El pretérito
The preterite is one of the 2 past tenses in Spanish. It is used to talk about completed actions. It is used to narrate past events.
Key words ayeryesterday anochelast night la semana pasadalast week el mes pasadolast month el año pasadolast year el verano pasadolast summer
Los verbos -ar To form the preterite follow these steps: Take off the –ar Add the correct ending
Las terminaciones (yo)é (tú)aste (él/ella)ó (nosotros)amos (ellos/ellas)aron The nosotros forms are the same in the present and preterite. To figure out the tense, you must look at the context clues in the sentence.
hablar- to speak hablé (I spoke) hablaste (you spoke) habló (He/she spoke) hablamos (we spoke) hablaron (They/you all spoke)
There are no stem-changes with –ar verbs in the preterite. There are spelling changes that are needed for pronunciation.
Spelling changes Verbs that end in –car change the c to a qu in the yo form sacar → saqué
Verbs that end in –gar change the g to a gu in the yo form jugar → jugué
Verbs that end in –zar change the z to a c in the yo form empezar → empecé