The Past Participle That Agrees

You first meet the Spanish past participle chained to haber, where it never moves: he cerrado, hemos escrito, han hecho. That is the perfect tense, and there the participle is frozen - it does not care about gender or number. But the same word has a whole second life as an adjective, and there it agrees exactly like any other: una puerta cerrada (a closed door), los libros escritos (the written books), estoy cansada (I'm tired). Learn to tell the two apart and half the grammar looks after itself.

Invariable in the perfect, agreeing everywhere else

The rule is refreshingly clean. Right after haber, freeze the participle:

He cerrado la puerta. (I've closed the door.)
Hemos cerrado las puertas. (We've closed the doors.) - cerrado still, whatever the object.

Anywhere the participle is describing a noun, agree it in gender and number:

una puerta cerrada (a closed door) - feminine singular.
los libros escritos (the written books) - masculine plural.
la comida hecha (the food, made) - feminine singular.

The test is simple: haber in front? Freeze it. Describing a thing? Agree it.

After estar, quedar, tener and llevar

Four common verbs take an agreeing participle, each with its own flavour.

Estar gives a resulting state:

La tienda está cerrada. (The shop is closed.)
Las ventanas están abiertas. (The windows are open.)

Quedar stresses how it ended up:

El problema quedó resuelto. (The problem ended up resolved.)

Tener counts finished results, and the participle agrees with the object:

Tengo hecha la cena. (I've got dinner done.)
Tengo escritas tres cartas. (I've got three letters written.)

Llevar tallies a running total so far:

Llevo escritas tres cartas. (I've written three letters so far.)

Notice the contrast that catches everyone out: he escrito tres cartas (frozen, with haber) but tengo escritas tres cartas and llevo escritas tres cartas (agreeing, because the participle now describes cartas).

Absolute clauses: a whole clause in two words

Here is where the agreeing participle earns its keep. Front a participle + noun at the head of a sentence and you compress an entire subordinate clause - no conjunction, no extra verb:

Terminada la reunión, se fueron. (Once the meeting was over, they left.)
Hecho el trabajo, descanso. (The work done, I rest.)
Una vez resuelto el problema, celebramos. (Once the problem was solved, we celebrated.)
Dicho esto, empezamos. (That said, we begin.)

The participle agrees with its noun - terminada with la reunión, resuelto with el problema - and the whole phrase carries a strong "after this had happened" sense. English needs "once", "after" or "with" plus a verb; Spanish just fronts the participle and trusts you to fill in the rest. Dicho esto and dicho lo cual are set phrases worth banking whole.

The irregular participles you will reuse

A cluster of irregulars turn up constantly as adjectives and in absolute clauses. Memorise them as a block:

Verb	Participle	Meaning	As adjective
abrir	abierto	open	una ventana abierta
romper	roto	broken	los platos rotos
morir	muerto	dead	las hojas muertas
volver	vuelto	returned	el dinero vuelto
poner	puesto	put / set	la mesa puesta
resolver	resuelto	resolved	el caso resuelto
cubrir	cubierto	covered	la montaña cubierta
escribir	escrito	written	las cartas escritas
ver	visto	seen	una cara vista
decir	dicho	said	lo dicho
hacer	hecho	done / made	la tarea hecha

Every one of these agrees when it acts as an adjective: una ventana abierta, los platos rotos, la mesa puesta. Only the perfect tense keeps them frozen.

Common mistakes English speakers make

Agreeing the perfect-tense participle. After haber it never changes: hemos escrito las cartas, never "hemos escritas". The agreement belongs to the adjective, not the perfect.

Freezing the adjective. The mirror mistake: la puerta está cerrado should be cerrada. If it describes a noun, it must match it.

Forgetting agreement in absolute clauses. Terminado la reunión is wrong - reunión is feminine, so it is terminada la reunión. The participle always agrees with the noun it heads.

Confusing tener/llevar with haber. He escrito tres cartas (frozen) but llevo escritas tres cartas (agreeing). The moment the participle stops leaning on haber, it starts agreeing again.

