Pretérito Anterior and Adverbs in Spanish

Ya es tarde

— ¿Se acuerda Vd. de la fotografía que nos había mandado?
 — Sí.

— Hasta pronto.

Vocablos

Learn the expressions:

Grammar points

1. Pretérito Anterior

Pretérito Anterior is the other Past Perfect tense in Spanish, but we will not call it that way since it is used rarely and we already know the other tense from lesson 32.

Currently, Pretérito Anterior is pretty much only used in written texts to express a past fact that happened immediately before another that is linked to it, that also happened in the past. The following conjunctions usually accompany it:

For example:

Pretérito anterior is formed with the auxiliary verb haber in the simple past tense and the passive participle (participio pasivo) of the verb.

Note:

The verb divertirse to have fun, to have a good time is conjugated as the verb comenzar (group I of deviating verbs, compare with lesson 10).

The verb recoger to pick up; to collect, to gather belongs to regular verbs, but in order to keep the same sound from the stem, the consonant g before the vowel o changes into j.

2. Adverbs of Manner (adverbio de modo)

Adverbs of manner are formed from adjectives by adding the suffix -mente that joins feminine adjectives, for example:

If an adverb is formed from a long adjective, the nouns modo, manera way, manner can be used instead plus the adjective, for example:

instead of:

you can say:

3. Degrees of Comparison of Adverbs

Adverbs, as adjectives, have three degrees of comparison:

The comparison degree of equal (el comparativo de igualdad) adverbs, as adjectives, is expressed with the verb tan that goes before the adverb and como that goes after the adverb, for example:

The superior or the inferior degrees of comparison (el comparativo de superioridad о de inferioridad) of adverbs are formed with the help of más or menos that go before the adverb and the conjunction que that usually goes after the adverb, e.g.:

The superlative degree of adverbs is formed by adding the neutral article lo to the comparative degree of the adverb, for example:

This form of the superlative degree is usually used in a combination with the word posible that is translated in the meaning: as ... as possible, for example:

The superlative degree of adverbs can be formed without the conjunction que after the adverb, but only with más that goes before the adverb, for example:

The following adverbs have irregular forms of comparison:

Exercises

I. Conjugate the verbs according to the given information:

saludar

prometer

decidir

II. Substitute the infinitive verb with the correct form of Pretérito anterior:

Juana salió de casa y en seguida que comprar un periódico, regresó. Apenas salir de la casa, recordó que no había cerrado la puerta. Apenas cerrar la puerta oyó pasos, se volvió y vió a un hombre grandísimo. En seguida que lo ver abrió la puerta y entró temblorosa en casa.

III. Translate into English:

Miguel miraba las fotografías y no sabia que fotografía mandar a quien. Iba por la calle pensando en esto, cuando encontró a Juana y María. En seguida que las hubo visto se acercó y se las dió. Las muchachas le aconsejaron que fotografías debía mandar. En seguida que las hubo dejado, Miguel fué al correo.

IV. Translate into Spanish:

As soon as I had got up, I drank a cup of coffee. (While) drinking the coffee, I was thinking about Juana. As soon as I had thought about her, someone knocked at the door. Barely had I opened the door, (when) Juan and Juana came in and invited me to the theater. As soon as we had left the house, we met Pepe and Maria who were also going to my house. We all went to the theater talking on the way about my impressions of Madrid.