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List of Spanish irregular participles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the Spanish language there are some verbs with irregular past participles. There are also verbs with both regular and irregular participles, in which the irregular form is most used as an adjective, while the regular form tends to appear after haber to form compound perfect tenses.

Agreement

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When a participle is used as adjective, it must agree in gender and number with the noun modified:

Masculine Feminine
Singular -o -a
Plural -os -as

Verbs with irregular participles

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Verb Participle Meaning
abrir abierto 'open(ed)'
cubrir cubierto 'covered'
decir dicho 'said'
escribir escrito 'written'
-scribir1 -scri(p)to2
hacer hecho 'done, made'
-facer1 -fecho
morir muerto 'died, dead'
poner puesto 'put, placed'
pudrir podrido 'rotten'
romper roto 'broken'
-solver1 -suelto 'solved'
ver visto 'seen'
volver vuelto '(re)turned'

1The roots -scribir, -facer, and -solver appear only in prefixed forms, e.g. inscribir, satisfacer, absolver (although a verb solver was attested). The adjective suelto means 'loose, free'. 2The variant -scripto is used in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

Verbs derived from the stems in the table above have participles similar to those of their "parent" verbs — e.g. devolverdevuelto, componercompuesto. Note, however, that this pattern is not followed by corromper, whose participle is regular (corrompido), nor by bendecir and maldecir (bendecido and maldecido; the forms bendito and maldito are nowadays only used as adjectives or nouns, maldicho persists in Judeo-Spanish).

Verbs with regular and irregular participles

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Verb Regular Participle Irregular Participle Meaning
elegir elegido electo 'elected, selected'
freír freído frito 'fried'
imprimir imprimido impreso 'printed'
prender prendido preso 'arrested'
proveer proveído provisto 'supplied'

A number of former irregular participles, such as confuso ('confused', from confundir), poseso ('possessed', from poseer), and suspenso ('suspended, hung', from suspender), are nowadays used solely as adjectives, not as participles, and are therefore no longer considered as such.

See also

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