Past Perfect (Pluscuamperfecto) and Degrees of Comparison of Adjectives in Spanish

Miguel exagera

— Oh, no. Es la más bella ciudad de todas las que he visto.

— No, a ninguna.

Vocablos

Remember the expressions:

Grammar

1. Past Perfect (pretérito pluscuamperfecto)

Pretérito pluscuamperfecto in Spanish expresses a completed action in the past that occurred before another action that was also completed in the past. The time interval between one action and the other can be significant.

For example:

From the example above, we can see that both actions happened in the past and one action preceded the other. That is, first they decided to invite Miguel, and then someone knocked on the door.

The past perfect tense (pretérito pluscuamperfecto) is formed using the auxiliary verb haber in the past imperfect tense (pretérito imperfecto) and the past participle of the main verb (participio pasivo).

Participio pasivo is formed from the infinitive stem of the verb by adding the following endings:

buscar — buscado
comer —  comido
decidir — decidido

In English, this tense perfectly corresponds to the Past Perfect (had + past participle). Compare the three past tenses:

2. Degrees of Comparison of Adjectives

In Spanish, adjectives have three degrees of comparison (grados de comparación):

1. positive degree (grado positivo)
2. comparative degree (grado comparativo)
3. superlative degree (grado superlativo)

The comparative degree compares qualitatively equal objects and also indicates a greater or lesser value of the compared objects.

When comparing two qualitatively equal objects, the structure tan ... como (as ... as) is used, where tan goes before the adjective, and como goes after the adjective. For example:

Juan es tan alto como José.
Juan is as tall as Jose.

When comparing two qualitatively unequal objects, we use the adverb más (more) when one quality is higher than another, and menos (less) when one quality is lower than another.

To express a greater or lesser degree of quality, the following expressions are used:

For example:

The superlative degree in Spanish has two forms:

1. relative superlative (superlativo relativo)
2. absolute superlative (superlativo absoluto).

The relative superlative degree of adjectives is formed by adding the appropriate definite article to the comparative degree, for example:

Degrees of Comparison of Adjectives

Pedro es más alto que Miguel. Pedro is taller than Miguel.
(lit.: Pedro is more tall than Miguel)

Alvaro es más alto que Pedro. Alvaro is taller than Pedro.

Alvaro es el más alto. Alvaro is the tallest.

Notes:

1. If the definite article precedes a noun which itself is followed by an adjective in the superlative degree, then the article is not repeated before the words más or menos. For example:

The article is also not placed before más and menos if a possessive pronoun takes the place of the article before the noun. For example:

2. The adverb más (more) is always used with an accent mark to distinguish it from mas without an accent mark, which means but.

For example:

Exercises

I. Conjugate the verbs given below in pretérito pluscuamperfecto:

II. Conjugate the verbs invitar, decidir, ver in the given tenses:

III. Fill in the words: tan ... como, más, más ... que, el más ... etc.

IV. Put the verbs in brackets into the correct form of the preterite tense or pretérito pluscuamperfecto:

Cuando María (terminar) el trabajo, (ir) al cine con José. De camino al cine (recordar) que no (cerrar) las ventanas de su casa. Ellos (regresar) y (ver) que las (cerrar) . Antes de llegar a Madrid, Miguel (visitar) muchas ciudades francesas.

V. Translate into English:

Antes de llegar a Madrid Miguel había visitado muchas ciudades de España. Ya en Moscú conoció a españoles que habían llegado allí de Francia. Miguel había decidido visitar a España hace tiempo, pero no pudo hacerlo. Cuando vio el museo del Prado pensó en lo que había visto antes y el Prado le pareció el museo más grande de todos.

VI. Translate into Spanish:

We decided to go to the theater, but we remembered that we had promised Maria to visit her. We went to her house, but her mother told us she had already left. — Who is more beautiful, Maria or her mother? — Juana asked. — For me you are the most beautiful of all women. — Good, but answer the question. — Maria is more beautiful because she is younger. — Who is older, my mum or Maria’s mum? — I don’t know. The older one is grandpa. You are impossible to talk to. — Then, kiss me. — Why? — Because I love you. You have the blackest eyes that I have seen so far.