GG_Preterite-Tense

Preterite Tense

Regular & Irregular Verbs

START

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Índice

WHAT is the preterite tense?

HOW to conjugate verbs in preterite?

WHEN to use the preterite tense?

WHAT is the preterite tense?

IRREGULAR verbs

REGULAR verbs

Let's RECAP

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WHAT is the preterit tense?

The preterite tense, also called past simple, is used primarily to talk about completed actions in the past.

Vivía en Australia hasta que comenzó la pandemia.I was living in Australia until the pandemic started

Me desperté y llamé María.I woke up and I called María

Anoche comí pizza.I ate pizza last night

Let's talk about the Preterite's uses a bit deeply

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WHEN to use the Preterite?

In Spanish we use Preterite Tense or Past Simple in the following situations:

• To refer to actions that began and ended in the past and were carried out in a timely manner

• To speak about actions that went on for a certain amount of time

• To narrate or enumerate facts or events

La Catrina protagonizó el cortometraje animado Hasta los huesos, del director René Castillo La Catrina starred in the animated short film Hasta los huesos by director René Castillo

Frida Khalo y Diego Rivera vivieron en la casa azul entre 1929 y 1954 Frida Khalo and Diego Rivera lived in the blue house between 1929 and 1954

Posada nació en Aguascalientes y murió en la Ciudad de México Posada was born in Aguascalientes and died in Mexico City

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“” /””, “anoche” / “”, “la semana pasada” / “last week”, “en junio” / “in june”, “en 1991” / “in 1991”, “hace mucho” “long time ago”, “hace dos semanas” / “two weeks ago”, etc.:

WHEN to use the Preterite?

Preterite Tense or Past Simple is commonly used with time markers such as:

• ayer - yesterday
• anoche - last night
• la semana pasada / el viernes pasado/ el año pasado /el mes pasado / el invierno pasado... - last week/ last Friday/ last year/ last month/ last winter...
• en junio - in june
• en 1990 - in 1990
• hace mucho - long time ago
• hace dos días/ hace dos semanas/ hace dos años... - two days ago/ twoweeks ago/ two years ago/two...

En 1947 el muralista mexicano Diego Rivera recuperó la imagen de ‘La Catrina’ In 1947 the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera recovered the image of 'La Catrina' La semana pasada visité una exposición sobre la evolución de 'La Catrina' I visited an exhibition on the evolution of 'La Catrina'

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HOW to conjugate verbs in Preterite?

Verbs in the infinitive must be conjugated in Preterite tense by removing the endings -ar, -er, -ir and adding those corresponding to each person. As this table shows:

Regular Preterite

Verbs

Let's see some examples

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HOW to conjugate verbs in Preterite?

Regular verbs have always the same ending, so by applying this rule you can conjugate them all:

Regular Preterite

Verbs

*There is no difference between Past Tense and Present Tense in 1st person singular (nosotros): Nosotros hablamos hoy Nosotros hablamos ayer But watch out! This only happens with the first group (-AR verbs)

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HOW to conjugate verbs in Preterite?

In the case of reflexive verbs, the reflexive pronoun (me, te, se, nos, os, se) always comes before the verb. However, the verb conjugation is the same:

Regular Preterite

Reflexive

Verbs

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HOW to conjugate verbs in Preterite?

There are irregular verbs that follow a different pattern. Those are the verbs that I call 100% irregular verbs and in Preterite they are: SER, IR and DAR:

irRegular Preterite

Verbs

Yes! You are not seeing double;) IR and SER are conjugated in the same way in the Preterite

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HOW to conjugate verbs in Preterite?

Several irregular verbs follow the same pattern in the preterite. They change the stem of the verb into a different stem, and then they add the same set of endings. These endings are different to the ones that regular preterite verbs in Spanish share. Here's an example:

irRegular Preterite

Verbs

Please, notice that these endings are really similiar to the regular endings for -ER & -IR group. Only 1st and 3rd person of singular forms (yo and él/ ella/ usted) changed

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HOW to conjugate verbs in Preterite?

