In order to talk about events in the past, Spanish uses two simple tenses: the preterite and the imperfect. In this lesson, you will learn how to for the preterite tense, which is used to express actions or states completed in the past.​

​Atención

The yo and ud./él/ella forms of all three conjugations have written accents on the last syllable to show that it is stressed.​

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Also, the endings for regular -er and -ir verbs are identical in the preterite.​

Note that the nosotros/as forms of regular -ar and -ir verbs in the preterite are identical to the present tense forms. Context will help you determine which tense is being used.

-Ar and -er verbs that have a stem change in the present tense are regular in the preterite. They do not have a stem change.

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​​Atención

-Ir verbs that have a stem change in the present tense also have a stem change in the preterite. ​

Verbs that end in -car, -gar, and -zar have a spelling change in the first person singular (yo form) in the preterite.

Except for the yo form, all other forms of -car, -gar, and -zar verbs are regular in the preterite.

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Three other verbs, creer, leer, and oí​r, have spelling changes in the preterite. The i of the verb endings of creer, leer, and oír, carries an accent in the yo, tú, nosotros/as, and vosotros/as forms, and changes to y in the Ud./él/ella ad Uds./ellos/ellas forms.

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Ver is regular in the preterite, but none of its forms has an accent.​

Acabar de + infinitive is used to say that something has just occurred. Note that acabar is in the present tense in this construction.​