Spanish Preterite Tense – Learn and Practice

Welcome 😊 to our grammar lesson on the Spanish Preterite Tense (“Pretérito Indefinido” or “Pretérito Perfecto Simple”).

We use the Preterite to talk about actions in the past.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to conjugate verbs in Preterite Tense and use them in sentences.

You will also find a Quiz and Exercises to practice.

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Note: If you are looking for a lesson on how to choose between the Preterite and Imperfect tenses, go here ➡️ SPANISH PRETERITE VS IMPERFECT

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Conjugation of verbs in Preterite Tense

In order to learn the conjugations, we will divide verbs into two grupos:

• On one hand, regular and almost-regular verbs
• On the other hand, very irregular verbs

Regular and almost-regular verbs

Regular verbs

The following table shows the endings we need to add to regular verbs in -ar (example “hablar”), -er (example “beber”) and -ir (example “partir”):

	hablar to speak	beber to drink	partir to depart
yo	hablé	bebí	partí
tú	hablaste	bebiste	partiste
él	habló	bebió	partió
nosotros	hablamos	bebimos	partimos
vosotros	hablasteis	bebisteis	partisteis
ellos	hablaron	bebieron	partieron

Notice that the endings for verbs in “-er” and “-ir” are identical.

Almost-regular verbs

The verbs we are calling almost-regular add the same endings as regular verbs.

But they have one of the following irregularities:

• In some verbs, a vowel “e” becomes “i” for the persons “él” and “ellos”.

Examples:

	pedir to ask for	repetir to repeat	sentir to feel
yo	pedí	repetí	sentí
tú	pediste	repetiste	sentiste
él	pidió	repitió	sintió
nosotros	pedimos	repetimos	sentimos
vosotros	pedisteis	repetisteis	sentisteis
ellos	pidieron	repitieron	sintieron

• In other verbs, a vowel “o” becomes “u” for “él” and “ellos”.

Examples:

	dormir to sleep	morir to die
yo	dormí	morí
tú	dormiste	moriste
él	durmió	murió
nosotros	dormimos	morimos
vosotros	dormisteis	moristeis
ellos	durmieron	murieron

• In other verbs, a vowel “i” becomes “y” in the ending for “él” and “ellos”. Also, these verbs have accent marks for all persons except “ellos”.

Examples:

	creer to believe	caer to fall	leer to read
yo	creí	caí	leí
tú	creíste	caíste	leíste
él	creyó	cayó	leyó
nosotros	creímos	caímos	leímos
vosotros	creísteis	caísteis	leísteis
ellos	creyeron	cayeron	leyeron

Accent marks on regular and almost-regular verbs

All regular and almost-regular verbs have accent marks for “yo” and “él”.

Have you noticed that in the tables above? 🙂

And verbs of the last type we have studied (where a letter “y” appears) have even more accent marks!

Very irregular verbs

Now let’s study the verbs we are calling very irregular. First we have “ver”, “dar”, “ser” and “ir”:

• “ver” adds the regular endings, but it has no accent marks at all:

	ver to see
yo	vi
tú	viste
él	vio
nosotros	vimos
vosotros	visteis
ellos	vieron

• “dar” adds the endings for verbs in “-er” and “-ir”, instead of “-ar”. Also, no accent marks:

	dar to give
yo	di
tú	diste
él	dio
nosotros	dimos
vosotros	disteis
ellos	dieron

• “ser” (to be) and “ir” (to go) are identical in Preterite Tense, with a very irregular conjugation:

	ser / ir to be / to go
yo	fui
tú	fuiste
él	fue
nosotros	fuimos
vosotros	fuisteis
ellos	fueron

Rest of very irregular verbs

The rest of very irregular verbs conjugate in the following way:

– Each verb has an irregular stem in Preterite.
– Also, the endings are different from the regular ones.

The following table shows the most important verbs of this type. In the middle column, we see the irregular stem we need to use in Preterite. In the right column, the endings for each person:

Verb	Irregular Stem	Endings for these irregular verbs
andar to walk	anduv-	-e (yo) -iste (tú) -o (él) -imos (nosotros) -isteis (vosotros) -ieron / *-eron (ellos)
estar to be	estuv-
hacer to do	hic-
poder can	pud-
poner to put	pus-
querer to want	quis-
saber to know	sup-
tener to have	tuv-
venir to come	vin-
decir to say	dij-*
producir to produce	produj-*
conducir to drive	conduj-*
traer to bring	traj-*

* For verbs whose stem ends in “j”, the ending for “ellos” is “-eron”. For the rest, it is “-ieron”.

Now that we understand the process, here are again the verbs in the table above, fully conjugated in Preterite:

	Irregular Stem	Full conjugation
andar to walk	anduv-	anduve, anduviste, anduvo, anduvimos, anduvisteis, anduvieron
estar to be	estuv-	estuve, estuviste, estuvo, estuvimos, estuvisteis, estuvieron
hacer to do	hic-	hice, hiciste, hizo, hicimos, hicisteis, hicieron CAREFUL! 3rd person is "hizo", not "hico"
poder can	pud-	pude, pudiste, pudo, pudimos, pudisteis, pudieron
poner to put	pus-	puse, pusiste, puso, pusimos, pusisteis, pusieron
querer to want	quis-	quise, quisiste, quiso, quisimos, quisisteis, quisieron
saber to know	sup-	supe, supiste, supo, supimos, supisteis, supieron
tener to have	tuv-	tuve, tuviste, tuvo, tuvimos, tuvisteis, tuvieron
venir to come	vin-	vine, viniste, vino, vinimos, vinisteis, vinieron
decir to say	dij-	dije, dijiste, dijo, dijimos, dijisteis, dijeron
producir to produce	produj-	produje, produjiste, produjo, produjimos, produjisteis, produjeron
conducir to drive	conduj-	conduje, condujiste, condujo, condujimos, condujisteis, condujeron
traer to bring	traj-	traje, trajiste, trajo, trajimos, trajisteis, trajeron

No accent marks on very irregular verbs

Very irregular verbs do not have accent marks, at all.

