The past anterior: hubo terminado

The past anterior: hube hablado

The past anterior is haber in the preterite plus a participle. It marks an action finished just before another past action:

You meet it almost always after a time word meaning "as soon as" or "when": en cuanto, apenas, cuando, una vez que, tan pronto como:

• En cuanto hubo terminado, se marchó. - As soon as he/she had finished, he/she left.
• Apenas hubo salido el sol, se pusieron en camino. - Scarcely had the sun risen when they set off.
• Cuando hubieron cenado, salieron al jardín. - When they had had dinner, they went out into the garden.

Read it, do not write it

The past anterior belongs to literary prose and very formal writing. Everywhere else, the plain preterite does its job, and the time word already says "just before":

So recognise it in a novel as "had just done", and write the preterite yourself. Do not confuse hubo terminado with the everyday hubo meaning "there was": Hubo un accidente. (There was an accident.)

Mistakes English speakers make