Spanish 102 - Learn the Past Tense Preterite in Spanish, Pretérito en español - Spanish With Profe

In this video you will learn the past tense preterite in Spanish or Pretérito en español.
We use the pretérito, a form of the simple past in Spanish, to talk about completed events in the past. The pretérito is used to talk about the beginning of an action and the ending of an action in the past.Show more

In English we would say: I went to the movies, I ate a hot-dog, and I drank water.
In Spanish we would say: Fui al cine, comí un "hot-dog" y bebí agua.

We are focusing on regular verbs in the pretérito, and we are going to learn how to conjugate them.

Verbs with -ar endings

Yo -é
Tú -aste
Él, ella, usted -ó
Nosotros/as -amos
Ellos, ellas, ustedes - aron

cantar (to sing)

Ayer yo canté (Yesterday I sang.)
Anoche tú cantaste
La semana pasada él, ella, usted cantó
Anoche nosotros/as cantamos
Ayer ellos, ellas, ustedes cantaron

Make sure you add the accents or the "tildes" to the "Yo" and the "él, ella, usted" forms, otherwise, they will be incorrect.
You can see that in Spanish we recycle a lot of the endings and repurpose them.
You can see that the nosotros/as ending in -ar looks just like the present tense.
Therefore, we need to use key words that denote the past such as: ayer (yesterday), anoche (last night), la semana pasada (last week), el año pasado (last year), etc.

-er/-ir
Yo -í
Tú -iste
Él, ella, usted -ió
Nosotros/as -imos
Ellos, ellas, ustedes -ieron

You will notice that the nosotros/as ending is similar to the ending in the present in -ir.
Therefore, we need to use key words that denote the past such as: ayer (yesterday), anoche (last night), la semana pasada (last week), el año pasado (last year), etc.

beber (to drink)

Yo bebí mucha agua. (I drank a lot of water.)
Tú bebiste
Él, ella, usted bebió
Anoche nosotros/as bebimos mucha agua.
Ellos, ellas, ustedes bebieron

escribir (to write)
Ayer yo escribí una carta. (Yesterday I wrote a letter.)
Anoche tú escribiste
La semana pasada él, ella, usted escribió
Anoche nosotros/as escribimos
Ayer ellos, ellas, ustedes escribieron

Anoche yo comí arroz. (Last night I ate rice.)
Anoche nosotros comimos hamburguesas. (Last night we ate hamburgers.)

¿Qué bebiste anoche? (What did you drink last night?)
Anoche, bebí limonada. (Last night, I drank lemonade.)

Spanish verbs ending in -car, -gar, and -zar have to make a spelling change in the "Yo" form to keep the original sound of the verb. (Note: This is ONLY for the "Yo" form). The (tú, él, ella, usted, nosotros/as, ellos, ellas, ustedes do not change) Remember the verbs ending in -car, -gar, and -zar are still regular.

In modern Spanish we do not have "Ze" or "Zi" instead we have "ce" and "ci"

Pretérito for "YO" only, Pay attention to the spelling change.
-car= qu
-gar=gu
-zar =c

buscar (to look for)

Yo busqué
Tú buscaste
Él, ella, usted buscó
Anoche nosotros/as buscamos
Ellos, ellas, ustedes buscaron

pagar (to pay)

Yo pagué
Tú pagaste
Él, ella, usted pagó
Ayer nosotros/as pagamos
Ellos, ellas, ustedes pagaron

empezar (to begin)
Yo empecé
Tú empezaste
Él, ella, usted empezó
Anoche nosotros/as empezamos
Ellos, ellas, ustedes empezaron

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