Forming the

PreteritPreterit

The preterit is one of two past tenses in Spanish. It is used with great frequency but is, unfortunately, the most complicated tense to form.

There are two sets of regular endings: one for –ar and one for –er/-ir verbs.

hablar comer/vivir

-é -amos -í -imos

-aste -asteis -iste -isteis

-ó -aron -ió -ieron

Drop the –ar/-er/-ir and then add the endings.

hablé hablamos comí comimos viví vivimos

hablaste hablasteis comiste comisteis viviste vivisteis

habló hablaron comió comieron vivió vivieron

ACCENT MARKS ARE ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY!!!

Look what happens if you leave off an accent mark:

hablé hablamos

hablaste hablasteis

habló hablaron

Without the accent mark, you have “I speak” (hablo) instead of “he spoke” (habló). You don’t know it yet, but if you leave off the accent mark in “hablé,” that means something different too.

Note that, while the “vosotros” form looks intimidating, it’s simply the “tú” form with “-is” added to it.

-é -amos -í -imos

-aste -asteis -iste -isteis

-ó -aron -ió -ieron

Note also that the “nosotros” form of –ar verbs and of –ir verbs is the same as the present but that the “nosotros” form of –er verbs is NOT.

present

hablamos comemos vivimos

preterit

hablamos comimos vivimos

Note that –ar verbs and –er verbs don’t stem

change. -ir verbs do, but that will be discussed in a later section.

volver salir pensar

vuelve volvió salgo salí piensas pensaste

he returns he returned I leave I left you think you thought

All the practice exercises will be done as above. You’re given, for example, “vuelve” and must change it to “volvió.”

Click here to go to a practice exercise.

Verbs with Spelling Changes

Verbs that end with –gar, -car, or –zar are going to undergo a spelling change.

Consider the verb “tocar.” You would expect the “yo” form to be “tocé,” right?

But think about how a “c” sounds when it comes before an “e” or an “i.” It sounds like an “s.” “Tocé” would sound like “tosé.” But we want the “c” to sound like a “k,” just like it does in “tocar.”

To get that “k” sound, you have to change the “c” to a “qu”:

toqué tocamostocaste tocasteistocó tocaron

Note that you change it only in the “yo” form; that’s the only place you have an “e,” so you don’t need to change it anywhere else.

The same is true of verbs that end in –gar, like “pagar.” When a “g” comes before an “e” or “i,” it sounds like an “h.” That’s why you can’t have “pagé”; the “g” sounds like an “h” there but like a hard “g” in “pagar.” To keep the hard “g” sound, you have to change the “g” to a “gu”:

pagué pagamos

pagaste pagasteis

pagó pagaron

Again, note that only the “yo” form is affected; no other form has an “e,” so no other form gets “gu.”

Unfortunately, there’s no logical explanation for the change in –car verbs. There just happens to be a rule in Spanish that says “z” can’t come before “e” or “i.” If that happens, you have to change the “z” to a “c”:

almorcé almorzamosalmorzaste almorzasteisalmorzó almorzaron

You may be familiar with the plural of “feliz”: “felices.”

Summary

Verbs that end in –car, -gar, and –car are going to have a spelling change in the “yo” form:

toqué tocamos pagué pagamos almorcé almorzamos

tocaste tocasteis pagaste pagasteis almorzaste almorzasteis

tocó tocaron pagó pagaron almorzó almorzaron

There’s one other type of word that undergoes a spelling change. When an “i” without an accent mark over it gets stuck between two other vowels, it becomes a “y.” You may remember this change from the present participle (sometimes called a gerund):

leer le- + -iendo leiendo leyendo

That’s what happens with the third person preterit:

leer le- + -ió leió leyóleer le- + -ieron leieron leyeron

Click here to go to a practice exercise.

-ir stem-changing verbs

As was mentioned before, -ar and –er verbs don’t stem change.

Present Preteritpensar

pienso pensamos pensé pensamospiensas pensáis pensaste pensasteispiensa piensan pensó pensaron

volvervuelvo volvemos volví volvimosvuelves volvéis volviste volvisteisvuelve vuelven volvió volvieron

However, -ir verbs DO stem change. Unfortunately, the way they change in the preterit is a little different from the way they stem change in the present.

Present pedir Preterit

pido pedimos pedí pedimos

pides pedís pediste pedisteis

pide piden pidió pidieron

In the preterit, -ir verbs stem change in the third person singular and plural ONLY.

And that’s not the end of the story. Not only do –ir verbs stem change in the preterit where –er and –ar verbs don’t; they change to just an “i” (never “ie”) or just a “u” never “ue.”

Present Preterit

sentir

siento sentimos sentí sentimos

sientes sentís sentiste sentisteis

siente sienten sintió sintieron

dormir

duermo dormimos dormí dormimos

duermes dormís dormiste dormisteis

duerme duermen durmió durmieron

Click here to go to a practice exercise.

Irregular Verbs

So far you’ve seen regular verbs, stem-changing verbs, and verbs that undergo spelling changes. The last item on the agenda is irregular verbs. And there are quite a few.

Most irregular verbs follow a type of pattern. Two, however, do not, and you have to memorize them all by themselves:

ser/ir dar

fui fuimos di dimosfuiste fuisteis diste disteisfue fueron dio dieron

Since “ser” and “ir” are conjugated the same way in the preterit, “fui,” for example, can mean “I went” or “I was,” depending on context.

What makes “dar” irregular is the fact that it’s an –ar verb but has –er/-ir endings.

All other irregular verbs get the same set of endings. Here are the irregular stems and the endings:

querer quis-poner pus-poder pud-tener tuv- -e -imosestar estuv- -iste -isteisvenir vin- -o -(i)eronsaber sup-hacer hic-decir dij-traer traj-

Just put the appropriate ending on the stem. “Puse” is “I put,” “hiciste” is “you did,” etc.

The reason the third plural ending is “-(i)eron” is that the verbs with a “j” in their stem (decir, traer) don’t get the “i”: dijeron, trajeron

The third person of “hacer” undergoes a spelling change:

hice hicimos In “hice,” “hiciste,” “hicimos,” etc., the “c” is pronounced likehiciste hicisteis an “s.” If we left the “c” in the third singular, however, it would

be hizo hicimos pronounced like a “k.” To keep the “s” sound, you have to

change the “c” to a “z.”

Click here to go to a practice exercise.

Ta-da! Finished!

Now all you have to do is learn the other past tense and then learn when to use it and when to use the preterit. Piece of cake.