Double past participles

Double past participles

In Portuguese, some verbs have two past participles: a regular form ending in -ado or -ido, and a shorter irregular form.

Choosing which one to use depends on the auxiliary (helping) verb:

• Use the regular form with ter (and haver) for active actions (e.g., someone had cleaned).
• Use the irregular form with ser and estar for passive actions or to describe states (e.g., the canvas is clean). Because irregular forms act like adjectives here, they must agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.

Limpar (limpado vs. limpo)

For limpar (to clean), use the regular limpado with ter to show who performed the action, and the irregular limpo (which becomes limpas here to match telas) with estar to describe the resulting state.

Aceitar (aceitado vs. aceite)

For aceitar (to accept), use the regular aceitado with ter, and the irregular aceite with ser for the passive voice (when the subject receives the action).

Imprimir (imprimido vs. impresso)

For imprimir (to print), use imprimido with ter, but switch to the irregular impresso when describing the resulting state with estar.

Entregar (entregado vs. entregue)

Finally, entregar (to deliver) follows the same pattern: regular entregado for active tenses and irregular entregue for the passive voice.