Tips for using the preterite tense in Spanish

Here’s how to form the preterite, the most important exceptions, and when to use it.

The preterite tense is one way of expressing the past tense in Spanish, and it’s often the first kind of past tense that learners study! Knowing the preterite tense means you’ll be able to talk about what happened this morning, yesterday, last week, or even last decade. Here’s a beginner’s guide to forming and using the preterite tense in Spanish.

How to form the preterite tense in Spanish

The preterite is used to describe events that happened—and finished happening—at a specific moment in the past. Just like for other verb tenses in Spanish, there are slightly different endings for -ar, -er, and -ir verbs.

Here’s how to conjugate regular verbs in the preterite:

When to use the preterite tense in Spanish

The main use for el pretérito is to describe actions that have a clear start and end in the past:

• Ayer, yo compré un libro. (Yesterday I bought a book.)
• Esta mañana, yo comí panqueques. (This morning, I ate pancakes.)
• Yo hablé con ella hace dos semanas. (I talked to her two weeks ago.)
• El avión aterrizó a las 10 am. (The plane landed at 10 am.)

An easy way to remember when you need to use el pretérito is by learning to spot these preterite keywords. They will usually indicate that an action in the past has been completed!

You can read more about the differences between the preterite and the imperfect (another Spanish past tense form) on the Duolingo Blog!

Spelling changes in the preterite tense in Spanish

Some verbs have spelling changes in the preterite tense—but only in the *yo* form! These changes are to keep the pronunciation the same in all the forms of the preterite, so you might want to review Spanish pronunciation rules.

Verbs that end in -car, -gar, and -zar will have a spelling change:

Leer (to read) is another verb that has a spelling change, this time only in the third person forms: That’s the form for él, ella, and usted, and the form for ellos, ellas, and ustedes—it’s to avoid having 3 vowels in a row!

Sound changes in preterite tense verbs in Spanish

For some verbs, you’ll change their spelling and their pronunciation in the preterite tense. The change happens only in the third person forms:

Irregular preterite tense verbs in Spanish

And—naturally!—there are some irregular forms in the preterite that you’ll just have to memorize.

The most common irregular form is for the verbs ser (to be) and ir (to go)… but there’s great news for learners! In the preterite, ser and ir have the exact same forms, so you get two verbs for the price of one 🙌 For example, fue can mean “it was” (verb: ser) or “it went” (verb: ir).

Ver (to see) and dar (to give) are also irregular:

There are many other verbs that have irregular stems in Spanish—instead of just dropping their -er or -ir ending, you actually start with a different “stem” form. Their endings are a bit different, too:

Here are the endings for those irregular stems:

Don’t tense up!

As with all Spanish verbs, the best way to learn the preterite is a little at a time: Start with the basic pattern of endings, and gradually practice more and more of the exceptions, especially common ones like ser and ir.

Here’s a handy summary table for using the preterite!

TLDR: Quick summary of the Spanish preterite tense conjugations