Irregular Past Participles in Spanish

In Brief

Most Spanish past participles end in -ado or -ido, but several everyday verbs use irregular forms: hacer → hecho, decir → dicho, escribir → escrito, and ver → visto, among others. Use these forms after haber in compound tenses: He hecho los deberes (“I have done the homework”). After haber, the participle never changes; when used as an adjective, it agrees with the noun: la puerta está abierta (“the door is open”).

Overview

A past participle is a verb form used to build compound tenses or to describe the result of an action. English examples include “done,” “written,” and “broken.” Spanish usually forms this word predictably: remove -ar and add -ado (hablar → hablado), or remove -er/-ir and add -ido (comer → comido, vivir → vivido).

At A2, participles are especially important for the pretérito perfecto (the Spanish present perfect): a form of haber, the helping or auxiliary verb, followed by a participle. That gives forms such as he visto (“I have seen”), ha dicho (“he/she has said”), and hemos vuelto (“we have returned”). The verbs in this article do not follow the normal -ado/-ido rule, so their forms must be learned.

English also has irregular pairs such as “write/written” and “break/broken,” so the basic idea is familiar. The individual Spanish forms, however, cannot be guessed safely from English. Learn the most frequent nine as complete pairs, then use their shared endings to recognize related verbs.

How It Works

The beginner rule: haber + one fixed form

The present perfect uses the present tense of haber plus a past participle:

Subject	Haber	Example with hacer	Meaning
yo	he	he hecho	I have done/made
tú	has	has hecho	you have done/made
él, ella, usted	ha	ha hecho	he/she has, you have done/made
nosotros/as	hemos	hemos hecho	we have done/made
vosotros/as	habéis	habéis hecho	you all have done/made
ellos, ellas, ustedes	han	han hecho	they/you all have done/made

Only haber changes. The participle remains hecho for every subject. It does not agree with a person or with an object:

• María ha escrito dos cartas. — María has written two letters.
• María las ha escrito. — María has written them.
• Not: María ha escritas dos cartas.

The nine core irregular forms

Infinitive	Irregular participle	Basic meaning
abrir	abierto	opened/open
decir	dicho	said/told
escribir	escrito	written
hacer	hecho	done/made
morir	muerto	died/dead
poner	puesto	put/placed
romper	roto	broken
ver	visto	seen
volver	vuelto	returned/turned back

These are participles, not conjugated past-tense forms. For example, hice means “I did” in the preterite, while hecho is the participle used in he hecho. Likewise, dijo (“he/she said”) and dicho (“said” after an auxiliary, or used descriptively) have different jobs.

Related verbs often keep the irregular base

Many verbs made by adding a prefix to one of the core verbs preserve its irregular participle. This gives useful families rather than a long list of unrelated words.

Family	Infinitive	Participle	Example meaning
poner	componer	compuesto	composed
poner	proponer	propuesto	proposed
poner	suponer	supuesto	supposed/assumed
volver	devolver	devuelto	returned/given back
volver	resolver	resuelto	resolved/solved
escribir	describir	descrito	described
escribir	inscribir	inscrito	registered/inscribed
abrir	descubrir	descubierto	discovered/uncovered
decir	contradecir	contradicho	contradicted
ver	prever	previsto	foreseen

Treat this as a strong pattern, not a license to invent forms. For example, bendecir normally has bendecido in compound tenses, not an automatically formed bendicho.

Participles used as adjectives

A participle can also work as an adjective (a describing word). In that use, it agrees with the noun (the person, place, thing, or idea being described) in gender and number:

Masculine singular	Feminine singular	Masculine plural	Feminine plural
abierto	abierta	abiertos	abiertas
roto	rota	rotos	rotas
puesto	puesta	puestos	puestas

Compare the two jobs:

• Hemos abierto las ventanas. — We have opened the windows. (haber + fixed participle)
• Las ventanas están abiertas. — The windows are open. (adjective agreeing with ventanas)

This contrast is one of the most useful rules to remember: after haber, no agreement; as an adjective, agreement.

Examples in Context

Spanish	English	Note
He hecho los deberes.	I’ve done the homework.	hacer → hecho
Ha escrito una carta.	He/She has written a letter.	escribir → escrito
Hemos visto la película.	We’ve seen the film.	ver → visto
Han dicho la verdad.	They’ve told the truth.	decir → dicho
¿Has puesto la mesa?	Have you set the table?	Common expression with poner
Todavía no han vuelto a casa.	They haven’t returned home yet.	volver → vuelto
Alguien ha abierto la ventana.	Someone has opened the window.	Fixed form after ha
El vaso se ha roto.	The glass has broken.	Pronominal romperse
Muchos animales han muerto.	Many animals have died.	No agreement after han
Te he devuelto las llaves.	I’ve returned the keys to you.	Compound of volver
La puerta está abierta.	The door is open.	Adjective; feminine singular
Los problemas están resueltos.	The problems are solved.	Adjective; masculine plural
La novela fue escrita en 1985.	The novel was written in 1985.	Passive; agrees with novela
No estaba previsto ese cambio.	That change had not been anticipated.	Adjectival/passive result

Common Mistakes

Building a regular form from an irregular verb

• Wrong: He hacido la cena.
• Right: He hecho la cena.
• Why: Hacer has the irregular participle hecho, not hacido. Learn the infinitive and participle together.