Freeze it after haber; agree it everywhere else. That one split unlocks the adjective, the resulting-state constructions, and the neat absolute clause that lets Spanish say in two words what English drags out in six.

The perfect tense with haber - where the participle stays frozen, the mirror image of this page.
Ser and estar - estar + participle for resulting states leans on the estar half of this pair.
Adjective agreement - the gender and number rules the adjectival participle borrows wholesale.
The Spanish grammar cheatsheet has the participle-as-adjective and absolute-clause patterns on one card.

Practise: test yourself

Fill in the blank

0/8

Put the participle in brackets into its adjectival form, agreeing in gender and number with the noun it describes.

una puerta (cerrar) (cerrar - feminine singular)
los libros (escribir) (escribir is irregular - masculine plural)
Estoy muy . (cansar, said by a woman) (cansar - feminine singular)
La comida ya está . (hacer) (hacer is irregular - feminine singular)
la reunión, se fueron. (terminar) (terminar - agrees with la reunión)
Tengo tres cartas. (escribir) (agrees with the object tres cartas)
Las ventanas están . (abrir) (abrir is irregular - feminine plural)
Una vez el problema, celebramos. (resolver) (resolver is irregular - agrees with el problema)

Pick the right one

0/6

Choose the correct form: the perfect tense after haber stays frozen, but the adjectival or absolute participle must agree.

He la puerta. (cerrar)
La puerta está .
el trabajo, descanso.
Llevo tres cartas.
Hemos mucho hoy.
Los platos están . (romper)

Frequently asked questions

When does the Spanish past participle agree, and when is it invariable?

It is invariable in one place only: the perfect tenses, glued to haber. He cerrado la puerta, hemos cerrado las puertas - cerrado never changes, whatever the object's gender or number. Everywhere else the participle behaves like an adjective and agrees in gender and number with the noun it describes: una puerta cerrada, unos libros escritos, la comida hecha, estoy cansada. The quick test: if haber sits right before it, freeze it; if it is describing a noun, sitting after estar, quedar, tener, llevar, or standing at the head of an absolute clause, agree it. Getting this split right is most of the battle.

What is an absolute participial clause in Spanish?

It is a participle plus a noun, fronted to the start of a sentence, that compresses a 'once X was done' or 'with X finished' clause without any conjunction or verb of its own. Terminada la reunión, se fueron: 'once the meeting was over, they left'. Hecho el trabajo, descanso: 'the work done, I rest'. The participle agrees with the noun (terminada with reunión, feminine singular). It usually means the action was completed just before the main clause, so it carries a strong 'after this had happened' sense. Common set openers include una vez resuelto el problema (once the problem was solved) and dicho esto (having said this / that said).

How do estar, quedar, tener and llevar change the participle?

All four take an agreeing participle, but with different flavours. Estar + participle describes a resulting state: la tienda está cerrada (the shop is closed). Quedar is similar but stresses how something ended up: quedó resuelto (it ended up resolved). Tener + participle counts finished results, and the participle agrees with the object: tengo hecha la cena (I've got dinner done), tengo escritas tres cartas (I've got three letters written). Llevar + participle tallies a running total: llevo escritas tres cartas (I've written three letters so far). In every one of these the participle agrees; only haber leaves it frozen.

Which irregular participles show up most as adjectives?

The high-frequency irregulars are worth memorising as a block because they reappear constantly as adjectives and in absolute clauses: abierto (open, from abrir), roto (broken, romper), muerto (dead, morir), vuelto (returned, volver), puesto (put/set, poner), resuelto (resolved, resolver), cubierto (covered, cubrir), escrito (written, escribir), visto (seen, ver), dicho (said, decir), and hecho (done/made, hacer). They agree like any adjective: una ventana abierta, los platos rotos, la mesa puesta. A few verbs even have two participles - one regular for the perfect, one irregular for the adjective, as with freír (he freído / patatas fritas).