El Pretrito

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El Pretérito (The Simple Past Tense)
Una Guía Completa para los Verbos
Regulares por Marnie Robey, LCHS
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Qué es el pretérito?
- a verb tense that indicates an action in the
past without reference to duration, continuance
or repetition
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Examples in English
Contínue
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Examples in English
I did my homework.
Sally walked the dog.
We ate dinner.
Did you clean your room?
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Recuerde usted there are THREE kinds of verbs
in Spanish
-ar
-er
-ir
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Each kind of verb has its own conjugations, rules
and regular and irregular forms.
Where do you want to start?
-ar
-er
-ir
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-ar verbs
(Any verb that ends in ar)
There are 3 sets of rules for REGULAR ar verbs.
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Rule 1 The Endings
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Rule 2 Stem Changes
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Rule 3 Spelling Changes
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-er verbs
(Any verb that ends in ir)
There are 2 sets of rules for REGULAR er verbs.
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Rule 1 The Endings
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Rule 2 Stem Changes
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-ir verbs
(Any verb that ends in ir)
There are 2 sets of rules for REGULAR ir verbs.
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Rule 1 The Endings
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Rule 2 Stem Changes
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-ar verbs
Rule 1 - Las Terminaciones
Yo Tú Él Ella Usted
Nosotros Vosotros Ellos Ellas Ustedes
-é -aste -ó
-amos -asteis -aron
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-ar verbs
Rule 2 Stem Changes
This is your lucky day! You do NOT stem change
ar verbs in the preterite tense. Look at the
difference between the present and preterite
tenses of the verb
despertarse.
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-ar verbs
Rule 3 Spelling Changes
For certain verbs, we have to change the spelling
in order to preserve the sound of the infinitive
(the non-conjugated verb). Those verbs end in
-car (tocar, practicar)
-gar (pagar, jugar)
-zar (almorzar, comenzar)
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-ar verbs
Practice Example
Conjugate esquiar to ski
Nosotros Vosotros Ellos Ellas Ustedes
esquiamos esquiasteis esquiaron
Yo Tú Él Ella Usted
esquié esquiaste esquió
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-ar verbs
Compare present and preterite
El Presente
El Pretérito
Me desperté nos despertamos Te despertaste os
despertasteis Se despertó se despertaron
Me despierto nos despertamos Te despiertas os
despertáis Se despierta se despiertan
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-ar verbs
Spelling Changes
The change occurs ONLY in the first person
singular form the yo.
-car
-qu
-gar
-gu
-c
-zar
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-ar verbs
Examples of spelling changes
-car
-zar
-gar
toqué practiqué saqué
jugué llegué pagué
almorcé empecé comencé
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-ar verbs
Now! Lets see what you learned about ar verbs
in the preterite
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-ar verbs
Quiz yourself on a scrap piece of paper, write
the correct forms of the following verbs.

• hablar yo
• cantar tú
• comenzar yo
• acostarse ellos
• probarse - Juan

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EXCELENTE
Lets move on to er verbs.
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-er verbs
Rule 1 Las Terminaciones
Yo Tú Él Ella Usted
Nosotros Vosotros Ellos Ellas Ustedes
-í -iste -ió
-imos -isteis -ieron
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-er verbs
Rule 2 Stem Changes
Happy Days!! You do not have to stem change
REGULAR er verbs in the preterite tense. Look at
another comparison
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-er verbs
Practice example
Conjugate comer to eat
Nosotros Vosotros Ellos Ellas Ustedes
comimos comisteis comieron
Yo Tú Él Ella Usted
comí comiste comió
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-er verbs
Compare present and preterite
El Pretérito
El Presente
entiendo entendemos entiendes entendéis entiende e
ntienden
entendí entendimos entendiste entendisteis entend
ió entendieron
Now lets see what you learned
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-er verbs
Quiz yourself on a scrap piece of paper, write
the correct forms of the following verbs.

