I went to the shop yesterday. I wrote the letter. He read the book five times.

Transcripción

1 Preterite Tense This worksheet will help u to understand: When we use the preterite tense in Spanish. How we form the preterite tense for: o regular verbs o verbs with spelling changes o completely irregular verbs Use of the Preterite Tense The preterite is used in the following situations: 1. To tell of something that happened once. Fui ayer a la tienda. Escribí la carta. I went to the shop yesterday. I wrote the letter. 2. To tell of something that happened more than once but with a specific end. Fui ayer a la tienda seis veces. I went to the shop six times yesterday. Leyó el libro cinco veces. He read the book five times. 3. To indicate the beginning or end of a process. Tuvo suerte. He got lucky. El huracán terminó a las ocho. The hurricane ended at 8. There is often confusion over whether we need to use this past tense or the imperfect tense and to help decide there is an easy test. You can ask two questions and the answer to both questions must be yes in order to be able to use the preterite. 1. Could u record the action as an event in ur diary? For example, u could record yesterday we went to the shop but not I always used to go to the shop with my sister. 2. Was the action finished at the time we are referring to? For example, if we take the example I was very happy when we arrived at the shop, the first verb (being happy) could not go in the preterite because u were still happy at the time we are referring to. The second verb however (arrived) could go in the preterite. Knowing when to use the preterite is really important! Watch this video on YouTube to which explains in detail when we need the preterite (compared to the imperfect tense). 1

2 Formation Regular Verbs 1. Take the infinitive (the dictionary form of the verb ending in AR, ER or IR). 2. Remove the AR, ER, IR (the bit left behind is called the radical). 3. Add on the correct ending from the table below. ar er + ir e.g. hablar comer vivir é í hablé comí viví aste iste hablaste comiste viviste él, ella, usted ó ió habló comío vivío amos imos hablamos comimos vivimos asteis isteis hablasteis comisteis vivisteis ellos, ellas, ustedes aron ieron hablaron comieron vivieron IMPORTANT: The accents are really important on the 1 st and 3 rd person singular forms as they differentiate the preterite tense from other conjugations (e.g. hablo = I speak, habló = (s)he spoke. BUT... there are some spelling changes: 1. er and ir verbs whose stem ends in ñ or ll drop the i from the ending. e.g. gruñir gruñó. 2. Verbs ending in car, -gar, and zar have a spelling change in the YO form to maintain pronunciation of the infinitive: car c qu (e.g. buscar busqué) gar g gu (e.g. pagar pagué) zar z c (e.g. comenzar comencé) 3. For verbs that end in -aer, -eer, -oír, and -oer, the ÉL/ELLA/USTED form uses the ending yó (rather than ió) and the third person plural uses the ending yeron (rather than ieron). The remaining forms gain a written accent over the letter i. For example: nosotr@s vosotr@s ell@s/ustedes LEER leí leíste, leyó leímos leísteis leyeron Other verbs which work in the same way as leer are caer, oír, poseer, proveer, roer but there are three exceptions: traer, atraer, distraer. 4. Verbs that end in -uir change in the same way, but the written accent over the letter i only occurs in the YO form (basically, the same accent rules as for regular verbs). For example: nosotr@s vosotr@s ell@s/ustedes HUIR huí huiste huyó huimos huisteis huyeron Other verbs which work in the same way are construir, contribuir, destruir, fluir, incluir, influir 2

3 Some examples: jugar buscar empezar contribuir leer oír jugué busqué empecé contribuí leí oí jugaste buscaste empezaste contribuiste leíste oíste jugó buscó empezó contribuyó leyó oyó jugamos buscamos empezamos contribuimos leímos oímos jugasteis buscasteis empezasteis contribuisteis leísteis oísteis jugaron buscaron empezaron contribuyeron leyeron oyeron 4. Radical changing (stem changing) IR verbs whose final stem-vowel is e (these are numerous) or o (there are only two). These changed only occur in third-person forms. Exceptions are very rare; almost all such verbs have the changes. e i o u o u preferir morir dormir preferí morí dormí preferiste moriste dormiste prefirió murió durmió preferimos morimos dormimos preferisteis moristeis dormisteis prefirieron murieron durmieron 5. Verbs ending in cir have a different conjugation for the preterite tense: nosotr@s vosotr@s ell@s/ustedes CONDUCIR conduje condujiste condujo condujimos condujisteis condujeron These conjugations do not have accents on the i. There are three verbs that, although they do not end in cir, they also have this irregular conjugation: Traer, Atraer and Distraer. Completely Irregular Verbs Some verbs, although irregular, follow some sort of pattern (unlike the verb ir which is completely irregular) and can be recognised fairly easily. The following verbs are called preterito grave verbs: tener to have hacer - to do/make saber- to know tuve tuviste tuvo tuvimos tuvisteis tuvieron hice hiciste hizo hicimos hicisteis hicieron supe supiste supo supimos supisteis supieron poner - to put, place estar to be ser - to be + ir to go puse pusiste puso pusimos pusisteis pusieron estuve estuviste estuvo estuvimos estuvisteis estuvieron fui fuiste fue fuimos fuisteis fueron 3

4 andar to walk venir to come decir to say anduve anduviste anduvo anduvimos anduvisteis anduvieron vine viniste vino vinimos vinisteis vinieron dije dijiste dijo dijimos dijisteis dijeron poder to say pude pudiste pudo pudimos pudisteis pudieron querer to want quise quisiste quiso quisimos quisisteis quisieron The verb dar to give works like an er/ir verb in the preterite, although it is an ar verb. i.e. di, diste dio, dimos, disteis, dieron. Activity: cantar - to sing: Tú y en la ducha. mirar - to look at: El señor a la gente. Ustedes el contrato. Nosotras los papeles. pagar to pay: No () la multa. subir - to go up: Vosotras las escaleras. regresar - to go back to: Yo a la escuela a las diez. viajar - to travel: Tú por Chile. asistir - to attend: Vosotras a la reunión. contribuir - to contribute: Mis amigos a la colecta. escribir - to write: Vosotros la carta. aprobar - to pass: La señora y el examen. jugar to play: Los muchachos al fútbol. comenzar to start: () a cantar. tener to have: () un accidente. 4

5 Answers cantar - to sing: Tú y CANTAMOS en la ducha. mirar - to look at: El señor MIRÓ a la gente. Ustedes FIRMARON el contrato. Nosotras FIRMASTAIS los papeles. pagar to pay: No PAGUÉ () la multa. subir - to go up: Vosotras SUBISTEIS las escaleras. regresar - to go back to: Yo REGRESÉ a la escuela a las diez. viajar - to travel: Tú VIAJASTE por Chile. asistir - to attend: Vosotras ASISTISTEIS a la reunión. contribuir - to contribute: Mis amigos CONTRIBUYERON a la colecta. escribir - to write: Vosotros ESCRIBISTEIS la carta. aprobar - to pass: La señora y APROBAMOS el examen. jugar to play: Los muchachos JUGARON al fútbol. comenzar to start: COMENZÉ () a cantar. tener to have: TUVISTE () un accidente. 5