The Preterite Tense
![Segovia, Spain Segovia](/img/courses/spanish/segovia_385px.jpg)
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
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I talked to him yesterday. |
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He wrote the letter in Spanish. |
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I woke up at eight today. |
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I drank the coffee. |
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Did you eat the apple? (familiar singular) |
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Carlos ate the apple. |
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We ate the pizza. |
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They ate the pizza. |
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María and Jorge spoke to me yesterday. |
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Last year they traveled to Valencia. |
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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
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We went to the store. |
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Pedro was a great friend. |
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They went to the movies last night. |
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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.