How To Conjugate Spanish Preterite Tense Verbs

The Spanish Preterite Tense is one the most widely used past tenses in Spanish and as such is extremely important

. The conjugation of Spanish preterite tense verbs, can be mastered but it can also be extremely difficult to do so as there are many irregular verbs and forms.

However, irregular verbs in the preterite should not be of concern until, at least, you fully understand the basic conjugations of the preterite tense as used in Spanish verbs that follow a regular pattern of conjugation, and that is what will be covered here.

You should first understand when to use the preterite and here is a simple explanation. The preterite is the equivalent of the English simple past tense. It is used to explain when something has happened but is then soon over. For example; The man shouted.

It should not be confused with the Imperfect tense, the other commonly used past tense in Spanish. The Imperfect is used to express something that has happened over a long period of time, or in the background, that may, or may not be finished. For example; The man was shouting.

Here are three regular verbs, one from each of the three verb groups, conjugated in the preterite.

Contar - to count

cont - I counted

contaste - you counted

cont - he/she counted

contamos - we counted

contasteis - you all counted

contaron - they counted

Vivir to live

viv - I lived

viviste - you lived

vivi - he/she lived

vivimos - we lived

vivisteis - you all lived

vivieron - they lived

Aprender to learn

aprend - I lived

aprendiste - you lived

aprendi - he/she lived

aprendimos - we lived

aprendisteis - you all lived

aprendieron - they lived

As you can see above the endings attached to the stem of er and ir regular verbs are the same and this does make the preterite easier to learn...for regular verbs anyway!

by: Daniel Major

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