Forming%20the%20Preterit

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Forming the Preterit
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• 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.

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• 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

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• 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 dont
  know it yet, but if you leave off the accent mark
  in hablé, that means something different too.

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• Note that, while the vosotros form looks
  intimidating, its 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

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• Note that ar verbs and er verbs dont 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. Youre given, for example, vuelve and
  must change it to volvió.

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• Click here to go to a practice exercise.

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• 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 tocamos
• tocaste tocasteis
• tocó tocaron
• Note that you change it only in the yo form
  thats the only place you have an e, so you
  dont need to change it anywhere else.

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• 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. Thats why you cant 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.

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• Unfortunately, theres no logical explanation
  for the change in car verbs. There just happens
  to be a rule in Spanish that says z cant come
  before e or i. If that happens, you have to
  change the z to a c
• almorcé almorzamos
• almorzaste almorzasteis
• almorzó almorzaron
• You may be familiar with the plural of feliz
  felices.

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• 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

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• Theres 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
• Thats what happens with the third person
  preterit
• leer ? le- -ió ? leió ? leyó
• leer ? le- -ieron ? leieron ? leyeron

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• Click here to go to a practice exercise.

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• -ir stem-changing verbs
• As was mentioned before, -ar and er verbs dont
  stem change.
• Present Preterit
• pensar
• pienso pensamos pensé pensamos
• piensas pensáis pensaste pensasteis
• piensa piensan pensó pensaron
• volver
• vuelvo volvemos volví volvimos
• vuelves volvéis volviste volvisteis
• vuelve vuelven volvió volvieron

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• 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.

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• And thats not the end of the story. Not only
  do ir verbs stem change in the preterit where
  er and ar verbs dont 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

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• Click here to go to a practice exercise.

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• Irregular Verbs
• So far youve 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 dimos
• fuiste fuisteis diste disteis
• fue 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 its
  an ar verb but has er/-ir endings.

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• 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 -imos
• estar estuv- -iste -isteis
• venir vin- -o -(i)eron
• saber 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) dont get the i dijeron,
  trajeron
• The third person of hacer undergoes a spelling
  change

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• Click here to go to a practice exercise.

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• 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.