Sunday, April 12, 2015

The Irregular Past

Last time, I introduced the two types of past in Spanish: the Preterite and the Imperfect. I covered the uses for each and showed you how to conjugate the regular verbs for both. Right now, I want to go over the irregular verbs using both the Preterite and the Imperfect.

There's a lot to cover, so let's dig in!

I'm going to run through the irregular Imperfect verbs first since there are so few of them. These verbs don't quite behave like their regular counterparts which is why they are classified as irregular. Luckily, there are only three (3) irregular verbs: Ser (to be), Ir (to go), and Ver (to see).

The Imperfect:


Ser = to be
Ir = to go
Ver = to see
Yo
era
iba
veía
eras
ibas
veías
El, Ella, Vd.
era
iba
veía
Nosotros/Nosotras
éramos
íbamos
veíamos
Vosotros/Vosotras
erais
ibais
veíais
Ellos, Ellas, Vds.
eran
iban
veían

Please note a couple of things with the Imperfect irregulars above:

  1. All the Nosotros/Nosotras forms have accent marks.
  2. All of the conjugations of Ver has accent marks.

As I mentioned before, accent marks are important. So try to lay into the vowel with the accent to emphasize it.

The Preterite:

You will find that there are quite a few verbs with irregular conjugation forms in the Preterite. Some verbs will have changes in the stem (the first part of the verb) while others will change in the endings used.

For -AR, -ER, and -IR verbs that have major irregular changes in the Preterite, you will use the following endings with NO accent marks:

Yo
-e
-iste
El, Ella, Vd.
-o
Nosotros/Nosotras
-imos
Vosotros/Vosotras
-isteis
Ellos, Ellas, Vds.
-ieron
(Note that irregular verbs placing a “j” at end of the stem will drop the “i” and only use “-eron”)

Here are some common -AR, -ER, and -IR irregular verbs in the Preterite:


Yo
El, Ella, Vd.
Nosotros/Nosotras
Vosotros/Vosotras
Ellos, Ellas, Vds.
Andar = to walk
anduve
anduviste
anduvo
anduvimos
anduvisteis
anduvieron
Conducir = to drive
conduje
condujiste
condujo
condujimos
condujisteis
condujeron
Decir = to say
dije
dijiste
dijo
dijimos
dijisteis
dijeron
Estar = to be
estuve
estuviste
estuvo
estuvimos
estuvisteis
estuvieron
Hacer = to make/do
hice
hiciste
hizo
hicimos
hicisteis
hicieron
Poner = to put
puse
pusiste
puso
pusimos
pusisteis
pusieron
Poder = to be able to
pude
pudiste
pudo
pudimos
pudisteis
pudieron
Querer = to want/love
quise
quisite
quiso
quisimos
quisisteis
quisieron
Saber = to know
supe
supiste
supo
supimos
supisteis
supieron
Tener = to have
tuve
tuviste
tuvo
tuvimos
tuvisteis
tuvieron
Traer = to bring
traje
trajiste
trajo
trajimos
trajisteis
trajeron
Venir = to come
vine
viniste
vino
vinimos
vinisteis
vinieron

You'll want to note the following with irregular verbs:

  1. Verbs that end in -UCIR such as Conducir (to drive) will drop the "c" and add a "j". The Ellos, Ellas, Vds. form will drop the "i" after the "j" and just be as follows: -jeron.
  2. Verbs ending in -CAR, -GAR, and -ZAR will only change in the following way for the Yo form: "c" changes to "qu", "g" changes to "gu", and "z" changes to "c." Just keep the c, g, or z using all the other forms.
  3. The "c" in the El, Ella, Vd. form of Hacer (to make/do) changes to a "z" in order to pronounce it correctly.

Smaller verbs with only two (2) or three (3) letters are slightly different in their Preterite forms. They will not have any accent marks because of their size. Here are their conjugations in the Preterite:


Yo
El, Ella, Vd.
Nosotros/Nosotras
Vosotros/Vosotras
Ellos, Ellas, Vds.
Dar = to give
di
diste
dio
dimos
disteis
dieron
Ver = to see
vi
viste
vio
vimos
visteis
vieron
Ir = to go
fui
fuiste
fue
fuimos
fuisteis
fueron
Ser = to be
fui
fuiste
fue
fuimos
fuisteis
fueron

Notice that Dar (to give) uses the -ER and -IR Preterite verb endings rather than the -AR verb endings.

Also, both Ir (to go) and Ser (to be) use the exact same verb forms in the Preterite. Remember that context will guide you to know whether the person is referring to Ir or Ser. Going and being are mutually exclusive and will not make any sense when other clarifying words go with these verbs. The majority of the time, the person will be referring to Ir (to go). You'll want to review the difference between Ser and Estar to better grasp the Preterite meaning. Don't worry, I'll go over these two verbs in a future article.

It's important to practice!

In the comments section, please write five (5) sentences using the irregular Imperfect and Preterite.

You got through it! Congratulations! I hope it makes sense. If you have any questions or need anything clarified, please make a comment below.

¡Hasta luego!
~Keith