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Past participles
The past participle is used for two major purposes in Spanish: as an adjective, to describe things; and as part of a verb tense, to tell what people have done, or what has happened. This last concept can be expanded to express what people had done, what they would have done, etc.
Most verbs, of course, are regular. The great majority of --ar verbs simply lose the --ar and add --ado to the end. Most --er verbs and --ir verbs lose the --er or --ir and add --ido to the end.
There are a few irregular participles. You will find them beneath the gold box on page 220 of your textbook.
Once you form the participle, one of the purposes you can use it for is to describe people, places, things, and ideas. Using the participle this way (as an adjective), you have to make the end agree with the thing you are describing. For example, if you are describing something feminine with recomendado, you have to change the final --o to an --a. You then end up with recomendada.
Also, remember that if you are using the participle (or any other adjective) to describe a plural noun, you must add an--s to the end: recomendados or recomendadas.
The other main use of the participle in Spanish is as part of a verb tense. Using the participle along with a conjugated form of the verb haber (see page 222 in your textbook) allows us to tell what has happened.
For example, if I have talked to my mother today, I can say: He hablado con my madre. If someone else, he or she, has talked to his or her mother, we can say Él or Ella ha hablado con su madre. To say "They have talked to their mother," we can say Ellos han hablado con su madre.
Later, on page 224 of
your textbook, we learn the past tense (imperfect) forms of haber.
At that point, we can tell what people had done already in the
past. For example, to say "He had already talked to his mother," we
can say Él había hablado ya con su madre. To say “I had already gone,” we say (Yo)
había ido ya.