The Spanish perfect infinitive indicates an action that occurred before the action of the main verb, but only when the subject of both verbs is the same. The perfect infinitive sounds awkward in English - we usually change it to another tense or reword the sentence completely, as you can see in the following examples:

The Spanish perfect infinitive is a compound tense formed with the infinitive of the auxiliary verb haber plus the past participle of the main verb. 

Since the infinitive auxiliary verb is unconjugated, the past infinitive is the same for all subjects. In addition, the past participle is invariable.

A. To modify the verb in the main clause:

B. To modify the adjective in the main clause:

C. With the preposition después (after):

D. When expressing gratitude:

 
Notes on word order

Unlike other compound tenses, object pronouns used with the perfect infinitive are attached to the end of the auxiliary - learn more.

Spanish Verbs

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