1. Forming the Regular Preterit

2. The preterit is one of two past tenses in Spanish
The preterit is one of two past tenses in Spanish. It is used with great frequency but is, unfortunately, the most complicated tense to form.

3. -aste -asteis -iste -isteis -ó -aron -ió -ieron
There are two sets of regular endings: one for –ar and one for –er/-ir verbs.
hablar comer/vivir
-é -amos -í -imos
-aste -asteis -iste -isteis
-ó -aron -ió -ieron
Drop the –ar/-er/-ir and then add the endings.
hablé hablamos comí comimos viví vivimos
hablaste hablasteis comiste comisteis viviste vivisteis
habló hablaron comió comieron vivió vivieron

4. ACCENT MARKS ARE ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY!!!
Look what happens if you leave off an accent mark:
hablé hablamos
hablaste hablasteis
habló hablaron
Without the accent mark, you have “I speak” (hablo) instead of “he spoke” (habló). You don’t know it yet, but if you leave off the accent mark in “hablé,” that means something different too.

5. Note that, while the “vosotros” form looks intimidating, it’s simply the “tú” form with “-is” added to it.
-é -amos -í -imos
-aste -asteis -iste -isteis
-ó -aron -ió -ieron
Note also that the “nosotros” form of –ar verbs and of –ir verbs is the same as the present but that the “nosotros” form of –er verbs is NOT.
present
hablamos comemos vivimos
preterit
hablamos comimos vivimos

6. Note that –ar verbs and –er verbs don’t stem change
Note that –ar verbs and –er verbs don’t stem change. -ir verbs do, but that will be discussed in a later section.
volver salir pensar
vuelve  volvió salgo  salí piensas  pensaste
he returns  he returned I leave  I left you think  you thought
All the practice exercises will be done as above. You’re given, for example, “vuelve” and must change it to “volvió.”

7. Click here to go to a drill. Click here to go to a practice exercise.
You don’t have to turn in the above two, but
heaven help you if you don’t master
this material.
Click here to go to your homework.