El Préterito(The Past)

No lloren

In English, we do not thing about the past tense.

It is natural and we learned to use it before we ever went to school.

In Spanish, we do not have that luxury.

In Spanish, we have to learn all the forms we already knownaturally in English

First, present in English

I

She

You

He They

You all

Wespeak

speaks

speak

-to talk

speak

speak

speak

Ahora, presente en Español

Yo

Ella

Tú

Él Ellos

Vosotros

Nosotroshablo

habla

hablas

hablar- to talk

hablamos

habláis

hablanEllasUstedesUsted

Now, past in English

I

She

You

He They

You all

Wespoke

spoke

-to talk

spoke

spoke

spoke

spoke

In English, we change the stem speak spoke

Ahora, préterito en Español

Yo

Ella

Tú

Él Ellos

Vosotros

Nosotroshablé

habló

hablaste

hablar- to talk

hablamos

hablasteis

hablaronEllasUstedesUsted

In Spanish, endings change not stem

Remember, in Spanish, we do not have to use pronouns.

Unlike English, we do not normally change the stem so we do not need them.

We just have to memorize the new endings likewe did with the present.

éaste

ó

amosasteis

aron

AR endings are different from ER and IR justlike in the present.

Unlike the present, their is no difference between the Nosotros & Vosotros forms of ER/IR.

The endings of ER/IR verbs in the preterite:

ííste

ió

imosisteis

ieron

emos imos éis ís

Remember the irregular verbs Dar and Ver?

They are not irregular in the preterite.

Take off the ar from Dar and the er from Ver and you are ready to conjugate

dídíste

dió

dimosdisteis

dieron