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
| Spanish | English |
Ayer ellos estudiaron matemáticas en grupos  | Yesterday they studied math in groups |
| Anteayer, Robert pegó a John | The day before yesterday, Robert hit John |
| Yo leí por 30 minutos anoche | I read for 30 minutes last night |
| La semana pasada, nosotros escribimos un cuento corto | Last week, we wrote a short story |
| Ellas mejoraron su comprensión el mes pasado | They improved their comprehension last month |
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
- Julia comió tres comidas ayer
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
- Marcos terminó su proyecto para la feria científica
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.
| AR | ER | IR |
| Gritar Pegar Comportar | Leer Comer |
Escribir
|
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 – Examin_ | Comer – Com_ | Escribir – Escrib_ |
| Estudiar – Estudi_ | Obedecer – Obedec_ | Vivir – Viv_ |
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 Grité | I yelled |
|
Tú = aste Gritaste | You yelled |
|
Él, Ella, Usted = ó Gritó | He, She, You yelled |
|
Nosotros/as = amos Gritamos | 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
Compartí | 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 Compartieron | 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.
| Spanish | English |
| Esta mañana | This morning |
| Ayer | Yesterday |
| Anteayer | The day before yesterday |
| Anoche | Last night |
| El año pasado | Last year |
| El mes pasado | Last month |
| La semana pasada | Last week |
| El fin de semana pasado | Last weekend |
| Una vez | Once |
| La primera vez | The first time |
| El + día de la semana + pasado | Last + day of the week |
| Hace + time period | Some + time period + ago |
| De repente | Suddenly |
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!
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¡Arriésguense, abran la boca y cometan errores!
