The Preterite Tense (El Preterito)

The Preterite Tense The preterite tense is used to discuss completed actions in the past. ie...Yesterday he ATE the sandwich. 2. The preterite tense is a simple tense meaning it is made up of just one word. ie...Ayer él COMIÓ el sandwich. 3. The preterite tense is only one of two past tenses in Spanish. *(You will learn the imperfect tense later)

To Conjugate Regular AR Verbs Identify the stem and drop the last two letters off of the infinitive form of the verb. ie….habl ar Then add the appropriate verb endings. AR é amos aste asteis ó aron

To Conjugate Reg. AR Verbs HABLAR – AR = HABL hablé hablamos hablaste habló hablaron

Notice the “nosotros” form is the same as in the present tense so you’ll have to look at the context and key words to help you identify whether it’s in the past: Some key words are: Ayer, anoche, el mes pasado, el ano pasado, el fin de semana pasado, el viernes pasado, etc. Verbs that stem change in the present tense do not stem change in the preterit!

Let’s conjugate: Visitar Nadar Acampar Comprar Tomar Pescar Mandar

Visité Visitamos Visitaste Visitó Visitaron Nadé Nadamos Nadaste Nadó Nadaron

To Conjugate Reg. ER/IR Verbs Find the stem by dropping the last two letters off of the infinitive form of the verb. ie….com er Then add the appropriate verb endings. ER / IR í imos iste ió ieron

To Conjugate Reg. ER/IR Verbs CONOCER – ER = CONOC conocí conocimos conociste conoció conocieron

Stem Changes * AR and ER verbs DO NOT have stem changes in the preterite. Only IR verbs that have a stem change in the present tense, only have a one letter stem change in the preterite and only in box 3 and 5. ie…dormir dormí dormimos dormiste durmió durmieron

Orthographic Spelling Changes * Remember that you CANNOT change the sound of a letter by conjugating. Orthographic spelling changes will regularly occur in AR verbs whose stems end in C, G, or Z. C - QU G - GU Z - C

Orthographic Spelling Changes JUGAR – AR = JUG jugué jugamos jugaste jugó jugaron

Sentence Examples Hablé con mi hermana ayer. I talked with my sister yesterday. Juan bailó el lunes. Juan danced on Monday. Tomaste los refrescos a la fiesta. You drank soft drinks at the party.

Preterite Usages What is do you use to use the preterite to describe? Specific completed events in the past.

Extra Practice caminar (yo) ________________ correr (ellos) _______________ bucear (nosotros) ____________ beber (tú) __________________ bailar (él) __________________ lavar (ella) ________________ escribir (Uds.) _______________ pasar (nosotras) _____________ jugar (yo) ________________ caminé corrieron busceamos bebiste bailó lavó escribieron pasamos jugué