The preterite tense in Spanish can be confusing, with many different past tenses to choose from. But don’t worry! In this post, I’m going to teach you everything you need to know about one of the most commonly used past tenses in Spanish: «El pretérito indefinido»
I will explain in which situations it is used and how to conjugate it for both regular and irregular verbs. And, to help you practice a bit, I will provide some interactive exercises. Don’t miss this opportunity to improve your Spanish and master the past tense in Spanish!
The preterite tense 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)
The preterite tense 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 |
The preterite tense in Spanish
INTERACTIVE EXERCISES
EXERCISE 1. Regular verbs in -AR
EXERCISE 2. Regular verbs in -ER
EXERCISE 3. Regular verbs in -IR
4 GROUPS OF IRREGULAR VERBS
The preterite tense in Spanish
1. IRREGULAR VERBS IN THE ROOT
Some verbs in the preterite tense have an irregular root, meaning that the first part of this tense does not match that of the infinitive.
| Verb in infinitive | TENER |
| Root | TEN – |
| Root in the past tense | TUV – |
In these cases, that irregular root is the same for all six persons (Yo, tú, él/ella…).
Additionally, these verbs have different endings than regular verbs but
They are always the same endings, identical for verbs in the three conjugations
(-ar, -er, -ir).
| -e -iste -o -imos -isteis -ieron / eron |
Let’s take a look at these types of verbs.
1.1. U-ROOT IRREGULAR VERBS
The first past of these verbs (the root) changes and a «U» appears.
| estar | to be | andar | to walk |
| tener | to have | poder | can / to be able to |
| poner | to put | caber | to fit |
| saber | to know | haber | there is /there are |
1.2. I-ROOT IRREGULAR VERBS
The first past of these verbs (the root) changes and a «I» appears.
| hacer | to do |
| querer | to want / to love |
| venir | to come |
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1.3. J-ROOT IRREGULAR VERBS
The first past of these verbs (the root) changes and a «J» appears.
J-root verbs have another irregularity: in the third-person plural (ellos/as, ustedes), the ending is -eron instead of -ieron.
| conducir | to drive | decir | to say |
| traducir | to translate | producir | to produce |
| traer | to bring | deducir | to deduce, to gather |
The preterite tense in Spanish
2. IRREGULAR VERBS WITH VOWEL CHANGES
Some verbs in the past tense have a vowel change
Verbs ending in (-IR) that have a vowel change in the present, also have it in the past tense in the 3rd person singular (él/ella/usted) and plural (ellos/as/ustedes).
Verbs that have an «e» in the root change to «i» and those that have an «o» change to «u».
| PEDIR | él/ ella / usted pidió – ellos/as/ustedes pidieron |
| DORMIR | él / ella / usted durmió – ellos/as/ustedes durmieron |
In verbs ending in (-IR) and (-ER) that have a double vowel in the root, in the 3rd person singular (él/ella/usted) and plural (ellos/as/ustedes), the vowel «e» or «i» changes to «Y».
| LEER | él/ella/usted leyó – ellos/as/ustedes leyeron |
| pedir | to order / to ask | dormir | to sleep |
| sentir | to feel | morir | to die |
| despedir(se) | to fire / to say goodbye | leer | to read |
| reir(se) | to laugh | creer | to believe |
| elegir | to choose | caer | to fall |
| servir | to serve | oír | to hear |
| construir | to build |
The preterite tense in Spanish
3. IRREGULAR VERBS AT THE FIRST PERSON
These verbs have only orthographic changes in the first person.
These verbs have spelling irregularities in the first person. We only notice the irregularity when we write them, but in spoken language they sound regular.
Moreover, the endings are the same as those of regular verbs.
| jugar | to play | buscar | to look for | empezar | to start |
| apagar | to turn off | explicar | to explain | organizar | to organize |
| llegar | to arrive | publicar | to publish | adelgazar | to lose weight |
| pagar | to pay |
The preterite tense in Spanish
4. TOTAL IRREGULAR VERBS
| ser | to be | ir | to go | dar | to give |
The verbs «ser» and «ir» are conjugated the same way in the preterite tense. Therefore, we can differentiate them by context.
EXAMPLES
Juan fue a la fiesta (IR)
Frida Kahlo fue una pintora mexicana (SER)
The verb «dar», despite being in the first conjugation (-AR), has endings from the second and third conjugation (-ER, -IR).
The preterite tense in Spanish
INTERACTIVE EXERCISES – Irregular verbs
The preterite tense in Spanish. El pretérito indefinido
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