Past Perfect in Spanish. Degrees of Comparison of Adjectives

Miguel exagera

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

— No, a ninguna.

Vocablos

Learn the expressions:

Grammar points

1. Past Perfect (Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto)

Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto is Past Perfect in Spanish. It expresses a completed action that occurred before another action in the past.

For example:

Pretérito pluscuamperfecto is formed with the verb haber in Pretérito imperfecto and the past participle of the verb.

Participio pasivo is formed of the infinitive form of the verb and the following endings:

buscar — buscado
comer —  comido
decidir — decidido

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 greater or lesser value of compared objects.

Comparing two qualitatively equal objects, the adverb 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.

Comparing two qualitatively not equal objects, the adverb más (more) is used when one quality is higher than another and menos (less) when one quality is lower than another.

For example:

The superlative degree has two forms in Spanish:

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

The relative superlative degree of adjectives is formed by adding the correct 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.: more tall)

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

Alvaro es el más alto. Alvaro is the tallest. (lit.: the most tall)

Note:

The adverb más more is always used with the accent mark, unlike mas that 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 vió 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/It is not possible to talk with you. — Then, kiss me. — Why? — Because I love you. You have the blackest eyes that I have seen so far (until now).