Compound Tenses: Complete Guide | Spanish (Latin America) Grammar

Spanish has a parallel series of compound tenses — one for each simple tense. Every compound tense is built the same way: a conjugated form of the auxiliary verb haber followed by the past participle of the main verb. Mastering the compound tenses therefore reduces to two things: knowing how to conjugate haber, and knowing how to form past participles.

This page is a single-location reference for every compound tense in the system, including the rare preterite perfect. For the simple tenses on which these are built, see Tenses Overview.

The Building Blocks

Haber as Auxiliary

Haber is the universal perfect auxiliary in Spanish. It is never replaced by ser or tener in this role, unlike French (avoir/être) or Italian (avere/essere). Every compound tense uses haber.

Person	Present	Imperfect	Preterite	Future	Conditional	Subjunctive	Imperfect subjunctive
yo	he	había	hube	habré	habría	haya	hubiera
tú	has	habías	hubiste	habrás	habrías	hayas	hubieras
él/ella/ud.	ha	había	hubo	habrá	habría	haya	hubiera
nosotros	hemos	habíamos	hubimos	habremos	habríamos	hayamos	hubiéramos
ellos/uds.	han	habían	hubieron	habrán	habrían	hayan	hubieran

See Auxiliary Verbs for the semantic details of haber.

The Past Participle

The past participle is formed by replacing the infinitive ending with -ado (for -ar verbs) or -ido (for -er and -ir verbs).

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

Irregular Participles

A small number of common verbs have irregular past participles. Memorize them — they appear in every compound tense.

Infinitive	Past participle	Meaning
abrir	abierto	opened
cubrir	cubierto	covered
descubrir	descubierto	discovered
decir	dicho	said
escribir	escrito	written
describir	descrito	described
hacer	hecho	done, made
deshacer	deshecho	undone
morir	muerto	died
poner	puesto	put
componer	compuesto	composed
resolver	resuelto	resolved
romper	roto	broken
ver	visto	seen
volver	vuelto	returned
devolver	devuelto	given back
ir	ido	gone
ser	sido	been

Some verbs have both a regular and an irregular participle (e.g., freír → freído / frito, imprimir → imprimido / impreso). In compound tenses the regular form is traditionally preferred, although usage varies.

For a deeper look, see Past Participle Formation and Irregular Participles.

Present Perfect — Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto

Present of haber + past participle. This tense expresses a past action whose effects or timeframe reach into the present, or a past action within a still-open time frame (today, this week, this year).

Person	Form
yo	he hablado
tú	has hablado
él/ella/ud.	ha hablado
nosotros	hemos hablado
ellos/uds.	han hablado

He terminado la tarea.

I have finished the homework.

Esta mañana hemos ido al mercado.

This morning we went to the market.

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In much of Latin America, the simple preterite (terminé la tarea) is often preferred to the present perfect where Peninsular Spanish would use he terminado. The present perfect is still fully correct, just less frequent in everyday speech.

See Present Perfect: Formation for usage details.

Pluperfect — Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto

Imperfect of haber + past participle. Expresses an action that happened before another past action — the Spanish equivalent of English had done.

Person	Form
yo	había comido
tú	habías comido
él/ella/ud.	había comido
nosotros	habíamos comido
ellos/uds.	habían comido

Cuando llegué, ya habían cenado.

When I arrived, they had already had dinner.

Nunca había visto algo así.

I had never seen anything like that.

Me dijo que había vivido en México tres años.

She told me she had lived in Mexico for three years.

See Pluperfect: Formation.

Preterite Perfect — Pretérito Anterior

Preterite of haber + past participle. This is the most literary and least frequent of the compound tenses. You will almost never produce it yourself, but you will see it in nineteenth-century novels and formal historiography. It expresses an action that happened immediately before another past action, introduced by expressions like apenas, cuando, en cuanto, no bien, tan pronto como.