Here you have a list of irregular verbs with their corresponding stems:

irRegular Preterite

Verbs

*The change in the steam (c VS z) is due to ortographic reasons. Rememer: the /θ/ sound (e.g. thanks) in Spanish is written like this: c+e / c+i z+a / z+o / z+u

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HOW to conjugate verbs in Preterite?

There are 14 stem-changing verbs in preterite. Those are the verbs whose stem change only in the 3rd person of singular and plural.

Stem-Changing

Verbs

• In the Preterite, all of them belong to the 3rd group (-IR).
• There are two kind of changes:
• e > i (pedir - pidió)
• o > u (morir - murió)

Let's see some examples

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HOW to conjugate verbs in Preterite?

Here you have two examples of stem-changing verbs in Preterite: one belongs from the group e > i (e.g. pedir - él/ ella/ usted pidió) and the other one from the group o > u (e.g. dormir - él/ ella/ usted durmió)

Stem-Changing

Verbs

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HOW to conjugate verbs in Preterite?

Some verbs need a change when conjugated just for ortopgraphic reasons. Here you have a list:

Ortographic Changing

Verbs

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HOW to conjugate verbs in Preterite?

Sometimes it’s necessary to change the final consonant of the root in the first person singular of verbs ending in -ar, in order to keep the pronunciation of the root that has the infinitive

Spelling Change

Verbs

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Let's RECAP

• WHEN: the Preterite is the most common tense for talking about the past. In Spanish, we use Preterite to talk about actions that:

• were completed at a certain point in the past

• went on for a certain amount of time
• were part of a series of events

• HOW: Preterite verbs are conjugated by removing the endings -ar, -er, -ir from the infinitive form and adding the corresponding ending to each person.

• HABLAR (to speak): yo hablé, tú hablaste, él habló, nosotros hablamos, vosotros hablasteis , ellos hablaron
• COMER (to eat): yo comí, tú comiste, él comió, nosotros comimos, vosotros comisteis , ellos comieron
• VIVIR (to live): yo viví, tú viviste, él vivió, nosotros vivimos, vosotros vivisteis , ellos vivieron

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Let's RECAP

• HOW:

• Regular Verbs: they have always the same ending

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Let's RECAP

• HOW:

• Irregular Verbs: we can distinguise between different levels of irregularity:
• 100% irregular verbs: SER (to be), IR (to go), DAR (to give)
• Irregular verbs with a same pattern: ANDAR (to walk), CABER (to fit), DECIR (to say), ESTAR (to be), HABER (to exist), HACER (to make), PODER (can), PONER (to put), QUERER (to want), SABER (to know), TENER (to have), TRAER (to bring), VENIR (to come)
• Stem-changing verbs: PEDIR (to ask), SERVIR (to serve), DIVERTIRSE (to have fun), CONSEGUIR (to get), DESPEDIRSE (to say goodbye), PREFERIR (to prefer), REIR(SE) (to laugh), SONREIR (to smile), SENTIR(SE) (to feel), SEGUIR (to follow), SUGERIR (to suggest), VESTIR (to wear), DORMIR (to sleep), MORIR (to die)
• Ortographic changing verbs: TRADUCIR (to translate), CONDUCIR (to drive), CAER (to fall), LEER (to read), OIR (to hear), DISTRIBUIR (to distribute)
• Spelling changing verbs: APARCAR (to park), LLEGAR (to arrive), EMPEZAR (to start), AVERIGUAR (to discover)

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Let's RECAP

• HOW: Irregular Verbs - 100% irregular verbs:

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Let's RECAP

• HOW: Irregular Verbs - Irregular verbs with a same pattern:

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Let's RECAP

• HOW: Irregular Verbs - Stem-changing verbs:

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Let's RECAP

• HOW: Irregular Verbs - Ortographic changing verbs:

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Let's RECAP

• HOW: Irregular Verbs - Spelling changing verbs:

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Bibliografía

Inspiration found in the following sites

01

Spanish Easy Learning Grammar, Collins Education

02

Plazas, Enhanced, 5th Edition, Cengage (by Hershberger/Navey-Davis/Borrás Alvarez's)

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