The Preterite

The Simple Past Tense

The Preterite Tense

The Preterite Tense is used to show actions that have happened in the past.

Example: Josh attended Mr. Petula’s class.

Example: Dawn painted Katie a picture for her birthday.

The Endings

As in English, Spanish adds an ending to the verb to make it in the preterite tense.

In English you would say that Josh attended, Dawn painted…

In Spanish there are 6 different types of endings to express the preterite tense.

1) AR Verbs

Endings for AR Verbs-é -amos-aste -asteis-ó -aron

These endings are added to most -ar verbs.

AR verbs ending in –car, -gar, -zar change.

First Person Singular only. Why? The changes occur in the first

person singular because the c and g before an e make it a soft sound. The z before an e does not exist.

Irregulars of AR Verbs

…..therefore….

For –car verbs the ending would be -qué. Example Toqué

For –gar verbs the ending would be -gué. Example Jugué

For –zar verbs the ending would be-cé. Example Empecé.

2) ER/IR Verbs

Endings for ER/IR Verbs-í -imos-iste -isteis-ió -ieron

These endings are added to most -er verbs.

Irregulars for ER/IR Verbs1. The yó/yeron verbs

ER/IR verbs ending with double vowels will change.

Third Person Singular and Plural. Why? 3 Vowels. Example: Creió, Creieron;

Oió, Oieron; Caió, Caieron.

….so…..

Instead of using an i in the third person singular and plural forms, change the i to y.

Example: Creer- creyó, creyeronOir- oyó, oyeronCaer- cayó, cayeron

Stem Changers or “Sandal Verbs” in ER/IR Preterite Verbs

There are 2 types of verbs in the Preterite Tense that have a Stem Change. The Stem Change occurs in the third person positions.

Types: e-i & o-u serví servimos morí morimos serviste servisteis moriste moristeis sirvió sirvieron murió murieron

3) Dar and Ver

These are two strange verbs that have the ER/IR endings but without accents.

Dar Ver di dimos vi vimos diste disteis visteis viste dio dieron vio vieron

4) The 9 Irregular Preterite Verbs

These nine irregulars all use the same endings with no accents.

Endings:-e -imos-iste -isteis-o -ieron

4) The 9 Irregulars Stem Changers

1. Andar- anduv-2. Tener- tuv-3. Estar- estuv-4. Poner- pus-5. Poder- pud-6. Saber- sup-7. Hacer- hic- (hizo)8. Querer- quis-9. Venir- vin-

5) –cir Ending Verbs and Traer

Any verb ending with –cir and the verb traer fall into this category.

They all use the following endings:-e -imos

-iste -isteis

-o -eron *The endings are the same as the Irregular endings except for the

“i” in the 3rd person plural.

The verb stems you would add these endings to are as followed:

1. Decir- dij-2. Conducir- conduj-3. Producir- produj-4. Traducir- traduj-5. Traer- traj-

5) –cir Ending Verbs and Traer

6) Ir and Ser

The verbs ir (to go) and ser (to be) are strange unusual verbs they are conjugated the same.

fui fuimosfuiste fuisteisfue fueron

*ser is rarely used in the preterite tense.

Good luck with the Preterite!

¡Buena Suerte!