Person	Form
yo	hube llegado
tú	hubiste llegado
él/ella/ud.	hubo llegado
nosotros	hubimos llegado
ellos/uds.	hubieron llegado

Apenas hubo salido el sol, partimos.

As soon as the sun had risen, we set off.

En cuanto hubieron terminado, se retiraron.

As soon as they had finished, they withdrew.

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In modern Spanish the preterite perfect has been replaced almost entirely by the simple preterite (Apenas salió el sol, partimos) or the pluperfect (En cuanto habían terminado, se retiraron). Recognize it; don't imitate it.

Future Perfect — Futuro Perfecto

Future of haber + past participle. Expresses an action that will be completed before a reference point in the future. It is also used to make a conjecture about the recent past.

Person	Form
yo	habré terminado
tú	habrás terminado
él/ella/ud.	habrá terminado
nosotros	habremos terminado
ellos/uds.	habrán terminado

Para el viernes habré terminado el informe.

By Friday I will have finished the report.

Cuando llegues, ya me habré ido.

When you arrive, I will have already left.

Habrá perdido el tren — nunca llega tarde.

He must have missed the train — he's never late.

The third example shows the conjectural use: the speaker is guessing about the present-past cause of a current situation.

Conditional Perfect — Condicional Perfecto

Conditional of haber + past participle. Expresses would have done — an action that would have occurred under some condition. It is the most common tense in the main clause of a past contrary-to-fact conditional.

Person	Form
yo	habría dicho
tú	habrías dicho
él/ella/ud.	habría dicho
nosotros	habríamos dicho
ellos/uds.	habrían dicho

Yo habría hecho lo mismo.

I would have done the same.

Si hubiera sabido, te habría llamado.

If I had known, I would have called you.

Habríamos llegado antes, pero hubo un accidente.

We would have arrived earlier, but there was an accident.

Notice in the second example how the conditional perfect pairs with the pluperfect subjunctive (hubiera sabido) to form a past contrary-to-fact conditional. This is one of the most important compound-tense patterns in the language.

Present Perfect Subjunctive — Pretérito Perfecto de Subjuntivo

Present subjunctive of haber + past participle. Used in subordinate clauses that require the subjunctive when the main verb expresses a reaction, evaluation, or doubt about a recently completed action.

Person	Form
yo	haya hablado
tú	hayas hablado
él/ella/ud.	haya hablado
nosotros	hayamos hablado
ellos/uds.	hayan hablado

Me alegra que hayas venido.

I'm glad you came.

Espero que no hayan tenido problemas.

I hope they haven't had problems.

Es posible que ya haya llegado.

It's possible that he has already arrived.

See Present Perfect Subjunctive.

Pluperfect Subjunctive — Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto de Subjuntivo

Imperfect subjunctive of haber + past participle. Used for past contrary-to-fact conditions and in subordinate clauses requiring the subjunctive when the main verb is in a past tense and refers to something anterior.

There are two sets of forms — hubiera and hubiese — completely interchangeable. The hubiera series is more common in Latin America.

Person	-ra form	-se form
yo	hubiera hablado	hubiese hablado
tú	hubieras hablado	hubieses hablado
él/ella/ud.	hubiera hablado	hubiese hablado
nosotros	hubiéramos hablado	hubiésemos hablado
ellos/uds.	hubieran hablado	hubiesen hablado

Si hubiera estudiado más, habría aprobado.

If I had studied more, I would have passed.

No creía que hubiera dicho eso.

I didn't believe she had said that.

Ojalá hubiéramos ido juntos.

I wish we had gone together.

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The pluperfect subjunctive is also used — especially in journalism — in place of the conditional perfect: Si lo hubiera sabido, lo hubiera dicho. This is fully accepted.

Word Order: Nothing Between Haber and the Participle

This is perhaps the most important formal rule of compound tenses, and the place where learners coming from English or French most often go wrong.

Nothing may come between haber and the past participle. No subject, no adverb, no object pronoun, no negation word — nothing.

