Participio Spanish: Usage, Formation & Examples

The participles play different rolesJust like German and English, Spanish has participles. The participle can appear in two different forms: the Present Participle (present participle) and that Participle Pasado (Past participle). In German grammar, the Participle I is increasingly used because it can replace a relative clause. In Spanish, however, the present participio has little meaning. The Participio Pasado is used much more frequently. It is used together with the auxiliary verb have as a basis for some Spanish tenses, for example the Pretérito Perfecto, Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto or Futuro Perfecto.

Participio Presente – present participle in Spanish

That Present Participle you know in German by the name participle I. While the Partizip I is used particularly often in German grammar, the Participio Presente has hardly any meaning in Spanish. The most important participles have already proved to be independent nouns, adjectives or prepositions established. In the course of time, the present participle has completely lost its function as a verb no new forms of the present participle more formed.

Ayer vimos una película fascinating.

(Yesterday we saw a fascinating film.)

In English you know the present participle under the name present participle.

You can find out how this is formed and used in our article Participle Constructions.

Participio Presente in Spanish – Education

New forms of Present Participle are no longer formed today. However, if you keep the following rule of thumb in mind, you can see which nouns, adjectives or prepositions were originally formed as present participle forms. In this tabel you can see how the present participle is formed.

verbs on -arverbs on -heverbs on -irword stem + -anteword stem + -duckword stem + – ducktrobajantebebduckvivduck

As a rule of thumb, you can remember:

Present Participle (present participle) = word stem + -ante/-duck/-duck.

Participio Presente in Spanish – Usage

The present participio plays only one supporting role in Spanish grammar. Good news: You don’t have to memorize irregular forms in the present participle. Since this form is hardly used today, some have certain shapes enforced. You already know most of these participles because they are used as nouns, adjectives or prepositions. You can see some examples listed below.

Present participle as a noun

Some participles have already become firmly established as nouns in Spanish usage. Take a look at this table. Some nouns will probably sound familiar to you:

Verb in present participletranslationel/la asistenteassistant*inel/la cantantesinger*inel/la estudiantestudent*inel incidenteunfallel/la immigranteresident*inel/la oyentelistener*inel/la presidentepresident*inel solventesolventla VARIANTEEL/la vigilanteWächter*in

If you use a present participle as a noun, it looks like this:

El presidente va a dar un discurso por la Nochevieja.

(Of the president will give a speech on New Year’s Eve.)

Present participle as an adjective

In addition to nouns, there are also some adjectives that can be traced back to the present participle. In this table you can see some of them:

Verb in the present participletranslationbastantesufficientbrilllantebrightcompetentecompetentcorrientecommonimponenteimposinginteresanteinteressantinfluyenteinfluentialobedienteobedientprotestanteprotestantischsonrientesmiling

This example shows you how to use a present participle as an adjective.

El libro es interesting.

(The book is Interesting.)

Present participle as a preposition

In addition, some prepositions have developed from participles. Here are some examples:

Verb in present participleTranslation durante during mediant

Nevo durante dos semanas el año pasado.

(It’s two weeks last year long snowed.)

Participio Pasado – Past Participle in Spanish

You can say the participio pasado in German with the participle II and in English with the past participle to compare. In contrast to the present participle, the past participle plays one of the main roles in Spanish grammar. Not only do you need this construction to form some tenses in Spanish grammar, but you can also use the participio pasado as a adjective or for one participle construction use.

Terminado la película, nos fuimos al restaurante.

(After the film finished, we went to the restaurant.)

Participio Pasado in Spanish – Education

For the formation of the Participio Pasado you need the root of the word of the respective verb. To do this, you cut the ending of the infinitive, so to speak (-ar/-he/-ir) from the verb. The stem of hablar Is for example habl-. You now have to add a new ending to the stem of the wordto form the participio pasado. Which extension you need depends on the verb group from which the verb belongs.

