Preterite Verbs

The Preterit Tense

The Preterite tense
The preterite tense describes an action that began and ended at a definite time in the past.
Ex. Ellos fueron a Florida ayer.
Ex. Fueron a Miami.

AR Verbs in the preterite Yo- é Tú- aste Él - ó Ella - ó Usted - ó Nosotros,as- amos Vosotros,as- asteis Ellos- aron Ellas- aron Ustedes- aron

Er and IR verbs in the preterite Nosotros,as- imos Vosotros,as- isteis Ellos- ieron Ellas- ieron Ustedes- ieron Yo- í Tú- iste Él - i ó Ella - i ó Usted - i ó

Some Irregular Verbs- Ir and Ser Nosotros,as- fu imos Vosotros,as- fu isteis Ellos- fueron Ellas- fueron Ustedes- fueron Yo- fui Tú- fu iste Él - fue Ella - fue Usted - fue See the list of irregular verbs on page 36 of your textbook.

More Irregular Verbs- Dar- di diste dio dimos disteis dieron Ver- vi viste vio vimos visteis vieron Spelling Changes- Remember that spelling changes with verbs that end in –car , -gar, -zar. (ONLY IN YO) Buscar- busqué bucaste buscó buscamos buscasteis buscaron Jugar- jugué jugaste jugó jugamos jugasteis jugaron Empezar- empecé empezaste empezó empezamos empezasteis empezaron

Common Time Expressions
Ayer - Yesterday
Anoche - Last night
Ayer por la tarde- Yesterday afternoon
Ayer por la mañana- Yesterday morning
El año (mes) pasado- Last year (month)
La semana pasada- Last week
Hace una semana (un año)- One week ago (year)
En el siglo ocho- In the eighth century

Stem-Changing in the Preterite

Stem-Changing Rules
In the preterite verbs only stem change in the he/she form (él, ella, usted) and the they form (ellos, ellas, ustedes).

E:I stem changers
Pedir – to ask for
Servir – to serve
Fre í r – to fry
Medir – to measure
Repetir – to repeat
Seguir – to follow, to continue
Sonre í r – to smile
Sentir –to feel, perceive, sense
Preferir – to prefer
Sugerir – to suggest

O:U stem-changers
Dormir- to sleep
Morir – to die

You try a few…
Yo – dormir
Él - preferir
Ellos- morir
Nosotros- seguir
Ella- pedir
Usted- medir

Answers…
Yo – dormir dorm í
Él – preferir prefiri ó
Ellos- morir murieron
Nosotros- seguir seguimos
Ella- pedir pidi ó
Usted- medir midi ó

The Imperfect

The Imperfect
The imperfect is the other past tense. The imperfect is used to describe habitual or repeated actions in the past.
There is no stem-changing in the imperfect tense. 

Regular Endings
AR
Yo- aba
Tú- abas
Él,Ella, Ud. – aba
Nosotros(as) – ábamos
Vosotros(as)- abais
Ellos (as), Uds.- aban
ER, IR
Yo- ía
Tú- ías
Él,Ella, Ud. – ía
Nosotros(as) – íamos
Vosotros(as)- íais
Ellos (as), Uds.- ían

Irregular Verbs- only 3!
Ir
iba
ibas
iba
íbamos
ibais
iban
Ver
veía
veías
veía
veíamos
veíais
veían
Ser era eras era éramos erais eran

Common Time Expressions Siempre - always A menudo - often Con frecuencia- With frecuency, frequently Muchas veces- Many times Cada (día, viernes, semana, año) –Each (day, Friday, week, year) En la época precolombiana – In the precolombian age (era)- Durante el Renacimiento- During the rebirth (Renaissance)

You try a few… Yo – caminar Él - preferir Ellos- pagar Nosotros- seguir Ella- pedir Usted- hablar

Answers… Yo – caminar caminaba Él – preferir prefer ía Ellos- pagar pagaban Nosotros- seguir segu íamos Ella- pedir ped ía Usted- hablar hablaba

Difference between preterite and imperfect...

The difference is in the past…
The preterite is used to express actions or events that began and ended at a specific time in the past.
The imperfect is used to talk about continuous , habitual or repeated past action. The exact moment when the action began or ended is not important.

Examples
Complete Action
Él fue al cine el viernes.
Vio un filme
polic í aco.
Le gust ó el filme.
Repeated, Habitual Actions
Ella iba al cine todos los viernes.
Siempre ve í a filmes polic í acos.
Le gustaban todos los filmes.

One more note…
You most often use the imperfect with verbs such as querer, saber, pensar, desear, sentir, poder, and creer that describe a state of mind or a feeling.
Él sab í a donde estaba la iglesia.
La quer í a visitar.
Sent í a mucho no poder verla.

Two actions in one sentence

Two actions in one sentence.
A sentence in the past will frequently have two verbs. Both may be in the same tense or each one in a different tense.

Two actions cont.
Look at the picture on the board. Any verb that can be placed in the wavy area describes what was going on. They describe the background and are in the imperfect. Any verbs that can be placed in the slash indicate what happened, what took place. They tell the action and are in the preterite.

Two actions cont.
Now try these.
I was talking on the phone when my mom entered .
Last year we went to Florida and swam .
When I was a child, we always rented a house that was on beach and swam in the ocean.
Would they be in the wavy area or the slash?
Now translate to Spanish.

Answers…
Yo estaba hablando por teléfono cuando mi madre entró .
El año pasado nosotros fuimos a Florida y nadamos .
Cuando yo era un(a) nino(a), siempre alquilábamos una casa que estaba en la playa y nadábamos en el océano.

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Preterite Verbs

by davidsoj on Feb 11, 2009

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Preterite Verbs — Presentation Transcript