Grammar

ANTE TODO

The past perfect indicative (el pretérito pluscuamperfecto de indicativo) is used to talk about what someone had done or what had occurred before another past action, event, or state.

Like the present perfect, the past perfect uses a form of haber—in this case, the imperfect—plus the past participle.

SINGULAR FORMS
PLURAL FORMS
For example:

Antes de 2003, había vivido en La Paz.
Before 2003, I had lived in La Paz.

Cuando llegamos, Luis ya había salido.
When we arrived, Luis had already left.

The past perfect is often used with the word ya (already) to indicate that an action, event, or state had already occurred before another.

Remember that, unlike its English equivalent, ya cannot be placed between haber and the past participle.

Ella ya había salido cuando llamaron.
She had already left when they called.

Cuando llegué, Raúl ya se había acostado.
When I arrived, Raúl had already gone to bed.

¡ATENCIÓN!

The past perfect is often used in conjunction with antes de + [noun] or antes de + [infinitive] to describe when the action(s) occurred.

Antes de este año, nunca había estudiado español.
Before this year, I had never studied Spanish.

Luis me había llamado antes de venir.
Luis had called me before he came.

¡INTÉNTALO! Indica el pretérito pluscuamperfecto de indicativo de cada verbo.

1. Nosotros ya (cenar) _______ cuando nos llamaron.
2. Antes de tomar esta clase, yo no _______ (estudiar) nunca el español.
3. Antes de ir a México, ellos nunca _______ (ir) a otro país.
4. Eduardo nunca _______ (entrenarse) tanto en invierno.
5. Tú siempre _______ (llevar) una vida sana antes del año pasado.
6. Antes de conocerte, yo ya te _______ (ver) muchas veces.