Spanish Preterite

Spanish Preterite

The preterite is the most difficult tense with the most irregularities. There are two principal ways to form the preterite. Here they are called the accented forms and the unaccented forms.

Accented forms
The first, regular system has accented endings in the first and third-person singular forms: hablé comí viví
hablaste comiste viviste
habló comió vivió
hablamos comimos vivimos
hablasteis comisteis vivisteis
hablaron comieron vivieron

Stem-changing -er and -ir verbs.
Verbs that end in -er and -ir that also have a stem change in the present (such as ei as in pido, eie as in siento and ou as in duermo) have a different stem change in the preterite. In these verbs there are only two stem changes, ei and ou occurring in the third person singular and plural forms. dormí pedí
dormiste pediste
durmió pidió
dormimos pedimos
dormisteis pedisteis
durmieron pidieron

Spelling conventions in the preterite.
Spelling conventions dictate that a verb with a z before an a or an o changes the z to a c before an e or an i. Likewise, a c before an a or an o changes to qu before an e, and a g before an a or an o changes to a gu before an e or an i.. comencé pagué toqué
comenzaste pagaste tocaste
comenzó pagó tocó
comenzamos pagamos tocamos
comenzasteis pagasteis tocasteis
comenzaron pagaron tocaron

Unaccented forms
The second major system of preterite forms uses irregular stems with unaccented endings. Note that the endings are the same regardless of the type of verb: estuve puse vine
estuviste pusiste viniste
estuvo puso vino
estuvimos pusimos vinimos
estuvisteis pusisteis vinisteis
estuvieron pusieron vinieron