Preterite Tense in Spanish Grammar
- When to use the Spanish preterite
- How to conjugate the Spanish preterite
- Verbs with spelling changes in the preterite
- Online exercises to improve your Spanish
- Lingolia Plus Spanish
What is the Spanish preterite?
The preterite (el pretérito indefinido de indicativo) is a Spanish indicative tense used for completed actions, facts or general truths in the past.
The preterite often appears together with the imperfect.
Learn to conjugate -ar, -er and -ir verbs in the preterite indicative tense with Lingolia, then put your knowledge to the test in the exercises.
To learn about the preterite in relation to other Spanish past tenses, check out our section all about tense comparison.
Example
Hace un par de meses viajé a Granada durante un fin de semana. Llegué el viernes temprano y me marché el domingo a última hora.
Desde que pones un pie en la ciudad, sientes su magia. Paseé por el Paseo de los Tristes admirando la Alhambra, disfruté de las vistas desde el mirador de San Miguel, me perdí por el Albaicín…
Por supuesto, también disfruté de la gastronomía de la tierra. Al caer la noche me fui de tapas: comí habas con jamón, remojón granadino y tortilla de Sacromonte, probé los piononos y descubrí bebidas riquísimas, como el té moruno.
El sábado por la mañana se puso a llover muchísimo de repente y todas las calles se llenaron de un brillo especial.
Sin duda, me llevé un gran recuerdo a casa de esta ciudad espectacular.
When to use the Spanish preterite
The Spanish preterite is similar to the English simple past tense (= I asked, I did, I made …).
We use the Spanish preterite tense to express:
- one-time past actions
- Example:
- Hace un par de meses viajé a Granada.A few months ago I travelled to Granada.
- a series or sequence of past actions
- Example:
- Paseé por el Paseo de los Tristes admirando la Alhambra, disfruté de las vistas desde el mirador de San Miguel, me perdí por el Albaicín.I strolled along the Paseo de los Tristes admiring the Alhambra, I enjoyed the views from the San Miguel viewpoint, I got lost in Albaicín.
- past actions with a defined start and end point
- Example:
- Llegué el viernes temprano y me marché el domingo a última hora.I arrived early on Friday and I left late on Sunday.
- past actions that began suddenly
- Example:
- El sábado por la mañana se puso a llover muchísimo de repente.On Saturday morning it suddenly started raining heavily.
When not to use the Spanish preterite
We don’t use the preterite for:
- past descriptions of people or background scenes
- repeated or ongoing actions in the past
- past actions whose start and end points are unknown
For these cases, you need the imperfect indicative.
If you have trouble choosing between these two tenses, head over to our page all about the difference between the preterite and imperfect tenses in Spanish grammar.
How to conjugate the Spanish preterite
Regular verbs
To conjugate a regular verb in the preterite tense, we remove the infinitive endings -ar, -er and -ir and add the following endings:
Note that -er and -ir verbs take the same endings in the preterite tense.
| Person | -ar | -er / -ir | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ending | hablar | Ending | aprender | vivir | |
| yo | -é | hablé | -í | aprendí | viví |
| tú | -aste | hablaste | -iste | aprendiste | viviste |
| él, ella, usted | -ó | habló | -ió | aprendió | vivió |
| nosotros/-as | -amos | hablamos | -imos | aprendimos | vivimos |
| vosotros/-as | -asteis | hablasteis | -isteis | aprendisteis | vivisteis |
| ellos/-as, ustedes | -aron | hablaron | -ieron | aprendieron | vivieron |
Reflexive verbs in the preterite
When we use a reflexive verb in the preterite tense, the reflexive pronoun (me, te, se, nos, os, se) always comes before the verb.
- Examples:
- yo me mudé
- tú te mudaste
- él se mudó
- nosotros nos mudamos
- vosotros os mudasteis
- ellos se mudaron
Irregular verbs in the preterite
Many common verbs are irregular in the preterite tense.
They change their stem and take special endings that are different to those for regular verbs.
The irregular preterite endings are: -e, -iste, -o, -imos, -isteis, -ieron.
| Infinitive | Irregular Stem | Preterite Conjugation (yo, tú, él, nosotros, vosotros, ellos) |
|---|---|---|
| andar | anduv- | anduve, anduviste, anduvo, anduvimos, anduvisteis, anduvieron |
| caber | cup- | cupe, cupiste, cupo, cupimos, cupisteis, cupieron |
| decir | dij- | dije, dijiste, dijo, dijimos, dijisteis, dijeron |
| estar | estuv- | estuve, estuviste, estuvo, estuvimos, estuvisteis, estuvieron |
| haber | hub- | hube, hubiste, hubo, hubimos, hubisteis, hubieron |
| hacer | hic- / hiz- | hice, hiciste, hizo, hicimos, hicisteis, hicieron |
| poder | pud- | pude, pudiste, pudo, pudimos, pudisteis, pudieron |
| poner | pus- | puse, pusiste, puso, pusimos, pusisteis, pusieron |
| querer | quis- | quise, quisiste, quiso, quisimos, quisisteis, quisieron |
| saber | sup- | supe, supiste, supo, supimos, supisteis, supieron |
| satisfacer | satisfic- / satisfiz- | satisfice, satisficiste, satisfizo, satisficimos, satisficisteis, satisficieron |
| tener | tuv- | tuve, tuviste, tuvo, tuvimos, tuvisteis, tuvieron |
| traer* | traj- | traje, trajiste, trajo, trajimos, trajisteis, trajeron |
| venir | vin- | vine, viniste, vino, vinimos, vinisteis, vinieron |
*The verb traer takes the ending -eron (not -ieron) in the 3rd person plural.
