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.
|
Estaba
enojada cuando entró Ana en la sala
|
I was angry when Ana entered the room.
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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 |
Tú | aste | iste |
Él, ella, usted | ó | ió |
Nosotros | amos | imos |
Ellos, ellas, ustedes | aron | ieron |
Examples:
Yo | Tú | Él | Nosotros | Ellos | |
Hablar | hablé | hablaste | habló | hablamos | hablaron |
Comer | comí | comiste | comió | comimos | comieron |
Vivir | Viví | viviste | vivió | vivimos | vivieron |
- The Nosotros form in the Preterite is the same as the Nosotros in the Present Tense for "-ar" and "-ir" verbs. "-Er" verbs follow the "-ir" pattern.
- The Preterite 3rd person plural (ellos, ellas, ustedes) ends in "-ron".
Spelling Changes in the Preterite | Changes in Meaning in the Preterite | Stem-Changers in the Preterite | Preterite irregulars! |