Actions of the Past

It is time to start venturing into the past. Unlike English, Spanish has two types of past tenses. The Preterit focuses on events or actions that happened and completed in the past. The Imperfect tense deals more with describing things in the past whether it be feelings, events, or reactions. I'll cover more on the specific differences between these two past tenses in a later blog. For now, let's go over the Preterit tense (el pretérito).

There are regular and irregular verbs in the Preterit tense. For today's blog, I will go through the regular verbs. I'm going to start out with -ar verbs. Here is a chart that goes over the conjugation of an -ar verb. Keep in mind that there are accent marks on the Yo (I) and the third person singular forms. This means you must place the emphasis on the last syllable of the word when you say it. I have placed the endings in bold to highlight where the conjugation occurs.

-AR

Caminar (to walk)

Caminé

Caminaste

Caminó

Caminamos

Caminasteis

Caminaron

Listen to me pronounce the verb caminar in the various forms of the Preterit tense:

Verbs ending in -er and in -ir use the exact same formations in the Preterit tense. Just like the -ar verbs, the Yo (I) and the third person singular forms will have an accent mark where you will emphasize the last syllable of the word when speaking it. I have placed the endings in bold to show you where the change takes place.

-ER	-IR
Beber (to drink)	Vivir (to live)
Bebí	Viví
Bebiste	Viviste
Bebió	Vivió
Bebimos	Vivimos
Bebisteis	Vivisteis
Bebieron	Vivieron

Listen to me pronounce the verbs beber and vivir in the various forms of the Preterit tense:

Now, practice, practice, and practice some more! Get comfortable using this tense. Talk to yourself, talk to your pets, try speaking to a family member. You can join an online hangout group or skype someone to practice. Do whatever it takes to start using the Preterit tense. The more you use it, the easier it will become to recall it from memory and have it feel like second hand. You can use flashcards or flashcard apps to test your memory. There are lots of ways to master this tense. Look to future posts on the irregular forms of the Preterit. Until then . . .

¡Hasta luego!
~Keith