Preterit Irregularities

Recently, I introduced one of two past tenses in Spanish -- the Preterit. We covered all of the regular -ar, -er, and -ir verbs. Now it's time to cover some of the irregular verbs in the Preterit. There are quite a few irregular verbs. Because of this, I will stretch this out over a couple of blog posts. I recommend reviewing the regular verbs first here.

Let's go over the most drastic irregular verbs first: dar, ver, ir, and ser. I say drastic because outside of the letter 'd' in the verb dar and the letter 'v' in the verb ver, the entire verb changes. Decades ago, there used to be accent marks over the letter 'i' in the Yo (I) form and over the letter 'o' in the third person form. Today Spanish has evolved in removing those markings. I mention this as you still may see some older text with the accent marks. They are still the Preterit forms; they just look slightly different.

-AR		-ER	-IR
Dar (to give)	Ver (to see)	Ser (to be)	Ir (to go)
Di Diste Dio Dimos Disteis Dieron	Vi Viste Vio Vimos Visteis Vieron	Fui Fuiste Fue Fuimos Fuisteis Fueron	Fui Fuiste Fue Fuimos Fuisteis Fueron

Notice that both ser and ir use identical forms; however their context (in how they are used) will make the meanings very clear.

Verbs that were stem-changing in the Present tense such as pensar, volver, conocer, and salir DO NOT change their stems in the Preterit tense. Simply place the corresponding -ar, -er or -ir endings onto the stems (pens-, volv-, conoc-, and sal-) using this chart:

-AR	-ER	-IR
-é -aste -ó -amos -asteis -aron	-í -iste -ió -imos -isteis -ieron	-í -iste -ió -imos -isteis -ieron

I-stem changing verbs

The following verbs change their stem to an 'i' with some slight spelling changes before adding their Preterit endings:

-ER		-IR
Hacer (to do or make)	Querer (to want or love)	Decir (to say)	Venir (to come)
Hice Hiciste Hizo Hicimos Hicisteis Hicieron	Quise Quisiste Quiso Quisimos Quisisteis Quisieron	Dije Dijiste Dijo Dijimos Dijisteis Dijeron	Vine Viniste Vino Vinimos Vinisteis Vinieron

U-stem changing verbs

The following verbs change their stem to a 'u' with some slight spelling changes before adding their Preterit endings:

-AR	-ER
Estar (to be)	Poder (to be able/can)	Poner (to put)	Saber (to know (as in a fact))	Tener (to have)
Estuve Estuviste Estuvo Estuvimos Estuvisteis Estuvieron	Pude Pudiste Pudo Pudimos Pudisteis Pudieron	Puse Pusiste Puso Pusimos Pusisteis Pusieron	Supe Supiste Supo Supimos Supisteis Supieron	Tuve Tuviste Tuvo Tuvimos Tuvisteis Tuvieron

I think this is good for now. I'll have a little more irregular verbs in the Preterit tense for you later on. Until then, please practice these verbs. Listen carefully to how I pronounce them. Practice them to yourself, to a friend or family member, or to a pet. Go online and try to Skype someone and practice. Use flashcards or flashcard apps to drill the conjugations and spellings of them. You will need to be actively practicing these verbs. Mix in the regular Preterit verbs to maintain your memory on them too. You can do it!

¡Hasta luego!
~Keith