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,

Ella, habló

Ud.

ellos,

ellas, hablaron

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

Hablo por teléfono.

I speak on the

telephone.

Preterite Tense

Habló por teléfono.

He/ She/ You (formal)

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

-ió

Ellos, ellas,

Uds.

-ieron

So let’s conjugate vivir and comer

in the preterite