Preterite Tense The basics…

When do we use the preterite? When talking about a specific action completed in the past. When something happened at a fixed point in time. When something happened a specific number of times. When something happened during an enclosed amount of time.

Fixed Point in Time I walked the dog yesterday. I called you at four o’clock. We went to the movies last night. Last Tuesday afternoon, I went skating.

Specific Number of Times I played the song four times. I ate ten ants. She read the book twice. We smelled four smelly shoes.

Enclosed Amount of Time We did homework for thirteen hours. She lived in New York for three years. The assembly lasted for five hours.

- ar verb endings éamos asteasteis óaron

- er/ir endings íimos isteisteis ióieron

Irregular Endings in the Yo Form -car -gar -zar =qué =gué =cé

Irregular Verbs in the Preterite: serfui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fueron irfui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fueron hacer hice, hiciste, hizo, hicimos, hicieron ponerpuse, pusiste, puso, pusimos, pusieron tenertuve, tuviste, tuvo, tuvimos, tuvieron

Other Notes: Many times, stem-changing verbs like pensar will not change in the preterite. Use the back of your text or the book 501 Spanish verbs to look up irregular verbs.