Spelling changes in the preterite -car, -gar, -zar verbs
¿Cómo se dice…? …the él/ella form of “buscar” in the preterite? …the yo form of “buscar” in the preterite? How do you pronounce this word? buscé It’s a “soft” c. To make a “hard” c you must add qu. busqué
¿Cómo se dice…? …the él/ella form of “pagar” in the preterite? …the yo form of “pagar” in the preterite? How do you pronounce this word? pagé It’s a “soft” g. To make a “hard” g you must add a u. pagué
¿Cómo se dice…? …the él/ella form of “empezar” in the preterite? …the yo form of “empezar” in the preterite? How do you pronounce this word? empezé “ze” is not allowed in Spanish**, so it changes to… empecé **It has to do with the development from Latin; “z” is borrowed from Greek.
Think about English Some words change spelling when in the past tense You panic. (present) You panicked. (past) Look at page 227 for more information
¡A trabajar! Página 228, actividad 5