The Preterite Tense
http://www.spanish411.net/Spanish-Preterite-Tense.asp
The Preterite Tense (also spelled "preterit") is one of two ways to talk about events that happened in the past in Spanish. The
preterite tense is used to indicate a single, completed action that took place at a specific point in time. For example:
Armando me llamó a las nueve.
Armando called me at nine o'clock.
Regresaron de España ayer.
They returned from Spain yesterday.
Olivia se fue esta tarde.
Olivia left this afternoon.
Preterite conjugations can be pretty tricky due to the large amount of irregular verbs and some other complicated situations.
To learn how to form preterite conjugations, keep reading.
The Preterite Tense in Spanish
Regular Preterite Tense Verbs
To conjugate regular "-ar" verbs in the preterite, take off the ending and add the following:
"-ar" endings:
-é
-aste
-ó
-amos
-asteis
-aron
Don't let the "-é" in the yo form throw you off; it's still an "-ar" verb conjugation. It's absolutely critical that the "o" in the
él/ella/usted form conjugation get an accent mark so it isn't confused with the present tense yo form conjugation.
To conjugate regular "-er" and "-ir" verbs in the preterite, take off the endings and add the following:
"-er" / "-ir" endings:
-í
-imos
-iste
-isteis
-ió
-ieron
Here are some examples:
hablar:
hablé
hablaste
habló
hablamos
hablasteis
hablaron
comer:
comí
comiste
comió
comimos
comisteis
comieron
vivir:
viví
viviste
vivió
vivimos
vivisteis
vivieron
Preterite Spelling Change Verbs (Orthographic changing verbs)
The yo form endings for "-ar" verbs occasionally cause pronunciation problems because some letters are pronounced
differently depending on the vowels that follow them. The letters "c" and "g," for example, sound different when they're
followed by an "a" or an "o" than when they're followed by an "e" or "i." Since the preterite yo form ending is an "e", we need to
change the spellings of the stems of "-car" verbs, "-gar" verbs, and "-zar" verbs in order to keep the pronunciation consistent.
For example:
tocar (c → qu):
toqué
tocaste
tocó
tocamos
tocasteis
tocaron
jugar (g → gu):
jugué
jugaste
jugó
jugamos
jugasteis
jugaron
lanzar (z → c):
lancé
lanzaste
lanzó
lanzamos
lanzasteis
lanzaron
Tocar has a "-que" ending in the yo form to keep the original "c" sound being pronounced like a "k" rather than like an "s."
Jugar now has a "-gue" ending to keep the original "g" sound pronounced like a "g" rather than like an "h." And lanzar now has
a "-ce" because, well… anytime we can use a "c," we should. The "e" ending gives us an opportunity to do so.
It doesn't happen often, but "-guar" verbs will also require a spelling change. Take a verb like averiguar which means "to
verify." When we conjugate in the yo form of the preterite, we need to add a "dieresis," which means the "u" becomes a "ü":
The Preterite Tense
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Yo averigüé los datos ayer.
I verified the facts yesterday.
The "ü" tells us to pronounce the "gu" like a "gw" so that our pronunciation will be consistent with the infinitive, averiguar.
These spelling changes only happen for "-ar" preterite verbs and only in the yo form because the "-e" is the only ending that
creates problems for the "c," "g," "z" and the "gu."
More Spelling Changes
Certain "-er" and "-ir" verbs are also going to need spelling changes to keep pronunciation consistent. This time around it's the
él/ella/Ud. and ellos/ellas/Uds. forms that cause problems. The endings for those conjugations are "-ió" and "-ieron." Notice
how they both start with two vowels? If we have a verb whose stem ends in a vowel, and then we add one of those endings,
we're going to end up with three vowels in a row. It's difficult to pronounce a word with a three vowel combination. To solve
that problem, we change the "i" to a "y."
Some common trouble making verbs conjugated in the ellos/ellas/Uds. form:
infinitive:
caer
contribuir
creer
leer
incluir
oír
stem:
cacontribucreleincluo-
three vowels:
caieron
contribuieron
creieron
leieron
incluieron
oieron
i→y spelling change:
cayeron
contribuyeron
creyeron
leyeron
incluyeron
oyeron
The él/ella/Ud. form conjugations will use the same spelling change. Here is a complete set of conjugations for some common
verbs:
Note: In addition to the "i" → "y" spelling change, it is necessary to add an accent mark to the tú, nosotros, and vosotros form endings. (The yo form
already has an accent.)
caer:
caí
caíste
cayó
caímos
caísteis
cayeron
leer:
leí
leíste
leyó
leímos
leísteis
leyeron
oír:
oí
oíste
oyó
oímos
oísteis
oyeron
As you can see, this "i" → "y" spelling change only occurs in the bottom row of conjugations.
