The Preterite Tense
In this lesson you'll learn how to use the preterite tense in the Spanish language. This is one of several tenses that are used to talk about the past.
Many verbs in Spanish are very irregular in the preterite tense. A few of these verbs will be covered in this lesson, but for an in-depth look at Spanish irregular verbs have a look at the Irregular Spanish Verbs lesson.
Flashcards and a quiz are included at the end of the lesson.
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Preterite Tense
The preterite tense is used to indicate that a specific action was completed in the past. This tense is generally equivalent to the simple past tense in English, for example: They walked, I slept, We saw. The conjugation of the preterite tense for the three classes of verbs is shown in the following table.
| hablar (talk) | comer (eat) | vivir (live) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | hablé | comí | viví |
| tú | hablaste | comiste | viviste |
| usted | habló | comió | vivió |
| él, ella | habló | comió | vivió |
| nosotros | hablamos | comimos | vivimos |
| vosotros | hablasteis | comisteis | vivisteis |
| ustedes | hablaron | comieron | vivieron |
| ellos, ellas | hablaron | comieron | vivieron |
Examples
| Hablé con él ayer. | I talked to him yesterday. |
| Escribió la carta en español. | He wrote the letter in Spanish. |
| Hoy me desperté a las ocho. | I woke up at eight today. |
| Bebí el café. | I drank the coffee. |
| ¿Comiste la manzana? | Did you eat the apple? (familiar singular) |
| Carlos comió la manzana. | Carlos ate the apple. |
| Comimos la pizza. | We ate the pizza. |
| Ellos comieron la pizza. | They ate the pizza. |
| María y Jorge me hablaron ayer. | María and Jorge spoke to me yesterday. |
| El año pasado viajaron a Valencia. | Last year they traveled to Valencia. |
| El año pasado viajé a Valencia. | Last year I traveled to Valencia. |
Preterite of Estar, Ser, and Ir
Many common verbs in Spanish are irregular in the preterite tense. Here is the conjugation of the preterite tense for the verbs estar, ir and ser.
Note: The preterite tense of ir and ser are identical.
| estar (be) | ir (go) | ser (be) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | estuve | fui | fui |
| tú | estuviste | fuiste | fuiste |
| él/ella | estuvo | fue | fue |
| nosotros | estuvimos | fuimos | fuimos |
| vosotros | estuvisteis | fuisteis | fuisteis |
| ellos/ellas | estuvieron | fueron | fueron |
Examples
| Fuimos a la tienda. | We went to the store. |
| Pedro fue un gran amigo. | Pedro was a great friend. |
| Fueron al cine anoche. | They went to the movies last night. |
| Ayer estuve en la playa. | I was at the beach yesterday. |
Flashcards
This section contains flashcards to help you learn the preterite tense of Spanish verbs.
Practice
Rewrite each of the following sentences using the preterite tense.
Yo como una manzana.
Yo voy a la tienda.
Tú hablas español.
Tú comes la pizza.
Martín escribe un nuevo libro.
Ella bebe un vaso de agua.
Hugo lanza la roca.
Ellos nadan en el lago.
Isabella y Paula abren las ventanas.
Quiz
This quiz covers the preterite tense of Spanish verbs. You can take the quiz as many times as you'd like. Each time the questions will be a bit different.