The over and done with past tense!

The preterite tense is used to talk about COMPLETED ACTIONS IN THE PAST in a SPECIFIC TIME FRAME.

Examples:

•I ate an apple.

Did I finish eating the apple?

YES, therefore it is preterite.

•He studied for the test.

Did he finish studying?

YES, therefore it is preterite. (There is nothing to suggest that he didn’t finish studying.)

•I was studying.

Did I finish studying?

We don’t know. We know it’s in the past, but we don’t if the action is finished. This is NOT preterite.

One more (a bit more tricky….)

•My friend was studying when I called him.

There are TWO verbs here: “was studying” and “called”.

Are they:

A) both preterite

B) only “was studying” is preterite

C) only “called” is preterite

The answer is C!!! The first verb, “was studying” was not completed. It was interrupted by “called”.

Remember!! A preterite is an action we know is COMPLETED in the past!

Which of the following are examples of a preterite verb?

1. I eat fish every day.

NO…This is present tense

2. He played soccer yesterday.

YES…He COMPLETED the action of playing soccer.

3. I was talking on the phone when my brother entered into the room.

NO and YES “was talking on the phone” is an INTERRUPTED action in the past. “entered” is a COMPLETED action

4. I dropped the book when my friend scared me.

YES and YES “dropped” is a COMPLETED action “scared” is a COMPLETED action

Some practice….

How to form the preterite in Spanish (regular verbs)

yo

tú

él,ella, Ud.

nosotros

vosotros

ellos, ellas, Uds.

-AR -ER -IR

hablAR comER vivIR

hablé

hablaste

habló

hablamos

hablasteis

hablaron

comí

comiste

comió

comimos

comisteis

comieron

viví

viviste

vivió

vivimos

vivisteis

vivieron

SAME ENDINGS!!

With the preterite, you don’t incorporate the present tense stem-changes. There are no “boot verbs” in the preterite.

Verbo Presente Pretérito

dormir (yo)duermo dormíacostarse (tú) te acuestas te acostastevolver (él) vuelve volvió

Ejemplo: Normalmente me acuesto a las 10, pero anoche me acosté a medianoche.Translation:

Normally I go to bed a 10, but last night I went to bed at midnight.

To put a reflexive verb in the past tense, just conjugate the verb into the preterite and put the reflexive pronoun where it should go according to the sentence structure.

Verbo Presente Pretérito

Bañarse (yo) me baño me bañé

ducharse (tú) te duchas te duchaste

Ejemplo: Anoche, mis hijos tuvieron que (had to) bañarse.

-car,-gar and –zar verbs have the same spelling changes in the yo form that you used for

negative tu commands (except no “s”)

-gar—gué -car—qué -zar—cé

PagarYo pagué $5.00 para comer el almuerzo.¿Cuánto pagaste tú?

SacarMi hermano no sacó la basura, así que yo la saqué.

ComenzarMis amigos no comenzaron la tarea, pero yo sí la comencé.

Some practice….

1. comer (tú):

2. bailar (yo):

3. cantar (nosotros):

4. cubrir (vosotros):

5. escapar (él):

6. empezar (ellos):

7. cruzar (yo):

8. empezar (yo):

9. limpiar (yo):

10.escuchar (tú):

comiste

bailé

cantamos

cubristeis

escapó

empezaron

crucé

empecé

limpié

escuchaste

A couple of irregulars that you’ll use a lot….

IR (to go)

fui

fuiste

fue

fuimos

fuisteis

fueron

yo

tú

él,ella, Ud.

nosotros

vosotros

ellos, ellas, Uds.

HACER (to make/do)

hice

hiciste

hizo

hicimos

hicisteis

hicieron

Some more practice….

1. hacer (tú):

2. irse (yo):

3. asistir (nosotros):

4. ir (vosotros):

5. entregar (yo):

6. ir:(ellos):

7. hacer (yo y tú):

8. hacer (ellas):

9. pegar (él):

10.hacer (tú):

hiciste

me fui

asistimos

fuisteis

entregué

fueron

hicimos

hicieron

pegó

hiciste

Here are some words that will clue you in that you are dealing with a preterite tense verb.

ayeryesterday

ayer por la mañanayesterday morning

ayer por la tardeyesterday afternoon

anteayerthe day before yesterday

anochelast night

desde el primer momentofrom the first moment

despuésafterwards

durante dos siglosfor two centuries

el año pasado last year

el lunes por la nocheMonday night

el mes pasadolast month

el otro díathe other day

en ese momento at that moment

entoncesthen

esta mañanathis morning

esta tardethis afternoon

hace dos días, añostwo days, years ago

la semana pasadalast week

La canción del pretérito

•“-é” con acento, “-aste”, “-ó”,

• “-ó” has an accent too you know, •“-amos” is the same as the present

tense,

•“-asteis” and “-aron” just make sense.

•pretérito –ar, pretérito –ar, pretérito –ar,

•and that’s the way it goes!

•“-í” con acento, “-iste”, “-ió”, • “-ó” has an accent too you know, •“-imos” is close to the present

tense, •“-isteis” and “-ieron” just make

sense.•Pretérito –ir, Pretérito -er,

Pretérito -ir, •And that’s the way it goes ¡Olé!

“isteis” and “ieron” just make sense. Canción, -ir, canción –er, canción –-ir, and that’s the way it goes!