El Pretérito Before you start your foldable there are some things you should know… The preterite is one of two past tenses in Spanish. The other is the imperfect and we will learn that one later. These tenses are used to talk about things that happened in the past.
Stem-changing verbs and Past Vocabulary El Pretérito -AR verbs -ER / -IR verbs Irregular verbs Irregular stems Stem-changing verbs and Past Vocabulary
Describing Past Activities Put these words on the inside of the top flap of your foldable. These are often used with the preterite: Last night - Anoche Yesterday - Ayer The day before yesterday - Anteayer Last year - El año pasado Last month - El mes pasado Last week - La semama pasada
-AR verbs Regular verb endings é amos aste asteis ó aron -ar verbs DO NOT stem- change in the preterite Spelling changes - car/-gar/-zar verbs “yo” form only c qu g gu z c
-ER and -IR verbs Regular verb endings í imos iste isteis ió ieron -er verbs DO NOT stem- change in the preterite Spelling changes i y 3rd person only leer, creer, oír él, ella, ud. leyó ellos, ellas, uds. leyeron These verbs have accents on the “i” in all forms except –yó and -yeron
Irregular verbs *no acentos ir / ser fui fuimos fuiste fuisteis fue fueron dar di dimos diste disteis dio dieron hacer hice hicimos hiciste hicisteis hizo hicieron ver vi vimos viste visteis vio vieron
Irregular stems (no acentos) Estar = estuv- Tener = tuv- Poder = pud- Poner = pus- Saber = sup- Querer = quise- Venir = vin- Decir = dij-* Traer = traj-* Endings e imos iste isteis o ieron Hay = hubo **No “i” in 3rd person plural endings: dijeron, trajeron
Stem-changing verbs only –IR verbs that stem-change in the present tense change in the preterite tense verbs only change in the 3rd person verbs ONLY change from e i and o u (regardless of how they change in the present tense)