Preterite Perfect Tense

The compound tenses are formed by taking the auxiliary verb “haber” and adding a past participle.

Therefore, the preterite perfect tense takes the preterit tense form of the verb “haber” and adds the past participle. Please note that this tense is rarely used in speech. It is sometimes still seen in literary works and writings.

Here is “haber” in the preterite tense:

	singular	plural
first person	hube	hubimos
second person	hubiste	hubisteis
third person	hubo	hubieron

Here is an example of “comer” conjugated in the preterit perfect tense. Note that the past participle of “comer” is comido.

yo hube comido
tú hubiste comido
él/ella/usted hubo comido
nosotros hubimos comido
vosotros hubisteis comido
ellos/ellas/ustedes hubieron comido