Lesson 1.6 · Unit 1 · Structures

What happened, once, and finished

The preterite is the tense of finished events. Spanish 1 gave you the regular endings and five irregular verbs, and this lesson restores them, because unit 2 extends the tense to every verb you know. The preterite is the one past tense you use first in Spanish, and it is the right choice whenever a single event is complete, whether it took one second or one year.

The method
  1. The regular endings. -ar: -é, -aste, -ó, -amos, -aron. -er and -ir: -í, -iste, -ió, -imos, -ieron. Hablé, hablaste, habló, hablamos, hablaron. Comí, comiste, comió, comimos, comieron.
  2. The accents tell the person. Hablo (I speak, present) against habló (he spoke, preterite), and hablé (I spoke). A missing accent changes the tense or the person.
  3. -ar and -ir nosotros match the present. Hablamos and vivimos are the same in both tenses. Only context tells you which.
  4. Ir and ser share one preterite. fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fueron. Context tells you whether it means "went" or "was".
  5. Hacer: hice, hiciste, hizo, hicimos, hicieron. The c becomes z in hizo to keep the sound.
  6. Ver and dar: vi, viste, vio, vimos, vieron and di, diste, dio, dimos, dieron. They take the -er/-ir endings without accents.
  7. Time markers signal the preterite. ayer, anoche, anteayer, el lunes, la semana pasada, el año pasado, hace dos días, una vez.
  8. The preterite tells a finished event. It does not matter how long it took: Viví en Madrid dos años is a completed period.

Where students lose marks: Hablo ayer (present for past), Yo hablé typed Yo hable (no accent), Ella hablo for ella habló, Fui al cine mistranslated as "I was at the cinema", and Hací for hice. Check the accent on every -é and -ó ending and use the irregular stems for ir, ser, hacer, ver and dar.

Worked example

The problem. Write six sentences in the past: (1) Yesterday I spoke with my teacher. (2) We ate at a restaurant. (3) They went to the park. (4) She did the homework. (5) I saw a movie last night. (6) My uncle gave me a gift.

Step one: sentence 1. Ayer signals the preterite. Hablar with yo is hablé, and "with" is con: Ayer hablé con mi profesor.

Step two: sentence 2. Comer with nosotros is comimos, and the restaurant is a place with en: Comimos en un restaurante.

Step three: sentence 3. Ir with ellos is fueron, and a goes before the place: Fueron al parque. (A + el = al.)

Step four: sentence 4. Hacer with ella is hizo, with a z: Hizo la tarea.

Step five: sentence 5. Ver with yo is vi, no accent: Anoche vi una película.

Step six: sentence 6. Dar with mi tío is dio, and "me" is the indirect object me before the verb: Mi tío me dio un regalo.

Step seven: accents. Check every -é and -ó ending: hablé, habló. The forms vi, dio take none.

Step eight: check. Every verb is a preterite form, matches its subject, and each sentence has a time marker or a clear finished event.

Practice · 10 problems

Problems 1 to 5 are routine. Problems 6 to 10 are multi-step or ask for reasoning.

  1. Write the preterite of hablar for yo, tú and ella.
    Show the full solution

    -ar endings: -é, -aste, -ó. hablé, hablaste, habló

  2. Write the preterite of comer for yo, él and ellos.
    Show the full solution

    -er endings: -í, -ió, -ieron. comí, comió, comieron

  3. Write the preterite of ir for nosotros and ellas.
    Show the full solution

    Ir shares its preterite with ser. fuimos, fueron

  4. Complete: Ayer yo ___ (hacer) la cena y mi hermano ___ (hacer) la tarea.
    Show the full solution

    hice; hizo

  5. Complete: Anoche ellos ___ (ver) una película y yo ___ (ver) un programa.
    Show the full solution

    Ver has no accents in the preterite. vieron; vi

  6. Say "Last week we went to the beach and swam."
    Show the full solution

    La semana pasada signals the preterite. Ir with nosotros is fuimos and nadar is nadamos (the same as the present). La semana pasada fuimos a la playa y nadamos.

  7. Say "She gave me a book, and I thanked her." Use dar and dar las gracias.
    Show the full solution

    Dar with ella is dio, with me. The second verb is di with yo in "I gave thanks": Ella me dio un libro y yo le di las gracias.

  8. Find and fix the errors: Ayer yo hable con mi madre y ella hace la cena.
    Show the full solution

    Hable needs the accent for the preterite (hablé), and hace is present: hizo with ayer. Ayer yo hablé con mi madre y ella hizo la cena.

  9. Explain why fue can mean either "he went" or "he was".
    Show the full solution

    Ir and ser share the same preterite forms, so context decides. Ir and ser share one preterite: fue = went or was.

  10. Write four sentences about last weekend with four different preterite verbs, one of them irregular.
    Show the full solution

    One correct answer: El sábado desayuné con mi familia. Mis amigos y yo fuimos al centro. Compré una camiseta. Vi una película por la noche. Each ending matches its subject, the accents are present (desayuné, compré), and fuimos, vi are irregular. El sábado desayuné con mi familia. Mis amigos y yo fuimos al centro. Compré una camiseta. Vi una película por la noche.

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