Spanish Preterite Tense - Conjugations and Uses

Here, you will learn about the conjugations and all the uses of the Spanish preterite tense.

In addition, there are plenty of examples with audios to help you better understand the concepts and to practice your listening skills.

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The Spanish Preterite Tense

The same as imperfect, the preterite tense in Spanish is used to talk about the past.

Unlike the imperfect, we use the preterite to talk about completed actions. Click here to learn more about preterite vs imperfect.

This tense is similar to the simple past in English.

How to Form the Preterite Tense

Abreviations: Subject pronoun (SUBJ. PRON.).

REGULAR VERBS

The only thing you need to know to conjugate the regular verbs are the endings.

There are two groups: -ar verbs, and -er/-ir verbs.

In this way, you just add the following endings to the infinitive form of the verb.

Examples

STEM-CHANGING VERBS

Verbs ending in -ar and -er, and salir

The stem-changing verbs ending in -ar and -er follow the same pattern as -ar and -er regular verbs.

Salir also follows a regular verb pattern.

EXAMPLES

Verbs ending in -ir

Stem-changing verbs ending in -ir change in the preterite. They change e→i and o→u in the third person, singular and plural.

EXAMPLES

SPELLING CHANGING VERBS

Verbs ending in gar, -car, and -zar

Verbs that end in -gar, -car, and -zar undergo spelling changes in the first person singular.

EXAMPLES

Verbs Ending in -uir, -aer, -eer, and -oír

The third person singular and plural of verbs that end in -uir, -aer, -eer, and -oír show a spelling change.

EXAMPLES

IRREGULAR VERBS

These are verbs whose conjugations you have to memorize. 😕

Ser and ir

Both verbs are conjugated the same way.

Decir and traer

Other similar verbs are:

• Like decir (to say): traducir (to translate) and producir (to produce).
• Like traer (to bring): atraer (to attract) and contraer (to contract).

Dar and ver

They are conjugated similar to -er and -ir verbs in the preterite.

Tener, andar and estar

There are number of verbs that follow the same pattern as these verbs. While their stems change, they all have the following endings.

Below you have the verbs with their stem changes.

EXAMPLES

WHERE TO PRACTICE HOW TO FORM THE PRETERITE TENSE

Conjugations

• Preterite Tense (all Verb Types)

Written Practice

• Spanish Demystified – Written Practice 1 and Written Practice 2 from Chapter 13 (pages 249-250).

Oral Practice

• Spanish Demystified – Oral Practice 1 from Chapter 13 (page251).

Quizzes

• Preterite tense forms

Gap Fill Exercises

• Preterite tense – Regulars and irregulars
• Preterite tense – Regular verbs
• -uve verbs – Preterite tense
• Estar – Preterite tense
• Ser verb – Preterite tense
• Preterite form of the verb IR (to go) – Beginner
• Preterite form of the verb VER – Beginner

Everything

• Regular and irregular verbs – Preterite

Other Exercises

• Preterite

Uses of the Preterite Tense

The Spanish preterite tense describes past actions that are completed. However, there are other specific uses of the preterite.

COMPLETED ACTIONS

EXAMPLES

• Fui al parque. → I went to the park.
• Mis amigos fueron a la fiesta. → My friends went to the party.

SPECIFIC TIMES AND DATES

EXAMPLES

• Tuvimos una clase a la una. → We had a class at one o´clock.
• Me casé hace dos años. → I got married two years ago.

SINGLE EVENTS

EXAMPLES

• Ayer estudié. → I studied yesterday.
• Mis padres se fueron a las cinco. → My parents left at five o´clock.

REPEATED EVENTS

EXAMPLES

• Llamé tres veces. → I called three times.
• La semana pasada trabajé tres días. → Last week I worked three days.

EVENTS IN A SEQUENCE

EXAMPLES

• Me levanté y fui a la escuela. → I got up and I went to school.
• Ella vino, cogió sus cosas, y se fue. → She came, took her things, and left.

THE BEGINNING AND END ARE STATED

EXAMPLES

• Trabajamos desde las nueve hasta las tres. → We worked from nine to three.
• Mi hermano enseñó español desde el 1990 hasta el 2015. → My brother taught Spanish from 1990 to 2015.

BEGINNINGS AND ENDS

The verbs that you will use here are: empezar (to begin), comenzar (to begin), acabar (to finish) o terminar (to finish).

EXAMPLES

• Empezó a llover. → It started to rain.
• Terminaron de cenar tarde. → They ended dinner late.

Adverbs of Time and Adverbial Phrases

Below you have a list with the adverbs of time and adverbial phrases that trigger the preterite.

Where to Practice Everything

Written Practice

• The Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice – C, D, E, H, I, J, M, O, P and R from chapter 4 (pages 46-56)

Gap Fill Exercises

• The Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice – B, F, G, K, L, N, Q from chapter 4 (pages 46-56).
• Preterite Tense – Exercises

Everything

• Preterite
• Activities – Type keyword ‘preterite’
• The preterite tense
• Past simple

Final Thoughts

I hope you are now able to understand better the use the Spanish preterite tense.

I recommend you to practice with the examples here and try to make some others on your own. Additionally, do as many grammar exercises as you can to get used to this verb tense. In addition, practice the language in general. One day, you will get to the point that you will know what tense to use just because it sounds “well”.

Additionally, If you want, I can help you practice with this tense by using it while having a conversation during our online Spanish conversation classes.

Finally, we can practice in the comment section below by answering the following questions:

• ¿Qué hiciste la semana pasada?
• ¿Cuándo empezaste a estudiar español?
• ¿Te levantaste y te fuiste al trabajo ayer?

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