​Qué es el pretérito?

• So far, we've only conjugated verbs in the PRESENT TENSE!

  • ​Yo como las hamburguesas = I eat the hamburgers

  • ​Mis amigos y yo estudiamos el español =Mis friends and I study Spanish

  • ​Mi madre escribe una carta = My mom writes a letter

• ​In Spanish, there are TWO simple tenses to indicate actions that happened in the PAST

• The PRETERITE is used to describe actions that began and were completed at a DEFINITE time in the PAST

​Conjugating Regular Verbs in Preterite

Notice the NOSOTROS form is the same as PRESENT TENSE in -AR and -IR Verbs?​

​How will we know the difference? Context!

​What about stem-changers?

• Verbs that change in the stem in ​PRESENT tense that we've learned do NOT stem change in preterite form.

• ​Generalmente, yo me acuesto a las nueve de la noche, pero ayer yo me acosté a las once.

​-Car, -Gar, -Zar

• Verbs that end in CAR, GAR, or ZAR ​all have a unique spell change in the YO form for the preterite tense.

• ​PRACTICAR - QUÉ - Yo PRACTIQUÉ = I practiced

• ​JUGAR - GUÉ - Yo JUGUÉ = I played

• ​ALMORZAR - CÉ - Yo ALMORCÉ = I ate lunch

Vamos a practicar...​

...​Elena is writing a letter to her grandmother. Choose the correct form the verb for each in the PRETERITE form