haber hubieras hubierais hubiera hubieran

14. PLUSCUAMPERFECTO DE SUBJUNTIVO
(Pluperfect or Past Perfect Subjunctive)
haber
hubiera hubiéramos
hubieras hubierais
hubiera hubieran
-ar verbs
- ado
-er verbs
– ido
-ir verbs
– ido
For all verbs use the imperfect subjunctive of the helping (auxiliary) verb haber. Then take the
main verb, drop the –ar, -er, -ir ending and add the above endings.
1. Dudaba que hubieras patinado mucho. I doubted you had skated much.
2. Era triste que no hubieras comido.
It was sad you hadn’t eaten.
3. No había nadie que hubiera vivido en There was nobody that had lived in
Argentina más de 100 años.
Argentina for more than 100.
Some of the irregulars in this tense are below:
abrir-abierto, cubrir-cubierto, decir-dicho, escribir-escrito, freír-frito, hacer-hecho,
morir-muerto, poner-puesto, resolver-resuelto, romper-roto, ver-visto, volver-vuelto
A. The past perfect subjunctive is used when conditions for use of the subjunctive are met
and a past action takes place before a prior point in time. If the verb in the main clause is
in the past tense (preterit, imperfect, past perfect) the conditional or the conditional
perfect, then you use this tense in the dependent clause.
1. Sentí mucho que no hubiera venido.
I was very sorry that she had not come.
2. No creía que María hubiera llegado.
I did not believe that Mary had arrived.
3. Cuando visitamos a Panamá hace
When we visited Panama a few years ago,
unos años, todos se quejaban de que
everyone was complaining that the
el gobierno no hubiera podido
government had not been able to curb
controlar la inflación.
inflation.
4. Si hubieras ganado un millón de
If you had won a million dollars, you would
dólares, habrías comprado un Ferrari
have bought a red Ferrari.
rojo.
*Note: In a si-clause you would use the pluperfect subjunctive in the dependent
clause if the main clause used the conditional perfect.