Add the appropriate preterite endings to the stem of a regular verb to make it agree with the subject.
The preterite tense is mostly used to narrate events in the past. It can indicate a change in state as well as the start or completion of an action in the past. It expresses actions that are completed at the moment being discussed.
The preterite tense is one of the 2 simple past tenses. It is the more complicated one and so it helps to divide it into manageable parts. The one thing that most verbs will have in common in the preterite is their endings.
Before looking at the endings, it is very important to note that the 1st person singular (Yo) and 3rd person singular (Ud., él or ella) forms will have an accent mark. This difference in stress will distinguish these forms from forms in other tenses. A good way to practice stressing the accent mark is to just say the last sylable (the one with the accent mark) louder than the rest of the word.
The way to conjugate regular verbs is to start with the stem and add the following endings:
subject |
AR |
ER/IR |
|---|---|---|
yo |
-é |
-í |
tú |
-aste |
-iste |
usted, él, ella |
-ó |
-ió |
nosotros, nosotras |
-amos |
-imos |
vosotros, vosotras |
-asteis |
-isteis |
ustedes, ellos, ellas |
-aron |
-ieron |
Notice that the nosotros form endings for AR and IR verbs are the same as they were in the present tense. The way to tell them apart is by the context around them. If you have other verbs in the preterite, then they are likely to be preterite also. If you have words like ayer that indicate the past, then they would also be preterite in those cases as well. You can use the conjugator above to get some examples or practice predicting the forms yourself.
Knowing the endings for regular verbs in the preterite, makes learning the irregular ones much easier. The 3rd person plural (Uds., ellos and ellas) form is also used to get the stem for the past subjunctive forms.
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