Wrong	Right
*he siempre comido aquí	siempre he comido aquí
*han ellos llegado	han llegado ellos / ellos han llegado
*he lo visto	lo he visto
*no he lo visto	no lo he visto
*habría ya terminado	ya habría terminado

Siempre hemos vivido aquí.

We have always lived here.

Nunca lo he visto tan contento.

I have never seen him so happy.

¿Ya has comido?

Have you eaten yet?

Note how siempre, nunca, and ya all stand before haber, not between haber and the participle. In English the adverb often slots between have and done (I have always lived), but this is ungrammatical in Spanish.

Object and reflexive pronouns follow the same rule: they attach to haber or move to the front of the verb phrase, but never between the auxiliary and the participle.

Me he lavado las manos.

I have washed my hands.

No te he dicho todo todavía.

I haven't told you everything yet.

Participle Agreement: Not With Haber

Here is a surprisingly clean rule: the past participle never agrees with anything when it follows haber. It is always the masculine singular form.

Wrong	Right
*María ha hablada	María ha hablado
*Las cartas las he escritas	Las cartas las he escrito
*Los niños se han dormidos	Los niños se han dormido

This contrasts sharply with French (Marie a parlé / les lettres que j'ai écrites) and Italian (le lettere le ho scritte). Spanish does not agree.

However, the past participle does agree in two other constructions:

With ser in the true passive: Las cartas fueron *escritas por el presidente.*
As an adjective or with estar: Las ventanas están *abiertas.*

These are not compound tenses. The distinction is crucial.

Hemos escrito tres cartas.

We have written three letters.

Tres cartas fueron escritas.

Three letters were written.

Las cartas están escritas.

The letters are written.

Same verb, three different constructions. Only the first is a compound tense, and only the first has an invariant -o ending.

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The easy mnemonic: Spanish has one participle form after haber — always -o. Agreement happens only when the participle is functioning as an adjective (with ser passive or estar).

Summary Table of All Compound Tenses

Compound tense	Haber in…	Example (yo, hablar)
Present perfect	Present	he hablado
Pluperfect	Imperfect	había hablado
Preterite perfect	Preterite	hube hablado
Future perfect	Future	habré hablado
Conditional perfect	Conditional	habría hablado
Present perfect subjunctive	Present subjunctive	haya hablado
Pluperfect subjunctive	Imperfect subjunctive	hubiera hablado

There is no future perfect subjunctive in modern Spanish; the archaic hubiere hablado exists only in legal language.

Putting It All Together

Siempre he querido aprender italiano.

I have always wanted to learn Italian.

Cuando me llamaste, ya había salido.

When you called me, I had already left.

Para diciembre habremos terminado el proyecto.

By December we will have finished the project.

Habríamos ido, pero no teníamos tiempo.

We would have gone, but we didn't have time.

Dudo que hayan llegado a tiempo.

I doubt they arrived on time.

Si me lo hubieras dicho antes, habría hecho algo.

If you had told me earlier, I would have done something.

These six sentences use six of the seven compound tenses. Once you recognize the haber + participle pattern, the entire system unlocks at once.

Key Takeaways

Every compound tense = haber (in some tense/mood) + past participle.
The participle is formed with -ado or -ido; about twenty common verbs are irregular (abierto, dicho, escrito, hecho, puesto, roto, visto, vuelto, etc.).
The participle never agrees with anything when it follows haber. It is always -o.
Participle agreement occurs with ser passive and with estar as adjective — not in compound tenses.
Nothing comes between haber and the participle — adverbs, pronouns, and negations move to the front of the auxiliary.
The preterite perfect (hube hablado) is literary; use the preterite or pluperfect in its place.
The conditional perfect pairs with the pluperfect subjunctive in past contrary-to-fact conditions (Si hubiera sabido, habría venido).

For more on the individual tenses, see Present Perfect, Pluperfect, and Past Participle.