The Spanish Preterite
We continue with our lessons on the past tenses in Spanish. Up to now we covered, how to form past participles, present perfect tense and past perfect tense. The subject of this lesson is one of the simple past tenses in Spanish. It is the “preterite”.
Preterite is one of the most difficult subjects of Spanish. Learning how to conjugate verbs with preterite can be quite challenging. There are rules depending on whether the verb is regular or irregular but there are also many exceptions.
Let us first review how to form the preterite with regular verbs first.
Regular Verbs
The preterite tense endings for regular verbs are as follows.
The regular –ar verbs end in the following endings for the corresponding subject pronouns:
-ar conjugations
(yo) -é
(tú) -aste
(él/ella, usted) -ó
(nosotros/-as) -amos
(vosotros/-as) -asteis
(ellos/-as, ustedes) -aron
For example, let us take an “-ar” verb, which is regular in preterite: cantar (to sing)
(yo) canté
(tú) cantaste
(él/ella, usted) cantó
(nosotros/-as) cantamos
(vosotros/-as) cantasteis
(ellos/-as, ustedes) cantaron
-er conjugations
The regular –er verbs end in the following endings for the corresponding subject pronouns:
(yo) -í
(tú) -iste
(él/ella, usted) -ió
(nosotros/-as) -imos
(vosotros/-as) -isteis
(ellos/-as, ustedes) –ieron
For example, let us take an “-er” verb, which is regular in preterite: comer (to eat)
(yo) comí
(tú) comiste
(él/ella, usted) comió
(nosotros/-as) comimos
(vosotros/-as) comisteis
(ellos/-as, ustedes) comieron
-ir conjugations
The regular –ir verbs end in the following endings for the corresponding subject pronouns:
(yo) -í
(tú) -iste
(él/ella, usted) -ió
(nosotros/-as) -imos
(vosotros/-as) -isteis
(ellos/-as, ustedes) -ieron
For example, let us take an “-ir” verb, which is regular in preterite: vivir (to live)
(yo) viví
(tú) viviste
(él/ella, usted) vivió
(nosotros/-as) vivimos
(vosotros/-as) vivisteis
(ellos/-as, ustedes) vivieron
Irregular Verbs
Spelling changing irregular verbs
Some verbs change their spelling in preterite. Some “ar” verbs are irregular only for the “yo” form.
Examples
empezar- is empecé for (yo)
llegar is llegué for (yo)
Otherwise, they are regular.
Some “-er” and “-ir” verbs are irregular for the third person singular and for the third person plural.
Examples
Leer (to read) is conjugated as “leyó” for the first person singular and “leyeron” for the third person plural.
Creer (to think) is conjugated as “creyó” for the first person singular and “creyeron” for the third person plural.
Oír is conjugated as “oyó” for the first person singular and “oyeron” for the third person plural.
Stem-Changing Verbs
In preterite, only some “-ir” verbs are of stem-changing. There are not any “–ar” and “-or” verbs falling into this class.
An example of a frequency stem-changing verb in preterite is dormir. Note that in preterite, it will change the stem only for the third person singular and plural forms.
The “o” changes to “u” and the verb is conjugated as durmió and durmieron for the third person singular and plural forms.
Note that some Spanish verbs are both irregular in the stem and as well as they have irregular endings. Some “ar”, “er” and “ir” verbs fall into this category.
In this case, the irregular endings are as follows
(yo) -e
(tú) -iste
(él/ella, usted) -o
(nosotros/-as) -imos
(vosotros/-as) -isteis
(ellos/-as, ustedes) -ieron / -eron
An important verb from this group is tener (to have). The stem of this verb changes to “uv” in preterite:
(yo) tuve
(tú) tuviste
(él/ella, usted) tuvo
(nosotros/-as) tuvimos
(vosotros/-as) tuvisteis
(ellos/-as, ustedes) tuvieron
More examples of this group are given in the vocabulary section below.
Completely irregular verbs
The following verbs are completely irregular.
ser (to be)
(yo) fui
(tú) fuiste
(él/ella, usted) fue
(nosotros/-as) fuimos
(vosotros/-as) fuisteis
(ellos/-as, ustedes) fueron
ir (to go)
(yo) fui
(tú) fuiste
(él/ella, usted) fue
(nosotros/-as) fuimos
(vosotros/-as) fuisteis
(ellos/-as, ustedes) fueron
Note that “ser” and “ir” have the same conjugation in
hacer (to make)
(yo) hice
(tú) hiciste
(él/ella, usted) hizo
(nosotros/-as) hicimos
(vosotros/-as) hicisteis
(ellos/-as, ustedes) hicieron
When to use the preterite
As mentioned above, the preterite is a form of simple past tense. It is used to express the actions occurred and finished in the past. It is worth emphasizing that it is used for actions which are completed.
Typical Examples
Fui estudiante (I was a student)
Llegué a las siete (I arrived at seven o’clock)
¿ hablaste con el abogado ayer ? (Did you speak with the lawyer yesterday?)
¿Qué pasó? (What happened?)
viví allí por dos años (I lived there for two years)
Empezó a llover a las nueve (It started to rain at nine o’clock)
Vocabulary
Learn some adverbs which are used frequently with preterite.
ayer yesterday
anteayer the day before yesterday
anoche last night
el lunes pasado last Monday
el martes pasado last Tuesday
el año pasado last year
una vez once
tres veces three times
Learn some of the essential Spanish verbs which are stem-changing and have irregular endings in preterite.
querer quise / quisiste / quiso / quisimos / quisisteis / quisieron
poder pude / pudiste / pudo / pudimos / pudisteis / pudieron
hacer hice / hiciste / hizo / hicimos / hicisteis / hicieron
decir dije / dijiste / dijo / dijimos / dijisteis / dijeron
haber hube / hubiste / hubo / hubimos / hubisteis / hubieron
estar estuve / estuviste / estuvo / estuvimos / estuvisteis / estuvieron
poner puse / pusiste / puso / pusimos / pusisteis / pusieron
saber supe / supiste / supo / supimos / supisteis / supieron
venir vine / viniste / vino / vinimos / vinisteis / vinieron
traer traje / trajiste / trajo / trajimos / trajisteis / trajeron
producir produje / produjiste / produjo /produjimos / produjisteis / produjeron