Preterit Tense of Regular Verbs

Preterit Tense of Regular Verbs

The preterit tense is used to describe an action or event in the past.

A. Regular –ar verb endings are –é, -aste, -ó, -amos, -asteis, and –aron.

Hablar: to talk

yo hablé nosotros hablamos

tú hablaste (vosotros hablasteis)

él, ella, Ud. habló ellos, ellas, Uds. hablaron

· Most verbs that stem-change in the present tense do not change the stem in the preterit tense.

· Verbs that end in –car, -gar, and –zar have a spelling change in the yo form. In –car and –gar verbs, this change occurs to keep the original sound of the stem. The change in the –zar verbs is because z rarely precedes e or i in Spanish.

-car—qué: yo toqué

-gar—gué yo jugué

-zar—cé yo almorcé

B. Regular –er and –ir verb endings are –í, -iste, ió, -imos, -isteis, and –ieron.

Comer: to eat

yo comí nosotros comimos

tú comiste (vosotros comisteis)

él, ella, Ud. comió ellos, ellas, Uds. comieron

Vivir: to live

yo viví nosotros vivimos

tú viviste (vosotros vivisteis)

él, ella, Ud. vivió ellos, ellas, Uds. vivieron

· Verbs that end in –er that stem-change in the present tense do not change the stem in the preterit tense. Verbs that end in –ir that stem-change in the present do have a stem-change in the preterit and will be dealt with later.

· Ver and dar are conjugated like regular –er and -ir verbs, but there are no accent marks:

yo vi, tú viste, él vio, nosotros vimos, ellos vieron

yo di, tú diste, él dio, nosotros dimos, ellos dieron