List of Spanish irregular participles explained

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

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

MasculineFeminine
Singular-o-a
Plural-os-as

Verbs with irregular participles

VerbParticipleMeaning
abrirabierto'open(ed)'
cubrircubierto'covered'
decirdicho'said'
escribirescrito'written'
-scribir1-scri(p)to2
hacerhecho'done, made'
-facer1-fecho
morirmuerto'died, dead'
ponerpuesto'put, placed'
pudrirpodrido'rotten'
romperroto'broken'
-solver1-suelto'solved'
vervisto'seen'
volvervuelto'(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

VerbRegular ParticipleIrregular ParticipleMeaning
elegirelegidoelecto'elected, selected'
freírfreídofrito'fried'
imprimirimprimidoimpreso'printed'
prenderprendidopreso'arrested'
proveerproveídoprovisto'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