Compound verbs
Compound verbs
Compound verbs (los verbos derivados) are verbs formed by adding a prefix to an existing verb to change its meaning.
- Example:
- poner → imponerput → impose
These compound verbs are conjugated in the same way as the verbs they are based on, meaning that they maintain the stem-change and the irregular endings.
- Example:
- imponer → impus- → impuse, impusiste, impuso, impusimos, impusisteis, impusieron
- cf. poner: puse, pusiste, puso, pusimos, pusisteis, pusieron
Common examples of compound verbs include: contradecir, contener, detener, imponer, prevenir, proponer …
The verbs ir and ser
The verbs ir and ser are totally irregular in the preterite and are conjugated identically:
| Person | ir | ser |
|---|---|---|
| yo | fui | |
| tú | fuiste | |
| él, ella, usted | fue | |
| nostros/-as | fuimos | |
| vosotros/-as | fuisteis | |
| ellos/-as, ustedes | fueron | |
The context of the sentence helps us know which verb is being used.
The verb dar
Although the verb dar technically ends in -ar, it is irregular and is conjugated using the endings for regular -er/-ir verbs: -i, -iste, -io, -imos, -isteis, -ieron.
- Example:
- El viernes por la tarde di un paseo por el Albaicín.On Friday afternoon I went for a stroll around Albaicín.
Enter dar into our Spanish verb conjugator to see the full conjugation.
Verbs ending in -ducir
Verbs that end in -ducir in the infinitive replace the c with a j before adding the endings for stem-changing verbs: -e, -iste, -o, -imos, -isteis, -eron.
| Verb | Preterite Conjugation |
|---|---|
| conducir | conduje, condujiste, condujo, condujimos, condujisteis, condujeron |
| deducir | deduje, dedujiste, dedujo, dedujimos, dedujisteis, dedujeron |
| traducir | traduje, tradujiste, tradujo, tradujimos, tradujisteis, tradujeron |
Verbs with spelling changes in the preterite
Stem-change in the 3rd person
Some -er and -ir verbs are only stem-changing in the 3rd person.
These verbs change the final vowel of their stem in the 3rd person singular and plural.
However, they are not technically irregular because, unlike the verbs above, they take the regular endings for -er/-ir verbs: -í, -iste, -ió, -imos, -isteis, -ieron.
e → i
Verbs ending in -ir that have an unstressed e in the final syllable of the stem change this e to an i.
- Examples:
- sentir → sentí, sentiste, sintió, sentimos, sentisteis, sintieron
- pedir → pedí, pediste, pidió, pedimos, pedisteis, pidieron
- not:
sentió, pedió, etc.
Common verbs with this vowel change include: ceñir, corregir, derretir, divertir, elegir, invertir, medir, mentir, pedir, preferir, repetir, seguir, sentir, servir …
o → u
Verbs ending in -ir with an unstressed o in the final syllable of the stem change this o to a u.
- Examples:
- dormir → dormí, dormiste, durmió, dormimos, dormisteis, durmieron
- morir → morí, moriste, murió, morimos, moristeis, murieron
- not:
dormió, morió…
Common verbs with this vowel change: morir, dormir
i → y
Verbs ending in -er/-ir whose stem ends in a vowel change the i to a y. They also take an accent in the 1st and 2nd person plural.
- Examples:
- leer → leí, leiste, leyó, leímos, leísteis, leyeron
- caer → caí, caíste, cayó, caímos, caísteis, cayeron
- oír → oí, oíste, oyó, oímos, oísteis, oyeron
- not:
leió, caió, oió…
Common verbs with this vowel change include: caer, distribuir, imbuir, leer, oír …
The verb reír
The verb reír loses the final e of its stem in the 3rd person singular and plural. It takes the endings for -er/-ir verbs: -i, -iste, -io, -imos, -isteis, -ieron.
- Example:
- reír → reí, reíste, rio, reímos, reísteis, rieron
- not:
reio, reieron
Consonant change
To maintain pronunciation, some -ar verbs need to change the final consonant of their stem in the 1st person singular.
- Example:
- c to qu: atracar, aparcar → atraqué, aparqué
- g to gu: → colgar → colgué
- gu to gü: averiguar → averigüé
- z to c: empezar → empecé
Others
When an -er/-ir verb’s stem ends in -ll or -ñ, they drop the usual i in the 3rd person singular and plural.
- Example:
- tañer → tañí, tañiste, tañó, tañimos, tañisteis, tañeron
- bullir → bullí, bulliste, bulló, bullimos, bullisteis, bulleron
- not:
tañió, bullió…