Have you noticed that in the tables above? 🙂

Uses of the Preterite

We use the Preterite to talk about actions and events in the past. It tends to answer the question: “What happened?”

To be more specific, the typical cases where we use the Preterite are:

Past actions that happened once or a stated number of times

It doesn’t matter how long the action took.

What matters is that we express it as a completed action that happened once or a stated number of times:

Juan compró una lavadora ayer.
Juan bought a washing machine yesterday.

Yo estudié Biología en la Universidad de Madrid.
I studied Biology at the University of Madrid.

Ana y María fueron al cine cuatro veces el mes pasado.
Ana and María went to the movies four times last month.

El año pasado estuve enfermo dos veces.
Last year I was sick twice.

Past actions with a stated duration

Yo viví diez años en Perú.
I lived in Peru for ten years.

Lola y Pablo fueron amigos durante toda su infancia.
Lola and Pablo were friends throughout their childhood.

A chain of events in the past, one after another

We use the Preterite when we relate a series of events, one after another: “This happened, then that happened, etc.”

We can illustrate this with the following graph. Look at it and then read the examples below: each example is a chain of events, one after another.

Ayer, Laura se levantó a las siete de la mañana. Luego se duchó, desayunó, se vistió y fue a hacer la compra.
Yesterday, Laura got up at seven in the morning. Then she took a shower, ate breakfast, got dressed, and went shopping.

Primero estudié en un colegio público. Más tarde mis padres me metieron en uno privado.
First I studied in a public school. Later my parents put me in a private one.

Beginnings and endings in the past

When we talk about the past, we tend to conjugate verbs that express beginnings and endings in Preterite Tense. For example:

• empezar = to start / to begin
• comenzar = to start / to begin
• terminar = to finish / to end
• acabar = to finish / to end

La película empezó a las diez.
The movie started at ten o’clock.

Las personas comenzaron a hablar.
People started talking.

La película terminó a las doce.
The movie ended at twelve o’clock.

Acabé de contar la historia.
I finished telling the story.

Keywords with the Preterite

The following keywords tend to work well in sentences with the Preterite:

• ayer = yesterday
• anteayer = the day before yesterday
• el otro día = the other day
• la semana pasada = last week
• el mes pasado = last month
• el año pasado = last year
• hace X días = X days ago
• hace X semanas = X weeks ago
• hace X meses = X months ago
• hace X años = X years ago
• hace mucho tiempo = a long time ago

Examples:

Tú pintaste un paisaje el otro día.
You painted a landscape the other day.

El año pasado aprendimos italiano.
Last year we learned Italian.

Ellos fueron a Argentina hace seis meses.
They went to Argentina six months ago.

Practice

Quiz

Take this Quiz about the Preterite Tense:

Exercise 1

The following sentences express past actions that happened once or a stated number of times.

Fill the gaps conjugating the verbs in brackets in Preterite Tense. Click on the gray spaces to see the solutions.

All verbs in this exercise are completely regular:

1) Yo compré una revista ayer. (comprar)
I bought a magazine yesterday.

2) Marta ganó el partido de bádminton. (ganar)
Marta won the badminton match.

3) La semana pasada, tú saliste el viernes y el sábado. (salir)
Last week, you went out on Friday and Saturday.

4) Nosotros bailamos salsa cuatro veces el mes pasado. (bailar)
We danced salsa four times last month.

5) El año pasado, ellos corrieron en tres campeonatos de atletismo. (correr)
Last year, they ran in three track and field championships.

Exercise 2

The following sentences express past actions with a stated duration.

All verbs in this exercise are what we have called “almost-regular”:

1) Anoche, Ángela durmió solo cuatro horas. (dormir)
Last night, Angela slept only four hours.

2) Yo dormí ocho horas. (dormir)
I slept eight hours.

3) Los alumnos leyeron toda la tarde. (leer)
The students read all afternoon.

4) El paciente sintió dolor durante varias horas. (sentir)
The patient felt pain for several hours.

Exercise 3

These sentences express past actions about beginnings and endings:

1) Ayer, yo empecé a trabajar a las nueve. (empezar)
Yesterday, I started work at nine o’clock.

2) Lidia terminó de trabajar a las cinco. (terminar)
Lidia finished work at five.

3) Los festejos comenzaron el viernes. (comenzar)
The festivities started on Friday.

4) Vosotros acabasteis las tareas por la noche. (acabar)
You guys finished your homework in the evening.

Exercise 4

Finally, here we have several chains of events, one after another.

1) Anteayer, nosotras comimos en un restaurante italiano. Luego fuimos al cine y vimos una película. (comer, ir, ver)
The day before yesterday, we ate at an Italian restaurant. Then we went to the movies and watched a film.

2) Ana llegó al hotel y puso su maleta junto a la cama. A continuación llamó a su novio y le dijo que la habitación era muy bonita. (llegar, poner, llamar, decir)
Ana arrived at the hotel and put her suitcase next to the bed. Then she called her boyfriend and told him that the room was very nice.

3) Mi hermano vino a mi casa. Él y yo jugamos a la consola, y luego hicimos una comida muy rica. (venir, jugar, hacer)
My brother came to my house. He and I played console games, and then we made a really tasty meal.