The preterite is the simple past — the tense for completed actions at a specific, known time. It answers "what happened?": ayer fui a la playa (yesterday I went to the beach). This lesson builds it: regular -ar/-er/-ir endings, the ser / ir / dar irregulars, the "pretérito grave" stem verbs, and the yo-form spelling changes.
Work through each screen and answer the questions as you go — some ask you to recognise the right form, some ask you to produce it by typing. Collect ⭐ stars and press Start.
Use the preterite for a past action that started and finished — a single event, or a series of events, seen as done. It usually comes with a time marker that pins it to a moment:
What it is not: the preterite is not for describing or for "used to". A separate past tense (the imperfect) does that — you'll meet it in cluster 6. For now: if it happened once and finished, use the preterite.
Take the infinitive hablar (to speak), chop off -ar, and add the preterite endings. Watch the accents on yo and él:
| person | form |
|---|---|
| yo | hablé |
| tú | hablaste |
| él / ella / usted | habló |
| nosotros | hablamos |
| vosotros | hablasteis |
| ellos / ustedes | hablaron |
Two things to notice: the accents fall on hablé ("I spoke") and habló ("he/she spoke") — drop them and you change the word. And hablamos looks identical to the present ("we speak" / "we spoke") — context decides which.
In the preterite, -er and -ir verbs take the same set of endings. Chop the ending and add: -í, -iste, -ió, -imos, -isteis, -ieron.
| comí |
| comiste |
| comió |
| comimos |
| comisteis |
| comieron |
| viví |
| viviste |
| vivió |
| vivimos |
| vivisteis |
| vivieron |
Accents again: on comí / comió and viví / vivió. The two tables are letter-for-letter the same after the stem — learn one set of endings, cover both families.
Choose the correct preterite form for each verb and person.
Three everyday verbs break the pattern. The first two are the same word twice over:
| fui |
| fuiste |
| fue |
| fuimos |
| fuisteis |
| fueron |
| fui |
| fuiste |
| fue |
| fuimos |
| fuisteis |
| fueron |
| di |
| diste |
| dio |
| dimos |
| disteis |
| dieron |
ser and ir are IDENTICAL in the preterite — fui, fuiste, fue… Context tells you which: Fui a Madrid = "I went to Madrid"; Fue difícil = "It was difficult". dar borrows the -er/-ir endings but takes no accents: di, dio (not dí, dió).
A big group of common verbs takes a changed stem and one special set of endings — the same for all three verb types, and crucially with no accents:
| person | form |
|---|---|
| yo | tuve |
| tú | tuviste |
| él / ella / usted | tuvo |
| nosotros | tuvimos |
| vosotros | tuvisteis |
| ellos / ustedes | tuvieron |
Learn the stems — the endings above never change:
Two spellings to burn in: hacer gives hizo ("he did/made"), not hició; and decir gives dijeron ("they said"), not dijieron.
Some regular -ar verbs change spelling in the yo form only, to keep the sound of the infinitive. Everything else in the table is completely regular:
| ending → yo | example |
|---|---|
| -car → -qué | buscar → busqué |
| -gar → -gué | llegar → llegué · jugar → jugué · pagar → pagué |
| -zar → -cé | empezar → empecé · cruzar → crucé |
Only "yo" changes. The rest stay regular: llegaste, llegó, llegamos, llegasteis, llegaron. These carry extra credit at Higher, but even at Foundation they're worth knowing — llegar and empezar are everywhere.
Some -ir verbs change their stem vowel — but only in the él/ella and ellos/ellas forms. Everywhere else they're regular:
| pedí |
| pediste |
| pidió |
| pedimos |
| pedisteis |
| pidieron |
| dormí |
| dormiste |
| durmió |
| dormimos |
| dormisteis |
| durmieron |
| preferí |
| preferiste |
| prefirió |
| preferimos |
| preferisteis |
| prefirieron |
Only the 3rd persons change: pidió / pidieron, durmió / durmieron, prefirió / prefirieron. The "I / you / we" forms keep the original vowel. A Higher-tier detail worth recognising in reading.
Does each infinitive take the regular preterite endings, or is it irregular in the past?
Tap an infinitive on the left, then tap its "I" past form on the right.
What it's for: completed actions at a specific/known time — "what happened". Markers: ayer, anoche, la semana pasada, el año pasado, hace dos días.
Regular -ar: -é, -aste, -ó, -amos, -asteis, -aron (accents on hablé / habló).
Regular -er / -ir (same endings): -í, -iste, -ió, -imos, -isteis, -ieron.
ser = ir: fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fuisteis, fueron. dar: di, dio… (no accents).
Pretérito grave: new stem + -e, -iste, -o, -imos, -isteis, -ieron — tuve, estuve, pude, puse, quise, vine, hice (hizo), dije (dijeron).
Yo spelling swaps: buscar→busqué, llegar→llegué, empezar→empecé.
3rd-person -ir swaps: pidió, durmió, prefirió (and their -ieron).
Next cluster contrasts this with the imperfect — but the preterite is the backbone of "what happened". Press Finish to see your score.
You've built the preterite for AQA GCSE Spanish. 🎉
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Next in the spine: The imperfect & preterite vs imperfect — describing the past vs telling what happened. Then lock this in with the Evaluate confidence quiz.