For that you have to infinitive look at. Verbs that end in the infinitive -ar end (e.g. hablar), get the ending -ado. Verbs on -he (e.g. beber) or -ir (e.g. vivir) end, get -I do attached. In this table you can see how regular verbs form their participio pasado:

verbs on -arverbs on -heverbs on -irword stem + -adoword stem + -I doword stem + -I dotrobajadobebI dovivI do

Irregular verbs in the Participle Pasado

Even with the past participle, you are unfortunately not spared the irregular verbs. These verbs do not form their past participle from a combination of the verb stem and the endings -ado or -I do. The best way to learn these irregular verbs is to simply memorize them. This list shows you the most important participles:

VerbParticipio pasadoTranslationabrirabiertogeöffnetcubrircubierto(to-)covereddecirdichosaidescribirescritowrittenfreírfreído/freíto*frozenhacerhechomadeimprimirimprimido/impreso*printedmorirmuertodeadponerpuestoposedproponerpropuestoproposedresolverresueltodissolvedromperrotobrokenvervistoseenvolvervueltoreturned

* You can use some verbs both as a regular verb and as an irregular verb. If you, for example imprimido (regular) or impreso (irregularly) used depends on the specific region you are in. Basically, you can also simply decide on a shape.

Basically, the participio pasado is formed like this:

Participle Pasado (past participle) = word stem + -ado/-ido

Participio Pasado in Spanish – Usage

The participio pasado plays, so to speak, one of the main roles in Spanish grammar. Together with the auxiliary verb have is it responsible, among other things, for compound times to build. These include, for example, the Pretérito Perfecto, the Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto or the Futuro Perfecto.

If you want to learn more about the different tenses and their different uses, check out our article in Spanish tenses.

But that’s not all: You can also use the Participio Pasado as Adjective, conjunction or in forming one participle construction to use. But one after anonther:

Act 1: The past participle in its invariable form

When you use the participio pasado in its invariable form, it just means you use it Not to the sentence subject or to a object have to adjust. No matter what the subject of the sentence is, the participio pasado always remains the same.

As an invariable form, the Participio Pasado is primarily for the formation of compound tenses responsible. Together with the auxiliary verb have do you use the participio pasado to

Pretérito Perfecto, Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto, Futuro Perfecto, Condicional Compuesto, Perfecto de Subjuntivo, Pluscuamperfecto de Subjuntivo and Futuro Perfecto de Subjuntivo.

In its invariable form, you can also use the Participio Pasado as conjunction to use. Dado que («da ja», «provided that») or debido a («there», «because of») are examples of this.

Esta semana hey trabajado mucho.

(I worked a lot this week.)

Act 2: The past participle in its variable form

You can also use the participio pasado in its variable form. That means you add the participle to das sentence subject adjust If the subject is female, the participio pasado gets the ending -a. For plural forms there is -as (female) or -os (masculine).

In this form you can use the past participle as, for example adjective use, but you also use it to Passive tenses to build.

If you want to learn more about the passive, you’ve come to the right place with our article Passive Spanish.

Last but not least, you can also use Participle II to form participle constructions or shortened subordinate clauses. So the participio pasado is a correct one all-rounder. In this table you can see an example of how to use the past participle in its variable form:

Participio Pasado as …AdjectivePassiveParticiple ConstructionExampleLas ventanas estaban abiertas.La película fuera suspendida.Terminada la película, nos fuimos a casa. TranslationThe windows were closed.The film was interrupted.After the film finished we went home.

Participio Presente vs. Participio Pasado in Spanish

The Participio Presente and the Participio Pasado differ not only in their usebut they will also be different educated.While the present participle often only one guest appearance has, the Participio Pasado is one of the leading actors in Spanish grammar. But that doesn’t mean you can never use the present participio. In this table you can see when the participio presente has its big entrance and when the participio pasado has the main role:

ParticipleParticipio PresenteParticipio PasadoFormationVerb stem + -ante/-duck/– duckverb stem + -ado/-I douse

  • Hardly used today, only a few fixed forms
  • invariable form: compound tenses, certain conjunctions
  • These act as nouns (study)adjectives (important) or prepositions (durant).
  • variable form: passive constructions, adjectives, participle constructions

ExampleEl libro es interesting. El portal esta abierto.La puerta esta abierta.

Participio Spanish – The most important things

  • There are two participles in Spanish: Participio Presente and Participio Pasado.
  • Present Participle = Participle I = Present Participle
    • Formation: verb stem + -ante/-duck/duck,
    • Use: nowadays only as fixed nouns, adjectives or prepositions.
  • Participle Pasado = Participle II = Past Participle
    • Formation: verb stem + -ado/-I do,
    • Usage: invariable (compound tenses) and variable (adjectives, passive forms and participle constructions).