lunes el siete de noviembre

The preterite tense is one of many past tenses in Spanish.

It is one of the tenses that you will be expected to use in your work in order achieve a grade C or above.

The preterite tense is used to describe actions that happened in the past.

It is only used to describe completed actions in the past – actions that are over and done with.

We use the preterite tense in Spanish when in English we would say: ‘I bought’, ‘I did’, ‘I saw’ etc.

Can you remember what the preterite tense is?

The preterite tense is one of many past tenses in Spanish.

It is one of the tenses that you will be expected to use in your work in order achieve a grade C or above.

Can you remember when the preterite tense is used?

The preterite tense is used to describe actions that happened in the past.

It is only used to describe completed actions in the past – actions that are over and done with.

We use the preterite tense in Spanish when in English we would say: ‘I bought’, ‘I did’, ‘I saw’ etc.

Remove the ending from the infinitive (-AR, -ER or -IR) and add the endings below:

Regular preterit tense verbs

(AR) comprar– to buy

(ER) comer – to eat

(IR) vivir – to live

yo (I) compré comí viví

tú (you, 1 pers fam) compraste comiste viviste

él/ella (he, she) compró comió vivió

Usted (you, 1 pers, formal) compró comió vivió

nosotros (we) compramos comimos vivimos

vosotros (you, pl, fam) comprasteis comisteis vivisteis

ellos/ellas (they) compraron comieron vivieron

Ustedes (you, pl, formal) compraron comieron vivieron

Unfortunately there are several irregulars in the preterite tense. However, the most important ones are the following:

IR – to goSER – to be

HACER – to do, to make

TENER – to have

ESTAR – to be

fui hice tuve estuve

fuiste hiciste tuviste estuviste

fue hizo tuvo estuvo

fue hizo tuvo estuvo

fuimos hicimos tuvimos estuvimos

fuisteis hicisteis tuvisteis estuvisteis

fueron hicieron tuvieron estuvieron

fueron hicieron tuvieron estuvieron

These are some of the time phrases that we use with the preterite tense: Last week – la semana pasada Last weekend – el fin de semana pasado Last month – el mes pasado Yesterday - ayer Last year – el año pasado 2 days ago – hace dos días Last night - anoche

Write 5 sentences using the preterite tense.

You could write about what you did last night, at the weekend, during half term, during the summer holidays etc.

Everyone will be expected to read one of their sentences!!!