Preterite of regular verbs

So far you have talked about the present (hablo) and plans (voy a hablar). Now you can say what happened. A tense is the form of a verb that shows when something happens. The preterite (pretérito indefinido or pretérito perfecto simple) is the past tense for finished actions at a finished time: yesterday I spoke, last year we lived, she bought a car.

• Ayer hablé con mi madre.Yesterday I spoke to my mother.
• ¿Compraste el pan?Did you buy the bread?
• Mi hermano trabajó en un hotel el verano pasado.My brother worked in a hotel last summer.

The endings

Take the stem (the infinitive without -ar, -er, -ir) and add these endings. -er and -ir verbs share one set.

• Anoche cenamos en casa de unos amigos.Last night we had dinner at some friends' house.
• ¿Visitasteis el museo?Did you (all) visit the museum?
• Mis padres vivieron en Londres tres años.My parents lived in London for three years.
• Comí demasiado en la fiesta.I ate too much at the party.
• ¿A qué hora salió el tren?What time did the train leave?
• Abrieron la tienda a las nueve.They opened the shop at nine.

The accent changes the meaning

The yo and él/ella forms carry a written accent on the last vowel, and it matters:

• hablo = I speak (present) but habló = he/she spoke (preterite);
• compro = I buy but compró = he/she bought;
• trabaje (a form you will meet later) is not trabajé = I worked.

Say the stressed syllable loudly: HA-blo (now) but ha-BLÓ (past).

Nosotros: same as the present for -ar and -ir

Hablamos and vivimos look exactly like the present. The context (ayer, el año pasado) tells you which one is meant. For -er verbs they differ: comemos (we eat) but comimos (we ate).

• Escribimos una postal a la abuela.We wrote a postcard to Grandma.

Words that point to the preterite

ayer (yesterday), anoche (last night), anteayer (the day before yesterday), el lunes (on Monday), la semana pasada (last week), el año pasado (last year), hace dos días (two days ago), en 2019 (in 2019).

Stem-changers and two small verbs

• -ar and -er stem-changing verbs are regular in the preterite: pensar gives pensé, pensó; volver gives volví, volvió; entender gives entendí. (Only -ir stem-changers change: Preterite stem and spelling changes: pidió, durmió, busqué, leyó.)
• ver and dar have one-syllable forms with no accent: vi, viste, vio, vimos, visteis, vieron; di, diste, dio, dimos, disteis, dieron (dar takes the -er/-ir endings).
• A few verbs change spelling in the yo form only (busqué, llegué, empecé): see Preterite stem and spelling changes: pidió, durmió, busqué, leyó. Very common verbs like ser, ir, tener, hacer are irregular: Irregular preterites: ser/ir, tener, estar, hacer, poder, poner, venir.

Latin America

Everything here is the same everywhere, except that ustedes replaces vosotros (¿Visitaron ustedes el museo?). Latin American speakers also use the preterite for things that happened today (hoy comí), where Spain usually says hoy he comido: see The present perfect (he hablado) and when Spain uses it.

Common mistakes

• Ayer hablo con Ana. → Ayer hablé con Ana. Without the accent, hablo is the present "I speak".
• Hablastes → hablaste. The tú form has no final -s in the preterite, even though you may hear hablastes in casual speech.
• Vió, dió → vio, dio. One-syllable forms carry no accent.
• Piensé → pensé. -ar stem-changers don't change in the preterite.
• Using the preterite for "used to": habits in the past need the imperfect (The imperfect: forms and uses).