The over and done with past tense! El Pretérito The over and done with past tense!

The preterite tense is used to talk about COMPLETED ACTIONS IN THE PAST in a SPECIFIC TIME FRAME. Examples: I ate an apple. Did I finish eating the apple? YES, therefore it is preterite. He studied for the test. Did he finish studying? YES, therefore it is preterite. (There is nothing to suggest that he didn’t finish studying.) I was studying. Did I finish studying? We don’t know. We know it’s in the past, but we don’t if the action is finished. This is NOT preterite.

Remember!! A preterite is an action we know is COMPLETED in the past! One more (a bit more tricky….) My friend was studying when I called him. There are TWO verbs here: “was studying” and “called”. Are they: A) both preterite B) only “was studying” is preterite C) only “called” is preterite The answer is C!!! The first verb, “was studying” was not completed. It was interrupted by “called”. Remember!! A preterite is an action we know is COMPLETED in the past!

Some practice…. Which of the following are examples of a preterite verb? 1. I eat fish every day. NO…This is present tense 2. He played soccer yesterday. YES…He COMPLETED the action of playing soccer. 3. I was talking on the phone when my brother entered into the room. NO and YES “was talking on the phone” is an INTERRUPTED action in the past. “entered” is a COMPLETED action 4. I dropped the book when my friend scared me. YES and YES “dropped” is a COMPLETED action “scared” is a COMPLETED action

How to form the preterite in Spanish (regular verbs) -AR -ER -IR hablAR comER vivIR yo tú él,ella, Ud. nosotros vosotros ellos, ellas, Uds. hablé hablaste habló hablamos hablasteis hablaron comí comiste comió comimos comisteis comieron viví viviste vivió vivimos vivisteis vivieron SAME ENDINGS!!

Verbo Presente Pretérito dormir (yo) duermo dormí With the preterite, you don’t incorporate the present tense stem-changes. There are no “boot verbs” in the preterite. Verbo Presente Pretérito dormir (yo) duermo dormí acostarse (tú) te acuestas te acostaste volver (él) vuelve volvió Ejemplo: Normalmente me acuesto a las 10, pero anoche me acosté a medianoche. Translation: Normally I go to bed a 10, but last night I went to bed at midnight.

Verbo Presente Pretérito Bañarse (yo) me baño me bañé To put a reflexive verb in the past tense, just conjugate the verb into the preterite and put the reflexive pronoun where it should go according to the sentence structure. Verbo Presente Pretérito Bañarse (yo) me baño me bañé ducharse (tú) te duchas te duchaste Ejemplo: Anoche, mis hijos tuvieron que (had to) bañarse.

-car,-gar and –zar verbs have the same spelling changes in the yo form that you used for negative tu commands (except no “s”) -gar—gué -car—qué -zar—cé Pagar Yo pagué $5.00 para comer el almuerzo. ¿Cuánto pagaste tú? Sacar Mi hermano no sacó la basura, así que yo la saqué. Comenzar Mis amigos no comenzaron la tarea, pero yo sí la comencé.

Some practice…. comer (tú): bailar (yo): cantar (nosotros): cubrir (vosotros): escapar (él): empezar (ellos): cruzar (yo): empezar (yo): limpiar (yo): escuchar (tú): comiste bailé cantamos cubristeis escapó empezaron crucé empecé limpié escuchaste

A couple of irregulars that you’ll use a lot…. IR (to go) fui fuiste fue fuimos fuisteis fueron HACER (to make/do) hice hiciste hizo hicimos hicisteis hicieron yo tú él,ella, Ud. nosotros vosotros ellos, ellas, Uds.

Some more practice…. hacer (tú): irse (yo): asistir (nosotros): ir (vosotros): entregar (yo): ir:(ellos): hacer (yo y tú): hacer (ellas): pegar (él): hiciste me fui asistimos fuisteis entregué fueron hicimos hicieron pegó

Here are some words that will clue you in that you are dealing with a preterite tense verb. ayer yesterday ayer por la mañana yesterday morning ayer por la tarde yesterday afternoon anteayer the day before yesterday anoche last night desde el primer momento from the first moment en ese momento at that moment entonces then esta mañana this morning esta tarde this afternoon hace dos días, años two days, years ago la semana pasada last week después afterwards durante dos siglos for two centuries el año pasado last year el lunes por la noche Monday night el mes pasado last month el otro día the other day

La canción del pretérito “-é” con acento, “-aste”, “-ó”, “-ó” has an accent too you know, “-amos” is the same as the present tense, “-asteis” and “-aron” just make sense. pretérito –ar, pretérito –ar, pretérito –ar, and that’s the way it goes!

“-í” con acento, “-iste”, “-ió”, “-ó” has an accent too you know, “-imos” is close to the present tense, “-isteis” and “-ieron” just make sense. Pretérito –ir, Pretérito -er, Pretérito -ir, And that’s the way it goes ¡Olé! “isteis” and “ieron” just make sense. Canción, -ir, canción –er, canción –-ir, and that’s the way it goes!