Note: Verbs ending in "-ñir" or "-llir" use "-ó" and "-eron" endings instead of "-ió" and "-ieron" because they already have a "y" sound in their stems:
gruñó, zambulleron.
An exception to the "i" → "y" spelling change rule are "-guir" verbs and "-quir" verbs. While the stems do end in a vowel, the
"u" is not actually being pronounced. Because of that, we can pronounce the three vowels in a row and a "y" is not necessary.
infinitive:
extinguir
stem:
extingu-
preterite:
extinguieron
Preterite Stem Changing Verbs
Stem Changing "-ar" and "-er" Verbs
All "-ar" and "-er" verbs which have stem changes in the present tense are completely regular in the preterite, which is to say
that they don't have stem changes in the preterite. Notice how the stem does not change in any conjugation:
pensar (e → ie):
pensé
pensaste
pensó
pensamos
pensasteis
pensaron
perder (e → ie):
perdí
perdiste
perdió
perdimos
perdisteis
perdieron
The Preterite Tense
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Stem Changing "-ir" Verbs
Stem-changing "-ir" verbs do have a stem change which is sometimes different from the present tense stem change; "e → ie"
stem changers in the present tense become "e → i" stem changers in the preterite, "e → i" stem changers remain "e → i", and "o
→ ue" stem changers become "o → u":
present tense:
e → ie
e→i
o → ue
preterite tense:
e→i
e→i
o→u
However, this change only happens in the él/ella/usted form and the ellos/ellas/ustedes form:
sentir (e → ie):
sentí
sentiste
sintió
sentimos
sentisteis
sintieron
mentir (e → i):
mentí
mentiste
mintió
mentimos
mentisteis
mintieron
dormir (o → ue):
dormí
dormimos
dormiste
dormisteis
durmió
durmieron
In some books verbs like these will have special notations to let you know about the additional preterite stem change: sentir
(e → ie, e → i), dormir (o → ue, o → u), etc.
Because these additional changes only take place on the bottom line of the conjugation chart they are sometimes referred to as
"basement buddies."
Irregular Preterite Tense Verbs
The "U" Group, "I" Group, and "J" Group
There are many irregular preterite conjugations which have both stem changes (only in the preterite tense) and their own set
of endings. It can be helpful to put them into groups to help you memorize them.
Note: Any verbs based on these irregular verbs have the same irregularities; imponer → inpus-, proponer → propus-, detener → detuv-, etc.
The "U" Group
Most of the irregular verbs have stem changes which involve the letter "u":
andar
caber
estar
poder
poner
saber
tener
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
anduvcupestuvpudpussuptuv-
The "I" Group
There are a couple others with stem changes involving the letter "i":
querer
venir
→
→
quisvin-
For both of these groups, the "u" group and the "i" group, there is a different set of endings:
-e
-iste
-o
-imos
-isteis
-ieron
Note that these endings are very similar to the "-ir" verbs with the exception of the yo and él/ella/usted forms, and that there
are no accent marks needed. Some examples:
The Preterite Tense
http://www.spanish411.net/Spanish-Preterite-Tense.asp
saber:
supe
supiste
supo
supimos
supisteis
supieron
tener:
tuve
tuviste
tuvo
tuvimos
tuvisteis
tuvieron
venir:
vine
viniste
vino
vinimos
vinisteis
vinieron
The "J" Group
There is one more group of stem changers, the "j" group:
conducir
decir
producir
traer
→
→
→
→
condujdijprodujtraj-
The endings for the "j" group stems are almost identical to the "u"/"i" group verbs:
-e
-imos
-iste
-isteis
-o
-eron
Notice that there is no "i" in the ellos/ellas/ustedes form ending. Some examples:
decir:
dije
dijiste
dijo
dijimos
dijisteis
dijeron
traer:
traje
trajiste
trajo
trajimos
trajisteis
trajeron
Other Irregular Preterite Verbs
There are several other completely irregular preterite verbs. Here are the conjugations for dar, hacer, ir, and ser.
dar:
di
diste
dio
ir:
fui
fuiste
fue
dimos
disteis
dieron
fuimos
fuisteis
fueron
hacer:
hice
hiciste
hizo
ser:
fui
fuiste
fue
hicimos
hicisteis
hicieron
fuimos
fuisteis
fueron
Note: The verb satisfacer (to satisfy) follows the pattern of hacer: satisfice, satisficiste, satisfizo, etc.
That's not a typo—the conjugations of ir and ser are identical—context makes the meaning clear.
If you look carefully, you'll notice that hacer isn't completely irregular (it could fit quite nicely the "i" group) but the need for consistent pronunciation forces
us to use a "z" in the él/ella/usted form.