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The Preterite Tense

The Preterite Tense (also sometimes called the "preterit") is one of two ways to talk about events that happened in the past in Spanish. (For more one when to use the Imperfect Tense, see Imperfect vs. Preterite.)

Preterite conjugations can be pretty tricky due to the large amount of irregular verbs and some other complicated situations.

To conjugate regular "-ar" verbs in the preterite, take off the ending and add the following:

Don't let the "-é" in the "yo" form throw you off; it's still an "-ar" verb conjugation. It's absolutely critical that the "o" in the "él/ella/usted" form conjugation gets an accent mark so it isn't confused with the present tense "yo" form conjugation.

To conjugate regular "-er" and "-ir" verbs in the preterite, take off the endings and add the following:

Preterite Spelling Changes

The "yo" form "-ar" endings cause pronunciation problems for some verbs which need to be solved by changing the spellings of the stem. Some letters change their pronunciation based on the vowels that follow them such as "c," "g," and "z." Therefore "-car" verbs, "-gar" verbs, and "-zar" verbs which normally don't have any issues in the present tense (because the "yo" form ending is an "-o") would be pronounced differently in the preterite (because the "yo" form ending is now an "-e") if we didn't change the spellings. Some examples:

"Tocar" has a "-que" ending in the "yo" form to keep the original "c" sound being pronounced like a "k" rather than like an "s." "Jugar" now has a "-gue" ending to keep the original "g" sound pronounced like a "g" rather than like an "h." And "almorzar" now has a "-ce" because, well… anytime we can use a "c," we should.

It doesn't happen often, but "-guar" verbs will also require a spelling change. Take a verb like "averiguar" which means "to verify." When we conjugate in the yo-form of the preterite, we need to add a dieresis, which means the "u" becomes a "ü":

Yo averigüe los datos ayer.
I verified the facts yesterday.

The "ü" tells us to pronounce the "gu" like a "gw" so that our pronunciation will be consistent with the infinitive, "averiguar."

These spelling changes only happen for "-ar" preterite verbs and only in the "yo" form because the "-e" is the only ending that creates problems for the "c," "g," "z" and the "gu."

More Spelling Changes

Certain "-er" and "-ir" verbs are also going to need spelling changes to keep pronunciation consistent. This time around it's the "él/ella/Ud." and "ellos/ellas/Uds." forms that cause problems. The endings for those conjugations are "-ió" and "-ieron." Notice how they both start with two vowels? If we have a verb whose stem ends in a vowel, and then we add one of those endings, we're going to end up with three vowels in a row. It's difficult to pronounce a word with a three vowel combination. To solve that problem, we change the "i" to a "y."

Some common trouble making verbs conjugated in the "ellos/ellas/Uds." form:

The "él/ella/Ud." form conjugations will use the same spelling change. Here is a complete set of conjugations for some common verbs:

As you can see, this "i" → "y" spelling change only occurs in the bottom row of conjugations.

An exception to the "i" → "y" spelling change rule are "-guir" verbs. While the stems do end in a vowel, the "u" is not actually being pronounced. Because of that, we can pronounce the three vowels in a row and a "y" is not necessary.

Preterite Stem Changers

All "-ar" and "-er" verbs which have stem changes in the present tense are completely regular in the preterite, which is to say that they don't have stem changes in the preterite.

e.g. pensar → pensó

However, stem-changing "-ir" verbs do have a stem change which is sometimes different from the present tense stem change. "e → ie" stem changers in the present tense become "e → i" stem changers in the preterite, "e → i" stem changers remain "e → i", and "o → ue" stem changers become "o → u". But this change only happens in the "él/ella/usted" form and the "ellos/ellas/ustedes" form:

In some books verbs like these will have special notations to let you know about the additional preterite stem change: sentir (e → ie, e → i), dormir (o → ue, o → u).

Because these additional changes only take place on the bottom line of the conjugation chart they are sometimes referred to as "basement buddies."

Irregular Preterite Verbs

The "U" Group, "I" Group, and "J" Group

There are many irregular preterite conjugations which have stem changes (only in the preterite tense) and their own set of endings. It can be helpful to put them into groups. Most of the irregular verbs have stem changes which involve the letter "u":

There are a couple others with stem changes involving the letter "i":

For both of these groups, the "u" group and the "i" group, there is a different set of endings:

Note that these endings are very similar to the "-ir" verbs with the exception of the "yo" and "él/ella/usted" forms, and that there are no accent marks needed.

There is one more group of stem changers, the "j" group:

The endings for the "j" group stems are almost identical to the "u"/"i" group verbs:

Other Irregular Preterite Verbs

There are several other completely irregular preterite verbs. Here are the conjugations for "dar," "hacer," "ir," and "ser."

That's not a typo--the conjugations of "ir" and "ser" are identical--context makes the meaning clear. Notice that the need for consistent pronunciation forces us to use a "z" in the "él/ella/usted" form of "hacer."