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.