Regular Verb Conjugations in Spanish Preterite Tense: A quick and easy introduction

Mastering the preterite tense, or past simple tense, is a fundamental aspect of Spanish.

This tense is used to describe completed actions.

In this post, we’ll cover how to conjugate regular -ar, -er, and -ir verbs.

Preterite Tense for Regular -ar Verbs

The regular -ar verbs in the preterite follow this pattern:

• Yo: -é
• Tú: -aste
• Él/Ella/Usted: -ó
• Nosotros/Nosotras: -amos
• Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes: -aron

For example, ‘hablar’ becomes ‘hablé‘ (I talked), ‘hablaste‘ (you talked), ‘habló‘ (he/she/you formal talked), ‘hablamos‘ (we talked), and ‘hablaron‘ (they/you formal talked).

Preterite Tense for Regular -er and -ir Verbs

For regular -er and -ir verbs in the preterite, the endings are identical:

• Yo: -í
• Tú: -iste
• Él/Ella/Usted: -ió
• Nosotros/Nosotras: -imos
• Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes: -ieron

For instance, ‘comer’ becomes ‘comí‘ (I ate), ‘comiste‘ (you ate), ‘comió‘ (he/she/you formal ate), ‘comimos‘ (we ate), and ‘comieron‘ (they/you formal ate). Similarly, ‘vivir’ becomes ‘viví’ (I lived), ‘viviste‘ (you lived), ‘vivió‘ (he/she/you formal lived), ‘vivimos‘ (we lived), and ‘vivieron‘ (they/you formal lived).

Examples

Here are a few example sentences using the preterite tense:

• Yo hablé con mi amigo ayer. (I talked to my friend yesterday.)
• Nosotros comimos pizza para la cena. (We ate pizza for dinner.)
• Ellos vivieron en México por tres años. (They lived in Mexico for three years.)

Regular preterite verb conjugation is an essential building block in Spanish. The more you use and practice these patterns, the more instinctive they’ll become.

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