In this article, we will explore the regular conjugation of the preterit tense in Spanish, learning when to use it and how to conjugate it for regular verbs. Additionally, there are three interactive exercises for you to practice. Start talking about the past in Spanish!
Talking about the past in Spanish
¿In what situations do we use it ?
1
The ‘pretérito indefinido’ is used to talk about an action that happened at a specific moment in the past. (We know the beginning and end of that action).
| I worked for two years in that company | Yesterday we flew to Rio de Janeiro |
“Remember: if the action happened in the past, and you can determine exactly when it occurred and how many times, then you have to use the ‘pretérito indefinido’.”
2
It’s used to talk about consecutive actions in the past.
| “I got up and had breakfast, then I got dressed and went out onto the street.” |
3
It’s used in biographies to list facts.
| Miguel de Cervantes was born in Alcalá de Henares, lived in Madrid, and wrote ‘Don Quijote’ in 1605. | Pablo Picasso lived in different cities, visited Paris in 1900, and painted ‘Guernica’ during the Spanish Civil War. |
4
It is used with temporary markers as:
EXAMPLES
Ayer salí por la noche con mis amigos. (Yesterday)
Nací el 18 de junio de 1979 en Valencia.
Anteayer cenamos en un restaurante muy bueno. (The day before yesterday)
Hace 2 semanas compré un nuevo sofá bastante cómodo. (Two weeks ago)
Ana se mudó a Madrid hace 3 años. (Three weeks ago)
La semana pasada Ana y yo visitamos a mi abuela dos veces. (The last week)
El domingo pasado cociné una paella para mis amigos ingleses (The last sunday)
El lunes mi hermana llevó a su hijo al médico. (the last Monday)
Talking about the past in Spanish
¿How is the pretérito indefinido formed?
REGULAR VERBS
The conjugation of regular verbs in the past simple tense in Spanish is easy. There are only two groups of regular verbs: those that end in (-AR) and those that end in (-ER) or (-IR).
Second conjugation (-ER) and third conjugation (-IR) share the same endings:
(-i, -iste, -ió, -imos, -isteis, -ieron)
The conjugated verbs in the first person (yo) and the third person (él / ella / usted) carry a stress accent on the last syllable.
Yo bailé, comí, viví
Él bailó, comió, vivió
In the past simple, the first-person plural (nosotros) conjugation of verbs ending in -AR and -IR (first and third conjugation) is the same as the first-person plural (nosotros) of the present indicative tense.
| PRESENT TENSE in Spanish = PAST SIMPLE in Spanish |
| (AR) nosotros bailamos |
| (IR) nosotros vivimos |
Talking about the past in Spanish
INTERACTIVE EXERCISES
EXERCISE 1. Regular verbs in -AR
EXERCISE 2. Regular verbs in -ER
EXERCISE 3. Regular verbs in -IR
