El pretérito

The Preterite
El pasado
 What is the preterite?
 A past tense in Spanish
 A tense with many irregular verbs
 Used to express an action that began and
ended at a specific time in the past
 Key terms for the preterite tense
 Ayer =
 yesterday
 Anteayer =
 the day before yesterday

 Anoche =
 last night

 La semana pasada =
 last week
 More key terms
 El mes pasado = last month
 El año pasado = last year
 Ayer por la mañana
Regular –AR Verbs in the Preterite
 To conjugate:
 Drop the –ar
 Add on the appropriate endings
 The preterite
 Yo hablé con mis amiogs ayer.
Nosotros hablamos de la escuela y de los
amigos. Rita me explicó que ella fue al
cine con Jorge. Ellos fueron a comer en
Cheeseckae Factory después. Jorge
pagó para todo, los tickets, las meriendas,
y la cena. Sandra pasó la tarde en la
playa. ¿Y tú, esquiaste?
 Hablar = spoke; talked
yo hablé Nosotros hablamos

Tú hablaste

él, ellos,
Ella, habló ellas, hablaron
Ud. Uds.
 Which ending is the same in the
present tense?
 Nosotros
 How will you tell the difference between the
present and the preterite for the nosotros
form?
 Context
 Be careful!
 Yo and él, ella, Ud forms have
ACCENTS!!!
 Interesting note…
 The “yo” form in the present tense takes
an “o” as its’ ending without an accent
mark and the él, ella Ud form ending for
the preterite tense is “ó” (o with an
accent).
 Therefore, be careful, because the accent
mark changes the meaning of the
sentence.
 Examples:

Present Tense Preterite Tense

Hablo por teléfono. Habló por teléfono.
I speak on the He/ She/ You (formal)
telephone. spoke on the telephone.
 Two verbs with the same
conjugations you say???
 Which two?
 Ser
 Ir
 Isn’t there anything different
between the two verbs?
 No!
 When how will I know which is
which?
 So glad you wanted to know…
 Context
• Read the sentence for clues
• Translate and substitute each verb meaning in and
see which one makes sense
 So, what are the preterit
conjugations of ser AND ir?
yo fui nosotros fuimos
tú fuiste
él, ella, Ud. fue ellos, ellas, Uds.
fueron
 What about regular –er and –ir
verbs?
 So glad you asked
 They are so cool!
• They have the exact same endings!!!
 What about the nosotros form?
 -ER and -IR preterite endings are the
same even for the nosotros form
Do any of the forms have
accents??
 What are the endings for regular
-er AND–ir verbs in the preterite!!
 Examples:
Yo -í Nosotros
-imos

Tú -iste

él, ella, Ud Ellos, ellas,

-ió Uds.
-ieron
So let’s conjugate vivir and comer
in the preterite