1. SPANISH HAS TWO PAST TENSES: PRETERITE AND IMPERFECT. THE PRETERITE IS A TENSE USED TO EXPRESS AN ACTION COMPLETED AT A DEFINITE TIME IN THE PAST (AKA: THE PAST TENSE) IN ENGLISH, THE REGULAR VERBS IN THE PAST TENSE END IN -ED The Preterite

2. Past Expression Ayer…….. Yesterday El año pasado …….. Last year anoche …….. Last night La semana pasada …….. Last week Antes de la escuela …….. Before school anteayer …….. The day before yesterday Salimos a las ocho anoche. We left at eight o’clock last night. The word anoche tells you that salimos is in the preterite tense

3. To conjugate regular -ar verbs in the preterite, simply drop the ending (-ar) and add one of the following: Subject New ending pronoun Yo= é Tú= aste Él/ella/Ud.=ó Nosotros= amos Ellos(as)/Uds.= aron Notice that the yo and usted/él/ella forms have an accent over the final vowel. Also, the nosotros(as) form is the same in the preterite as in the present tense

4. -er and –ir verbs In the preterite, -er and –ir verbs endings are Identical. Subject New ending pronoun Yó= í Tú= iste Él/ella/Ud.= ió Nosotros= imos Ellos(as)/Uds.= ieron The yo forms and the usted/él/ella forms take accents. Also, the nosotros(as) form of regular –ir verbs is the same in both the preterite as in the present tense. Use context clues to determine the tense of the verb.

5. Verbs ending in –car, -gar, and –zar have a change in spelling in the yo form to preserve pronunciation. All other forms are the same Subject pronoun Practicar (to practice) Navegar (to navigate) Organizar (to organize) C--- quG--- guZ---c Yópractiquénaveguéorganicé Túpracticastenavegasteorganizaste Él/ella/ud.practicónavegóorganizó Nosotros(as)practicamosnavegamosorganizamos Ellos(as)/uds.practicaronnavegaronorganizaron

6. Irregular stems and endings verbs in the preterite i-stems verbs Hacer (to make)---- hic-/hiz* Querer (to want)---- quis Venir (to come)---- vin u-stem verbs uv- stem verbs To all these add these preterite ending based on the subject pronoun. -e, -iste, -o, -imos, -ieron

7. More iregular (see handout for details) J- stem verbs To these add these preterite ending -e, -iste, -o, -imos, -eron

8. Other irregular Verbs in the preterite Ser and ir (to be and to go) Dar (to give) Ver (to see) See handout for conjugations in all forms.