• beber, yo
• comprender, tú
• entender, ellos

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MARAVILLOSA
Lets move on to ir verbs.
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-ir verbs
Rule 1 Las Terminaciones THEY ARE THE SAME AS
ER!!
Yo Tú Él Ella Usted
Nosotros Vosotros Ellos Ellas Ustedes
-í -iste -ió
-imos -isteis -ieron
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See an example
Move on
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-ir verbs
Rule 2 Stem Changes
-ir verbs are a little more complicados. If a
verb is a stem changing verb in the present
tense, then it is a stem changing verb in the
preterite. Referring back to our shoe analogy
the verb becomes a SOLE verb in the preterite.
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I need more explanation.
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I understand, move on.
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-ir verbs
Practice Example
Conjugate vivir to live
Nosotros Vosotros Ellos Ellas Ustedes
vivimos vivisteis vivieron
Yo Tú Él Ella Usted
viví viviste vivió
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-ir verbs
Lets compare shoes
El Presente
El Pretérito
yo nosotros tú vosotros ell, ella, ellos,
ellas usted ustedes
yo nosotros tú vosotros él, ella, ellos, ellas
usted ustedes
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-ir verbs
Stem Changescontinued
In the SOLE or the third person forms, the
following changes occur
e o
i u
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-ir verbs
Look at SOLE verbs in action
morir to die
preferir to prefer
preferí preferimos preferiste preferisteis prefir
ió prefirieron
morí morimos moriste moristeis murió murieron
Now lets see what you learned
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-ir verbs
Quiz yourself on a scrap piece of paper, write
the correct forms of the following verbs.

• dormir, ella
• competir, yo
• vivir, él
• salir, ellos

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ESTUPENDO
Y ahora, vamos a hacer una prueba
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UNA PRUEBA
Cuánto recuerdas del pretérito?
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Las direcciones...
Choose the correct form of the verb in the
preterite tense. If you need help, select HINT.
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Re-read tutorial
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Nosotros (alquilar) un barco por todo el día.
alquilamos
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alquilemos
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HINT
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CORRECTO
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Qué lástima
Lo siento, trátala otra vez.
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Este mañana, yo (despertarse) a las seis.
Me desperté
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Me despierté
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HINT
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HINT CARD
Do NOT stem change ar verbs in the preterite
tense!!!!
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HINT CARD
Las terminaciones -é -amos
-aste -asteis -ó -aron
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CORRECTO
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Es incorrecto
Lo siento, trátala otra vez.
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Yo (buscar) el perro en el parque.
bucé
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busqué
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HINT
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Incorrecto
Remember, -car verbs have a spelling change in
the yo form!
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CORRECTO
Lets move on to er verbs!
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HINT CARD
-car, -gar and zar verbs have a spelling change
in the yo form!
c to qu g to gu z to c
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Ellos (aprender) la lección del pretérito.
aprenderon
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aprendieron
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HINT
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Ay de mí
Recuerda las terminaciones! í, iste, ió, imos
isteis, ieron
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Fantástico
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HINT CARD
-er endings
í imos iste isteis ió ieron
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Vosotros (entender) la maestra.
entendisteis
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entiendisteis
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HINT
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Chévere
Time to move on to ir verbs!
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Pobrecito
Trátala otra vez.
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HINT CARD
Regular er verbs DO NOT stem change in the
preterite tense!!
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Tú (vivir) cerca de tu abuela.
viviste
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vivaste
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HINT
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Qué bueno
más practica
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Ay, caramba
Trátala otra vez.
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HINT CARD
Recuerda er and ir verbs share the same endings
in the preterite tense!
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Ellos (preferir) Del Río más que la Casa Gonzales.
prefirieron
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preferieron
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HINT
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Eres inteligente
Great! You remembered that ir shoe verbs are
sole verbs in the preterite!
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Ay chihuahua
Remember SOLE verbs?
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HINT CARD
Stem changing ir verbs in the present tense,
become SOLE verbs in the preterite. The bottom
two forms change e to i and o to u.
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El gato (morirse) anoche.
se morió
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se murió
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HINT
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Lo siento mucho
SOLE verb!
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Arriba
Felicitaciones! You finished the quiz. On to
the next challenge!
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HINT CARD
Stem changing ir verbs in the present tense,
become SOLE verbs in the preterite. The bottom
two forms change e to i and o to u.
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Excelente, estudiante. You are almost halfway
through learning about the preterite tense!
Dont get discouraged it is one of the more
difficult tenses to master.
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If you feel ready for the next challenge
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Need more review?
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The Challenge
Step 1 Define the following verbs on a separate
piece of paper.
anunciar escoger beber encontrar probarse vesti
rse gastar ver recibir
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The Challenge
Step 2 Write an original story in the preterite
tense. Please write it in the form of an email
letter to la Señora Robey. You must use all 9
verbs you defined.
Buena suerte
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El correo electrónico
mrobey_at_penk12.va.us
(When you send email hit the back button to
return to this tutorial.)
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FELICITACIONES
You did it! Hope you had fun and learned
something new at the same time!
Start Over
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-ar verbs
How did you do?

• hablé
• cantaste
• comencé
• se acostaron
• se probó

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-er verbs
How did you do?

• bebí
• comprendiste
• entendieron

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-ir verbs
How did you do?

• durmió
• competí
• vivió
• salieron

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