Spanish · Chapter 34 · Lesson 8 · Grammar primer
Past participles as adjectives and absolute clauses
The participle stops being frozen and starts agreeing: una puerta cerrada, la comida hecha, and the compressed absolute clause terminada la reunion (once the meeting was over). Plus tengo hecha la cena.
The short version
Freeze it after haber, agree it everywhere else
Right after haber the past participle never moves: hemos escrito las cartas, whatever the object. Anywhere it describes a noun it is an adjective and must agree: una puerta cerrada, los libros escritos. The pair that catches everyone is he escrito tres cartas, frozen, against tengo escritas tres cartas, agreeing, because the participle now describes cartas.
Tengo escritas tres cartas.
A whole clause in two fronted words
Front a participle and its noun and you compress an entire subordinate clause: no conjunction, no extra verb. Hecho el trabajo, descanso. Dicho esto, empezamos. The participle agrees with the noun it heads, which is why it is terminada la reunión and not terminado. English needs 'once' or 'after' plus a verb to say the same thing.
Terminada la reunión, se fueron.
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