In this Spanish for Educators lesson you will learn how to use and conjugate the regular verbs in the preterite (past tense) in Spanish: Verbos regulares en el pretérito.
Here is the Spanish lesson I taught to my Maestro Miércoles Facebook group:
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El Objetivo:
En esta lección, teachers will:
- Learn how to conjugate regular verbs in the preterit past tense
- Understand that there is a conjugation pattern to memorize
- Form complete sentences in the past tense
- Start communicating with correct regular preterite past tense verb conjugations!
Unos ejemplos / Some Examples
Did you know there are two past tenses in Spanish and they are not used interchangeably? You have to learn when to use which one. Here is a fun way to learn when to use the Preterito past tense.
Usos: SPICY y el Pretérito:
SPICY is a good acronym to learn when you want to start using the Pretérito in Spanish to talk about specific actions that happened in the past.
S: Specific actions: completed in the past
P: Past actions and events that occurred 1 time or a specific amount of times
- Ella participó en el Spelling Bee el marzo pasado
I: Interrupting actions:
- La familia hablaba y de repente los estudiantes gritaron
C: Completed actions (not ongoing) in the past
Y: Yesterday & other preterite triggers
- Ayer mi clase recibió un chequeo de piojos
Verbos Irregulares / Regulares: When we talk about Preterite Verbs, there are 4 big categories to learn. This lesson focuses on the regular preterite verbs.
Spanish | English |
1. Verbos Regulares | Regular Verbs |
2. Verbos Irregulares | Irregular Verbs |
3. Verbos con Cambios de Raíz | Stem-Changing Verbs |
4. Verbos Reflexivos | Reflexive Verbs |
Clasificaciones de Verbos / Verbs Classification: Verbs unconjugated or in the infinitive either end in -AR, -ER, -IR.
You need to know how verbs end so you know how to conjugate them.
El primer paso / First Step
1. Quitar la terminación de -AR, -ER. -IR / Remove the -AR, -ER, -IR Ending
Verbos -ar: | Verbos -er: | Verbos -ir: |
Examinar | Comer – Com_ | Escribir – Escrib_ |
Estudiar – Estudi_ | Obedecer | Vivir |
El segundo paso / Second Step
2. Agregar la terminación del pretérito / Add the Preterite Ending
This step is very important to understand since in Spanish the accents can change the tense of the verb: “hablo” and “habló” are written in two different tenses (hablo is in present tense while habló is in past tense).
AR
Yo = é | Nosotros = amos |
Tú = aste | |
Él, Ella, Usted = ó | Ellos, Ellas, Ustedes = aron |
ER/IR
Yo = í | Nosotros = imos |
Tú = íste | |
Él, Ella, Usted = ió | Ellos, Ellas, Ustedes = ieron |
Los verbos del -AR / -AR Verbs
Gritar
Spanish | English |
Yo = é | I yelled |
Tú = aste Gritaste | You yelled |
Él, Ella, Usted = ó Gritó | He, She, You yelled |
Nosotros/as = amos | We yelled |
Vosotros/as = asteis Gritasteis | You all yelled |
Ellos, Ellas, Ustedes = aron Gritaron | They, You all yelled |
Los verbos del -ER y -IR /- ER & -IR Verbs
Good news! -ER and -IR Verbs share the same endings in the pretérito 🙂
Compartir
Spanish | English |
Yo = í | I shared |
Tú = iste
Compartiste | You shared |
Él, Ella, Usted = ió
Compartió | He, She, You shared |
Nosotros/as = imos Compartimos | We shared |
Vosotros/as = isteis Compartisteis | You all shared |
Ellos, Elllas, Ustedes = ieron | They, You all shared |
Palabras disparadoras del pretérito / Preterite Trigger Words
Just like in English, Spanish has trigger words to warn you the actions happened in the past. Here are some pretérito triggers; be sure to use them when speaking in the past tense.
Vamos a practicar / Let’s Practice
Here are some exercises to practice the regular verbs in the preterite 🙂
Spanish | English |
1. El año pasado la maestra __________ (trabajar) en la escuela bilingüe. | Last year, the teacher worked in the bilingual school |
2. Anoche nosotros __________ (estudiar) español. | Last night, we studied Spanish |
3. Ayer tú __________ (comer) muchas frutas y verduras. | Yesterday you ate a lot of fruits and vegetables |
4. Hace tres años yo __________ (vivir) en Colorado. | Three years ago, I lived in Colorado |
5. La semana pasada él ___________ (escribir) un ensayo. | Last week, he wrote an essay |
Now What? / ¿Ahora qué?
Here are two excellent ways to start practicing the regular verbs in the preterite in Spanish
Now it’s your turn! / Ahora es tu turno
Study all of this classroom vocabulary in Spanish with these flashcards!
Download the lesson notes and start creating your own sentences using this new vocabulary in Spanish and share them on the comments below or in our Facebook group to receive feedback from other Spanish learners
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¡Arriésguense, abran la boca y cometan errores!