Making the participle agree after haber

• Wrong: Hemos escritas tres páginas.
• Right: Hemos escrito tres páginas.
• Why: In a compound tense, the participle after haber is invariable. The feminine plural object tres páginas does not change escrito.

Forgetting agreement when the participle is an adjective

• Wrong: Las tiendas están abierto.
• Right: Las tiendas están abiertas.
• Why: Here abiertas describes las tiendas. It is an adjective, so it must be feminine plural.

Confusing a participle with a preterite form

• Wrong: Ayer he hice la compra.
• Right: Ayer hice la compra. / Hoy he hecho la compra.
• Why: Hice is already a conjugated preterite form; hecho is used after haber. Do not combine he and hice.

Using tener as the normal perfect auxiliary

• Wrong: Tengo visto esa película for ordinary “I have seen that film.”
• Right: He visto esa película.
• Why: English “have” can suggest tener, but Spanish compound tenses use haber. Tener + participle exists in more advanced resultative uses, but it is not the standard present perfect.

Overgeneralizing a verb family

• Wrong: Han bendicho la iglesia.
• Right: Han bendecido la iglesia.
• Why: Prefix families are helpful, but not universal. Confirm unfamiliar participles rather than creating them by analogy.

Usage Notes

The participle itself is the same throughout the Spanish-speaking world, but use of the pretérito perfecto varies. In much of Spain, Hoy he visto a Ana is common for a recent event within a time period seen as unfinished. In many parts of Latin America, speakers may prefer the preterite: Hoy vi a Ana. This regional choice does not change visto or the rules for participles.

Several irregular participles are also extremely common as ordinary adjectives: una puerta abierta (“an open door”), un vaso roto (“a broken glass”), un hombre muerto (“a dead man”), and un problema resuelto (“a solved problem”). In English, the translation may use either a participle or a plain adjective; in Spanish, agreement still applies.

Accent marks matter in regular forms such as leído and oído, but the core irregular forms in this article do not carry written accents. Do not add one by analogy: hecho, dicho, visto, and puesto are the complete spellings.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master every detail below at A2, but these patterns explain forms you will encounter later.

Passive voice and result states

With ser, a participle can form the passive voice, where the subject receives the action: La carta fue escrita por Lucía (“The letter was written by Lucía”). With estar, the same participle often describes the resulting state: La carta ya está escrita (“The letter is already written”). In both constructions, the participle agrees with the subject.

• Los documentos fueron escritos en español. — The documents were written in Spanish.
• Las puertas están abiertas. — The doors are open.

The distinction is not always identical to English wording, but the agreement rule remains dependable.

Verbs with two accepted participles

A small group of verbs has both a regular and an irregular participle. Modern standard Spanish accepts both forms in compound tenses for verbs such as:

Infinitive	Regular participle	Irregular participle
freír	freído	frito
imprimir	imprimido	impreso
proveer	proveído	provisto

Thus both he imprimido el informe and he impreso el informe are grammatical, although preference and frequency vary. The irregular forms are especially familiar as adjectives: patatas fritas, un documento impreso. This does not mean every irregular verb has a second regular option: forms such as hacido, rompido, and volvido are not standard alternatives to hecho, roto, and vuelto.

Participle phrases

In more formal writing, a participle can introduce a shortened phrase: Terminada la reunión, todos se fueron (“Once the meeting had ended, everyone left”). The participle agrees with its noun: terminada matches la reunión. This compact pattern is useful for reading, but beginners can express the same idea with a full clause: Cuando terminó la reunión...

Practice Tips

1. Learn pairs, not isolated words. Make nine cards with hacer—hecho, decir—dicho, and so on. Say a short perfect-tense sentence for each one rather than reciting only the forms.
2. Run an agreement test. For every example, ask whether the participle follows haber. If yes, keep it fixed. If it describes a noun, change -o to -a, -os, or -as as needed.
3. Build family clusters. Once puesto feels automatic, add propuesto, compuesto, and supuesto. Keep exceptions such as bendecido on a separate “do not overgeneralize” list.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Present Perfect — introduces the haber + past participle structure in which these forms are most often learned.