Narrative past system: pluperfect, past progressive, iba a

What it is

When you tell a story in Spanish, the preterite moves the plot forward and the imperfect paints the scene. Three more tools complete the system:

• the pluperfect (pretérito pluscuamperfecto: había salido) for something that happened before another moment in the past;
• estaba + gerund (estaba lloviendo) for an action in progress at a past moment;
• iba a + infinitive (iba a llamarte) for a plan seen from the past, often one that never happened.

Four everyday verbs also change meaning between the preterite and the imperfect: conocer, saber, querer and poder.

How to form it

The pluperfect is the imperfect of haber plus the past participle (-ado for -ar verbs, -ido for -er and -ir verbs). The participle never changes its ending.

Learn the irregular participles as a set: hecho (hacer), dicho (decir), visto (ver), escrito (escribir), puesto (poner), vuelto (volver), abierto (abrir), roto (romper), muerto (morir).

The past progressive is estar in the imperfect plus the gerund (-ando, -iendo): estaba trabajando, estábamos comiendo, estaban durmiendo. Object pronouns go before estaba or on the end of the gerund, which then needs a written accent: me estaba duchando = estaba duchándome.

The past plan is ir in the imperfect + a + infinitive: iba a salir, íbamos a cenar.

When to use it

Something earlier than the story's past. Spanish marks the order, often with ya (already) or nunca (never):

• Cuando llegamos al cine, la película ya había empezado.When we got to the cinema, the film had already started.the film started first
• Nunca había visto un atardecer así.I had never seen a sunset like that.experience up to that moment
• Me contó que había perdido las llaves.She told me she had lost her keys.an earlier event, reported

An action in progress, often interrupted. Estaba + gerund zooms in on what was happening at that moment, and a preterite usually cuts in: Estaba duchándome cuando sonó el teléfono. The plain imperfect (me duchaba) is also correct; the progressive simply stresses "right then".

A plan from the past. Iba a is the past of voy a. In conversation it's the natural way to explain a change of plan: Iba a llamarte, pero me quedé sin batería.

Verbs that change meaning. In the preterite these verbs name an event; in the imperfect, a state:

All together. A typical anecdote mixes all four past forms: Era tarde y estaba lloviendo. Iba a tomar un taxi, pero ya había gastado todo mi dinero, así que caminé a casa. (It was late and it was raining. I was going to take a taxi, but I had already spent all my money, so I walked home.)

Contrasts and traps

• Pluperfect or preterite? When events are told in order, the preterite is enough: Llegué, me senté y pedí un café. Use the pluperfect when you look back from a past moment: Cuando llegué, el tren ya había salido, not ya salió.
• estaba or estuve + gerund? Estaba + gerund is open background. Estuve + gerund wraps up a whole, finished period: Estuve trabajando toda la tarde. For an interrupted action, always use estaba.
• Keep the a: iba a salir, never iba salir.
• Only haber: compound tenses never use tener: habían salido, not tenían salido.
• Irregular participles: había hecho, había escrito, había vuelto, never hacido, escribido, volvido.

If you also speak Portuguese

Brazilian tinha + particípio (o trem já tinha saído) is exactly the Spanish pluperfect, but Spanish uses only haber: el tren ya había salido. Eu ia sair becomes iba a salir, with the a, and eu estava fazendo maps neatly onto estaba haciendo.