When investigating a mystery, you need to reconstruct a precise timeline. To talk about an event that had happened before another past action, you use the past perfect tense (el pretérito pluscuamperfecto).
To form the past perfect, combine the imperfect tense of the auxiliary verb haber (to have) with a past participle.
| Pronoun | Imperfect of haber |
|---|---|
| yo | había |
| tú | habías |
| él / ella / usted | había |
| nosotros / nosotras | habíamos |
| vosotros / vosotras | habíais |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | habían |
Just like in the present perfect tense, regular past participles end in -ado (for -ar verbs) or -ido (for -er and -ir verbs). The past participle never changes its ending to match the subject in this tense.
| When he arrived, the crime had already happened. | Cuando llegó, el crimen ya había ocurrido. |
| The inspector was investigating the crime when he discovered that the murderer had escaped. | El inspector investigaba el crimen cuando descubrió que el asesino había escapado. |
You will often see the past perfect paired with words like ya (already) or in negative sentences to establish the facts of a case before a discovery was made.
| The inspector had already interrogated the suspect. | El inspector ya había interrogado al sospechoso. |
| The suspect had not left any fingerprints there. | El sospechoso no había dejado ninguna huella allí. |
Watch out for irregular past participles you already know, such as puesto (from poner - to put) or visto (from ver - to see).
| The murderer had put the poison in the victim's coffee. | El asesino había puesto el veneno en el café de la víctima. |
| When I arrived, the police had already arrested him because he had no alibi. | Cuando llegué, la policía ya lo había arrestado porque no tenía coartada. |
