El pretérito de los verbos regulares (The Preterite Tense of Regular Verbs)

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In Spanish there are two main tenses to express the past: the pretérito (preterite) and the imperfecto (imperfect). In this chapter, we will focus on the pretérito of regular verbs. The pretérito is used to describe actions that happened at a specific point in the past and are completed. It is commonly used in storytelling, reporting past events, or describing actions with a clear beginning and end. The pretérito has its own endings for each verb group (-ar, -er, -ir). Just like with the present tense, to conjugate a verb in the pretérito, you will have to add the endings to the stem form of the verb. Here are the conjugations of cantar 🎤, comer  🍽️, and escribir  ✍️ in the pretérito:

Cantar (to sing) 🎤

Comer (to eat) 🍽️

Escribir (to write) ✍️

Please keep in mind the following when conjugating regular verbs in the pretérito:

1. The yo, usted and ella/él/elle forms have accent marks over the ending. For now, please memorize the accent mark together with the ending, as it can make very important differences in meaning:  canto (I sing, in the present tense) vs cantó (you or he/she/they sang, in the preterit).

2. Verbs ending in -gar, -car, and -zar undergo spelling changes in the first person:

• Yo jugué (jugar)

• I played (to play)

• Yo practiqué (practicar)

• I practiced (to practice)

• Yo comencé (comenzar)

• I began (to begin/to start)

The endings above can be applied to any regular verb to conjugate the pretérito. As with the present tense, there are also irregular verb forms, which you will learn later. For now, let’s check out two of the most common irregular verbs in the pretérito: hacer and ir:

Hacer (to do/make)

Ir (to go)

Now that you know the conjugations, let’s check out the different uses of the pretérito in context:

1. To describe completed actions that have a definite beginning and end:

• Ayer jugamos fútbol en el parque. ⚽🌳

• Yesterday we played soccer in the park.

• Esta mañana nadé en la piscina de Paulson. ☀️🏊

• This morning I swam in the pool at Paulson.

2. To describe actions that occurred at a specific time:

• El partido comenzó a las 8:00 de la tarde. 🏐🕣

• The game started at 8:00 PM.

• El tren salió a las 10:00 de la mañana. 🚆🕤

• The train departed at 10:00 AM.

3. To express a sequence of  completed actions:

• Me levanté, me vestí y corrí en el parque por una hora. 🙆🧍🏃🏼‍♀️

• I got up, I got dressed and I ran in the park for an hour.

• Fui al estadio, vi el partido y volví a casa. 🏟️📣🏠

• I went to the stadium, I watched the game, and I returned home.

Here are some more common time expressions that trigger the use of the pretérito:

• ayer

• yesterday

• anoche

• last night

• hace dos días/años

• two days/years ago

• la semana pasada

• last week

• el mes pasado

• last month

• el año pasado

• last year

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