1. El pretérito The Preterite Tense The past tense

2. The preterite tense tells what happened or what you did. It is used when the action described has already been completed. Regular preterite verbs,like present tense verbs,are formed by adding tense endings to the stem. tométomamos tomastetomasteis tomótomaron comícomimos comistecomisteis comiócomieron vivívivimos vivistevivisteis vivióvivieron Tomar (to take a drink) Comer (to eat) Vivir (to live) Regular –er and –ir verbs take the same endings. The nosotros forms of –ar and –ir verbs are the same in the preterite and present tense. You can tell if someone is referring to the past or present from the context. Información Importante: (important information) -ar + -er verbs that have changes in the vowel of the stem(e>ie) or (o>ue) in the present tense, Do not have these changes in any of the preterite forms. For ex: Pienso/Pensé, vuelven/volvieron. -IR verbs that have a change in the vowel of the stem in the present tense also have a stem change in the preterite tense. In the preterite, the vowel changes from (e>i) or (o>u) in the third person singular and plural. pedípedimos pedistepedisteis pidiópidieron dormí dormimos dormistedormisteis durmió durmieron Dormir (to sleep) Pedir (to ask for)

3. El pretérito, continuación: Verbs that end in –car,-gar,-zar are spelled differently in the yo form.The spelling changes in order to keep the pronunciation the same. Sacar,jugar,almorzar,explicar,comenzar,buscar,practicar,tocar,llegar,pagar,em pezar. (conjugate these verbs in the preterite tense on tense box sheets) Some irregular preterite verbs: dídimos distedisteis diodieron fuifuimos fuistefuisteis fuefueron fuifuimos fuistefuisteis fuefueron hicehicimos hicistehicisteis hizohicieron vivimos vistevisteis viovieron Ir(to go) Ser (to be) Hacer(to make,to do) Dar (to give) Ver (to see) Many spanish verbs have an irregular stem plus a special set of endings in the preterite.The ending for these verbs are: -e,-iste,-o,-imos,-isteis,-ieron. Verbs that use these endings in the preterite: decir,estar,hacer,poder,poner,querer,saber,tener.