Spanish- Preterit Tense

Note that the stem of the verb Hacer undergoes

A small change (c to z) in the third person singular to keep the c sound

The preterite tense expresses action that took place

At a definite time in the past

Verbs ending in a vowel + ER or IR share some

Common irregularities in the preterite tense.

There's only one AR verb (dar) that takes the

ER endings in preterite tense instead of the regular AR endings

Yo canté

I sang

Martha corrió

Martha ran

To form the preterite tense of regular verbs simply

Remove the AR ER and IR ending of the verb and substitute another ending

The preterite tense is the tents that would normally be thought of as

The simple past tense in English

There are two verbs decir (to say) and traer (to bring) with similar irregular stems that have the same endings except for

The third person plural (eron instead of ieron)

It is contrasted with the imperfect tense which expresses action that

Was taking place or used to take place at an indefinite time or has not been completed

Tú comiste

You ate

Some have the same endings but

change their stem completely

AR and ER verbs with stem changes in the present tense (e->ie) (o->ue) and (e->i) change

e->i and o->u in the third person singular and third person plural of the Preterit tense

Note that that I has an accent mark in the yo, tú, and nosotros forms

in the other two forms the i changes to y

There are many verbs in Spanish with

irregular Preterit forms

There are two verbs that share the same irregular forms in the preterite tense,

ser and ir. Only the context makes clear what the meaning is.