The preterite: place a finished event on the timeline
CEFR A2
What you will learn
- Build all six persons of regular preterite verbs in the three conjugations.
- Recognise and form frequent irregular preterites without adding regular accents.
- Choose the preterite for a completed event located in a closed past frame.
The idea
The preterite presents an event as a complete whole. A two-minute call and a ten-year stay can both use it if the speaker places each one inside a finished period. Closed markers such as “ayer”, “el sábado”, “en 2024” and “la semana pasada” make this viewpoint especially clear. They locate the event; they do not merely say that it was long ago.
“-er” and “-ir” share one set of endings. Only the “yo” and third-person singular forms carry written accents in regular verbs: “comí”, “comió”. The accents distinguish pronunciation and, in many cases, tense.
The “nosotros” forms of regular “-ar” and “-ir” verbs look exactly like the present: “hablamos”, “vivimos”. A time marker or the surrounding story supplies the tense.
Many common irregulars use a special stem plus “-e, -iste, -o, -imos, -isteis, -ieron”: “tuv-”, “estuv-”, “pud-”, “pus-”, “sup-”, “quis-” and “vin-”. These endings never take a written accent.
“Hacer” has “hic-” but changes to “hiz-” before the third-person singular “-o”: “hizo”. Stems ending in “j”, including “dij-” and “traj-”, take “-eron” rather than “-ieron”: “dijeron”, “trajeron”.
Complete regular preterite
| person | hablar | comer | vivir |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | hablé | comí | viví |
| tú | hablaste | comiste | viviste |
| él / ella / usted | habló | comió | vivió |
| nosotros / nosotras | hablamos | comimos | vivimos |
| vosotros / vosotras | hablasteis | comisteis | vivisteis |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | hablaron | comieron | vivieron |
Complete high-frequency irregular paradigms
| person | tener | estar | hacer | ir / ser | ver | dar |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| yo | tuve | estuve | hice | fui | vi | di |
| tú | tuviste | estuviste | hiciste | fuiste | viste | diste |
| él / ella / usted | tuvo | estuvo | hizo | fue | vio | dio |
| nosotros / nosotras | tuvimos | estuvimos | hicimos | fuimos | vimos | dimos |
| vosotros / vosotras | tuvisteis | estuvisteis | hicisteis | fuisteis | visteis | disteis |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | tuvieron | estuvieron | hicieron | fueron | vieron | dieron |
How it sounds
- The preterite presents the two events as a complete sequence.“El martes” is a finished time frame. Both actions advance the story as completed events. “Preparó” uses the regular third-person “-ó”; “salió” uses the “-ir” third-person “-ió”.
Your turn
Two or three, to check that the bit above landed.
The first panel shows a shop completing its day. El sábado la tienda ___ a las seis. (cerrar)
cerró — “El sábado” is closed and “la tienda” is third-person singular, so regular “cerrar” takes “-ó”.
Use the middle panel: Ayer nosotros ___ fruta y pan. (comprar)
compramos — “Ayer” closes the event. The regular preterite of “comprar” for “nosotros” is “compramos”; context distinguishes it from the identical present form.
Use the three parcels in the last panel: Ayer ellos ___ tres paquetes. (traer)
trajeron — “Ayer” closes the event. “Traer” uses the j-stem “traj-”; in the third-person plural, a j-stem takes “-eron”: “trajeron”.
What your own language pushes you to say
Wrong El año pasado vivía seis meses en Bogotá.
Right El año pasado viví seis meses en Bogotá.
The six-month stay is bounded inside last year. Its length does not make it imperfect.
Once it makes sense
Practise this: “Comí” or “comía”Practise this: “He comido” or “comí”: today's pastThe present tense: three endings and you can talkThe imperfect: build the background of a past sceneThe present perfect: a past event connected to now