Preterite Study Guide

Preterite is used to talk about completed actions in the past.  

Preterite Flag Phrases: Examples only! There can be more or variations on what is listed below. ↓↓↓

Conjugations:  Things to keep in mind!  

• The 1st and 3rd person singular will always have an accent mark on the last letter.  

• ER & IR preterite endings are exactly the same (lead with an i). 

Ellos compraron ropa nueva en el centro comercial durante las vacaciones de la semana pasada. 

IRREGULAR Preterite Verbs:

• IR and SER are both irregular in the preterite. They SHARE the same conjugation! 

• There are no accent marks. 

How do you know if someone using these preterite forms is referring to ser or ir?  It will be in context…consider what they are actually saying. 

EX: ¿Fuiste a mi casa anoche? ← This example uses IR. A clue is that most of the time, “a” follows IR.  

EX: Ella fue cirujana durante diez años.  ← This example uses SER (occupation). 

STEMCHANGERS:  There are NO stem changers in the preterite. Verbs with a stem change in present tense conjugations will not have a stem change in preterite conjugations. *There will be spelling changes later on when we learn more irregulars but they aren’t considered stem changers! 

EX:  devolver - to return (o →ue) 

• Present tense: Ella devuelve los libros a la biblioteca. 

• Preterite tense: Ella devolvió los libros a la biblioteca ayer. 

CAR, GAR, ZAR: Verbs ending in -car, -gar, and -zar have different endings in the first person preterite singular (YO FORM) conjugation. See below ↓↓↓

CAR EX: Yo saqué la basura anoche porque apestaba.  I threw the trash out last night because it smelled. 

GAR EX: Yo pagué $5 por un café con leche en Starbucks. I paid $5 for a coffee with milk at Starbucks. 

ZAR EX: Yo comencé a tomar té porque el café es caro (expensive). I started to drink tea because coffee is expensive. 

Más verbos irregulares: There are several irregular verbs in the preterite. They have their own set of endings and they DO NOT require accent marks.  

Irregular Verb Endings:                                                    

The “U” verbs. 

These verbs can be categorized as “UV” verbs. ↓↓↓

This group of verbs can be categorized as “U” verbs. ↓↓↓ 

Pay attention b/c 2 of them have spell changes other than just a “U”! 

This verb has a “UIS” change to spelling. ↓                                 

Remember HABER? It has a preterite form, too. Instead of HAY use HUBO.

 The “I” verbs.   

The first vowel changes to i in both. 

NOTICE: There is a super irregular form in the 3rd person singular for hacer! 

The “J” verbs. 

These verbs can be categorized as “J” verbs. They all have “-ducir” at the end of their infinitive but switch out the “C” for a “J”. 

NOTICE: There is no i in the 3rd person plural ending…. It is -jeron!

Más “J” and “-eron” endings….  

The “Y” verbs. 

If there is a vowel before the ar, er, or ir ending in the preterite, you will change the 3rd person conjugations. Instead of -ieron, replace the “i” with a “Y”. 

NOTICE: There are more accents, all conjugated forms except for 3rd person plural will have an accent! 

Ver & Dar - These 2 are considered irregular because you drop the ending and are left with a short, funny looking verb!