The Preterite

The Preterite is the first past tense you will learn.  Up until now you could say that "I arrest you", "I am arresting you", and "I am going to arrest you."  But now we will learn how to say "Last night, I arrested that guy."

The Preterite is the past action tense.  In other words, you can say what Happened or occurred.  It is not used to describe people (He was tall...) nor to describe or set scenes (It was a dark and stormy night and I was watching television...) 

¡Pasó la señal de alto sin parar! He passed a stop sign without stopping!
¡El ladrón entró por la ventana! The robber entered through the window!
¡Me robaron el carro y todo mi dinero! They stole (robbed me of) my car  and  all my money!
Él llamó a su novia, salió de la casa y manejó al cine. He called his girlfriend, left the house and drove to the movies.
Empezó a llorar. 
He began to cry.
Terminó el examen.
He finished the test.
Me puse enojada [or] Me enojé.
I became angry.



NOTE: the Preterite isn't used to decribe an existing emotional state, like "He was angry".  Then we use a different past tense which is called the Imperfect past tense.
Estaba enojada cuando entró Ana en la sala
I was angry when Ana entered the room.
This sentence is a description of how someone was feeling.

But, back to the Preterite!  Let's take a look at the basic endings we use when we conjugate verbs into the Preterite.


AR VERBS  ER/IR VERBS
Yo é í
aste iste
Él, ella, usted ó
Nosotros amos imos
Ellos, ellas, ustedes aron ieron

 

Examples:


Yo Él Nosotros Ellos
Hablar hablé hablaste habló hablamos hablaron
Comer comí comiste comió comimos comieron
Vivir Viví viviste vivió vivimos vivieron
Spelling Changes in the Preterite Changes in Meaning in the Preterite Stem-Changers in the Preterite Preterite irregulars!

 

Practice conjugating the preterite on the web!

Dicho y Hecho 7th edition Chapter 5 Preterite Challenge Board
Imperfect past tense Back to the Verbs page!

Practice all the forms of the Preterite including the Irregulars. Choose from a selection of exercises.

Practice all the Preterite forms (regular and Irregular) alone or with another student on the Preterite forms Challenge Board
Preterite vs. Imperfect past tenses
Copyright © 2000 Deborah R. Lemon. All rights reserved.