Spanish past participles as adjectives

Participles as adjectives in Spanish

In Spanish the past participle form of a verb [-ado/-ido form] is not only used with the verb haber to form compound tenses, e.g. El Pretérito Perfecto or El Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto, but they can also act as adjectives.

Have a look at the following examples:

Notice how we are using the same past participle of the verb "obsesionar" but in each sentence it agrees with the specific subject. (Carlos, obsesionado; Andrea, obsesionada; Hijos, obsesionados; Hijas, obsesionadas.)

It is very common to see these adjectives following the verb estar, as shown above, but they can also accompany the noun they are directly modifying.

For example:

Remember that there are irregular past participles (e.g cubierto, dicho, hecho, etc) which don't have the regular endings (-ado/ido).

See Irregular past participles in Spanish and Spanish irregular past participles ending in -to/-cho.

Important note:

There are common phrases in English where the gerund (-ing form) is used while in Spanish the past participle is used (-ado/-ido). For example: