]** lo being the object pronouns and if you want to put a negative in the sentence you can

> **[on-screen 03:08:14]**
> The Past Perfect (negatives, reflexive verbs, DOPs & IOPs) El nunca me lo habia mostrado

**[03:08:15]** say he never had shown me it or

> **[on-screen 03:08:17]**
> The Past Perfect (negatives, reflexive verbs, DOPs & IOPs) El nunca me lo habia mostrado He never had shown me it

> **[on-screen 03:08:19]**
> The Past Perfect (negatives, reflexive verbs, DOPs & IOPs) El no me lo habia mostrado

**[03:08:19]** no he had not shown me it Additionally

> **[on-screen 03:08:21]**
> The Past Perfect (negatives, reflexive verbs, DOPs & lOPs) El no me lo habia mostrado He had not shown me it

**[03:08:22]** you can use reflexive verbs in the past perfect by putting the object pronouns of the verb before the construction a plus a past participle a useful sentence

> **[on-screen 03:08:32]**
> The Past Perfect (negatives, reflexive verbs, DOPs & IOPs) Antes de ir al trabajo, me habia duchado Before going to work, | had taken a shower

**[03:08:36]** shower and as you can see the construction of a doesn't separate

> **[on-screen 03:08:38]**
> The Past Perfect (negatives, reflexive verbs, DOPs & IOPs) Antes de ir al trabajo, me habia duchado Before going to work, | had taken a shower

**[03:08:39]** because the object pronoun of the reflexive verb is placed before for this construction and the same idea applies to every phrase that I've shown in the video and any phrase that you want to say personally however I don't recommend

> **[on-screen 03:08:50]**
> The Past Perfact (ne, flexive verbs, Ps) Antes deira io bia duchado Before goin rk, | ena shower

**[03:08:50]** using the past perfect with reflexive verbs because there are not that many sentences that you can make with them let alone useful sentences even though I don't like saying this quite often I recommend not using the past perfect when speaking Spanish conversationally because it's a lot easier to express your thoughts using the regular past tense or the imperfect even though I did not present many examples in the video I believe that the past perfect is a tense that's useful to know but but not that useful to utilize because there are not that many sentences that you can make in the first place but that of course depends on the context and just like I concluded in the previous videos I used to think of phrases like these in

> **[on-screen 03:09:23]**
> | had to study | had a dog | had eaten

**[03:09:23]** English when I was learning Spanish through English therefore I thought that if the word had is the same in English

> **[on-screen 03:09:27]**
> | had to study | had a dog | had eaten

**[03:09:28]** it must be the same in Spanish but literally Spanish has three tenses for

> **[on-screen 03:09:31]**
> | had to study (regular past/preterite) | had a dog (imperfect past) | had eaten (past perfect)

**[03:09:32]** these cases which completely changes the

> **[on-screen 03:09:33]**
> | had to study > Yo tuve que estudiar (regular past/preterite) | had a dog > Yo tenia un perro (imperfect past) | had eaten > Yo habia comido (past perfect)

**[03:09:33]** word and now you can hopefully understand why English is easier when it's compared to Spanish and it's the same process that I had to go through the future tense in Spanish indicates an
