El pretérito / Preterite

The preterite is used in Spanish to express a completed action. Some examples in English:

• I went shopping on Saturday.
• I did like that movie.

Don't confuse it with the present perfect tense, which uses "haber" and has a slightly different meaning.

The preterite is for many people the most difficult tense to form correctly in Spanish because there are so many irregular stems.

All you do to form the preterite is take the infinitive form of the verb, then drop the -ar/-er/-ir and add the following endings:

For -ar verbs:

• yo: -é
• tú: -aste
• él/ella/Usted: -ó
• nosotros: -amos
• (vosotros: -asteis)
• ellos/ellas/Ustedes: -aron

For -er and -ir verbs:

• yo: -í
• tú: -iste
• él/ella/Usted: -ió
• nosotros: -imos
• (vosotros: -isteis)
• ellos/ellas/Ustedes: -ieron

For verbs with irregular stems (see below):

• yo: -i
• tú: -iste
• él/ella/Usted: -o
• nosotros: -imos
• (vosotros: isteis)
• él/ella/Ustedes: -ieron ("-eron" if the stem ends in a "j")

Ir and Ser (to go and to be, respectively) have the same conjugation and it's unique:

• yo fui=I went or I was
  
• tú fuiste=you went or you were
  
• él/ella/Usted fue=he/she/you went or he/she/you were
  
• nosotros fuimos=we went or we were
  
• (vosotros fuisteis=you went or you were)
• ellos/ellas/Ustedes fueron=they/you went or they/you were
  

Hacer (to make, to do) also has a unique conjugation:

• yo hice=I made
  
• tú hiciste=you made
  
• él/ella/Usted hizo=he/she/you made
  
• nosotros hicimos=we made
  
• (vosotros hicisteis=you made)
• él/ella/Ustedes hicieron=they/you made
  

As you must have guessed, there are some more irregular stems you will have to memorize...

• tener (to have) --> tuv-
• poder (to be able) --> pud-
• poner (to put) --> pus-
• querer (to want) --> quis-
• saber (to know) --> sup-
• andar (to walk) --> anduv-
• conducir (to drive) --> conduj-
• dar (to give) --> d-
• ver (to see) --> v-
• decir (to say) --> dij-
• traer (to bring) --> traj-
• estar (to be) --> estuv-
• caber (to fit) --> cup-
• haber (helping verb to have) --> hub-
• venir (to come) --> vin-

Here's one more hitch (as if there weren't enough things to remember!): Verbs that end in -car, -gar, or -zar (often called car/gar/zar verbs) change their stems in the "yo" form of the conjugation to accommodate pronunciation and common spelling. Let's take a look at an example of each type:

buscar (to look for)
yo busqué=I looked for
tú buscaste=you looked for
él/ella/Usted buscó=he/she/you looked for
nosotros buscamos=we looked for
(vosotros buscáis=you looked for)
ellos/ellas/Ustedes buscaron=they/you looked for

• Notice the "c" becomes "qu" in the "yo" form to keep the hard /c/ sound
  

pagar (to pay)
yo pagué=I paid
tú pagaste=you paid
él/ella/Usted pagó=he/she/you paid
nosotros pagamos=we paid
(vosotros pagáis=you paid)
ellos/ellas/Ustedes pagaron=they/you paid

• Notice the "g" becomes "gu" in the "yo" form to keep the hard /g/ sound

almorzar (to have lunch)
yo almorcé=I had lunch
tú almorzaste=you had lunch
él/ella/Usted almorzó=he/she/you had lunch
nosotros almorzamos=we had lunch
(vosotros almorzáis=you had lunch)
ellos/ellas/Ustedes almorzaron=they/you had lunch

• Notice the "z" becomes a "c" in the "yo" form.

Here's how this tense can be translated:

• I/you/he/she/it/we/they [verb]ed.
• I/you/he/she/it/we/they did [verb].

Note: Sometimes the preterite and the imperfect are both translated the same way, but they are in different contexts. See the imperfect for information.