The past tense
We conjugate verbs in Spanish by: ◦ Dropping the last two letters from the infinitive comer com ◦ Adding the appropriate ending to the stem Yo com como These conjugations not only communicate WHO is doing the action but they also communicate WHEN Yo como = I eat / I am eating (present tense)
The preterit conjugations are used to express that an action took place in the PAST In English, most verbs in the past tense end in –ed Yesterday I walked to school. Other verbs require a special form in the past, such as went, was, did, ran, said, etc.
We have already learned the preterit conjugations for verbs ending in –ar ◦ (yo) -é(nosotros) -amos ◦ (tú) -aste(vosotros) -asteis ◦ (él/ella) -ó(ellos/ellas) -aron usted ustedes Ejemplo: mirar ◦ Miré I watched ◦ Miraste You watched ◦ Miró He/She/You watched ◦ Miramos We watched ◦ Miraron They/You all watched
Regular verbs that end in –er and –ir follow a similar pattern to the –ar verbs. In the preterit, -er & -ir verbs endings are IDENTICAL ◦ (yo) -í(nosotros) -imos ◦ (tú) -iste(vosotros) -isteis ◦ (él/ella) -ió(ellos/ellas) -ieron usted ustedes
VENDER COMER Yo vendíYo Tú vendisteTú Maria vendióPete Nosotros vendimosNosotros Los amigos vendieronLas chicas
ESCRIBIR DESCRIBIR Yo escribíYo Tú escribisteTú El director escribióElla Tú y yo escribimosNosotros Jo y Jane escribieronEllas
In the preterit tense, many verbs have irregular stems (spelling changes) ◦ Ir Fui, fuiste, … ◦ Hacer Hice, hicicste, … ◦ Decir Dije, dijiste, … ◦ Estar Estuve, estuviste YO only: (-car, -gar, -zar) ◦ Buscar yo busqué ◦ Navegar yo navegué ◦ Almorzar yo almorcée
Mandar: I sent ________________ Did you send? ________________ We sent ________________ Recibir: She received ________________ They received ________________ I didn’t receive ________________