Irregular Spanish Past Participles
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Explanation
A past participle (participio) 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.
Exception alert!
The i in the past participles of verbs ending in -uir is not accented.
For example, the past participle of the verb fluir(to flow) is fluido, and the past participle of the verb destruir(to destroy) is destruido.
Irregular Past Participles
Common irregular past participles include those in the table below.
Many of the verbs in the table above can be used with prefixes to form other verbs with irregular past participles.
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.
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.
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Tense about tenses in Spanish? Never fear! Read more about other tenses in these articles:
