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Learn abordar conjugation in Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto step by step with detailed explanations

Image of abordar conjugation in Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto
abordar means: to address, to approach, to board, to collide, to tackle

In this lesson we are going to learn how to conjugate the verb abordar in the Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto tense of the Indicativo mood. It means we will see step by step how to get the following conjugation:

yohabía abordadoI had addressed
habías abordadoyou had addressed
él/ella/ustedhabía abordadohe/she/it had addressed
nosotros/nosotrashabíamos abordadowe had addressed
vosotros/vosotrashabíais abordadoyou had addressed
ellos/ellas/ustedeshabían abordadothey had addressed

How to translate Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto to English

Notice that the English phrases in the third column of the above conjugation table are not direct translations from Spanish to English. They are the closest equivalents. The example differences are:
  • In Spanish, there is the form usted in the third person singular. But this person does not translate to the English third person singular. It translates to the so called formal you and uses the inflected form which is most often represented as he/she/it in English conjugation charts.
  • Similar situation happens in the third person plural, where ustedes translates to the English plural formal you but uses the form which corresponds to the they form in English.

Step by step instructions

Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto is a compound tense (Spanish: compuesto). It means that all of its conjugated forms consist of two words. In Spanish language, there are also simple tenses, where each conjugated verb form is one word long.

In a compound tense the endings of the auxiliary verb change, not the endings of the main verb, which is the case in Spanish simple tenses.

In the compound tenses, every person’s form consist of two parts:
  • An inflected form of the auxiliary verb haber. In case of the Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto de Indicativo tense, we use the Pretérito Imperfecto de Indicativo (Imperfect) conjugation of haber
  • Past Participle, which is always the same in every compound tense for a given verb
Image of Compound
Image of abord arSee the conjugation charts and this haber conjugation lesson to learn how to conjugate the auxiliary verb haber. That’s a separate topic, so for brevity we will focus on the parts derived from abordar only here.

In order to create the Participio form, we need a stem and an ending. We use the stem of the infinitive of the main verb, and a single ending, which depends on the conjugation group of the main verb. So we start by splitting the infinitive into a stem and an ending. It’s very easy to do – just remove two letters from the end of the infinitive to get the ending – one of -ar, -er, -ir. What’s left is the stem.

So for abordar:
  • the stem is: abord-
  • and the ending is: -ar
Based on the ending of the infinitive we can recognize that abordar belongs to the -ar verb group. This group, in turn, uses the -ado ending in its Participio form. Putting all that together, our Participio is: abordado.

Now, as we understand how both parts used by this tense are created separately, let’s proceed with creating the final conjugation forms.
Image of -ado
Image of Conjugate haber in Pretérito Imperfecto ...In order to create the first person singular form, we simply take the first person singular form of haber conjugated in Pretérito Imperfecto de Indicativo, which is había. To that we add the Participio abordado to get había abordado:
  • yo había abordado


Next, to create the form for the second person singular, we again need to take the second person singular form of haber from the Pretérito Imperfecto de Indicativo tense, and it is habías. And to this auxiliary verb we add the Participio abordado (so the exact same word as previously) to get habías abordado:
  • tú habías abordado
Similarly, if we want to create the form for the third person singular, we conjugate haber in the Pretérito Imperfecto tense and we use the corresponding person’s form (third person singular), namely había. Then we also take the same Participio as for all other persons, and putting them together we get había abordado:
  • él había abordado
  • ella había abordado
  • usted había abordado


The first person plural has the form habíamos abordado. It’s created by following the same logic as in the other persons. We first take the form of the first person plural from haber conjugation in the Pretérito Imperfecto de Indicativo tense: habíamos. Second, and to this word we again add the Participio of abordar: abordado to get habíamos abordado:
  • nosotros habíamos abordado
  • nosotras habíamos abordado
Image of ... create a common Participle ...
Image of ... join them into a compound formAgain, let’s do the same for the second person plural. We need to get the inflected form of the verb haber in the Pretérito Imperfecto de Indicativo tense, second person plural, and it is habíais. Next, we take our unchanged Participio, we join them, and we get habíais abordado:
  • vosotros habíais abordado
  • vosotras habíais abordado


And finally, the last grammatical person on the list, the third person plural, has the form habían abordado. We create it in the exact same manner as in all the other grammatical persons. We need the third person plural of haber first, from its Pretérito Imperfecto conjugation. It is habían. We add the Participio of abordar again (abordado) to get habían abordado:
  • ellos habían abordado
  • ellas habían abordado
  • ustedes habían abordado

That’s it! The conjugation is now complete. But don’t end your session yet – it is very important to repeat and practice the material in order to retain it. Check below for next steps.

Next Steps

  • To practice this conjugation and test your skills check this Conjugation Exercise or the Memory Game
  • To see other conjugation lessons for this verb choose another tense:  
  • For exercises and examples related to abordar visit our Exercise section
  • To see conjugation charts in all tenses for abordar visit the Conjugator
  • To explore other learning materials visit the Study section


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