Topic:
How to conjugate regular -ar verbs in the Preterite Tense.
Don't Overdo It!
Before we get started learning yet another set of verb endings, I want to encourage you to take your time with this project. It is all too easy to zoom through these verb tenses and think you have them committed to memory along the way, only to find later that you can't recall how to conjugate a present tense -ir verb.
This is not a sprint. It's more of a marathon, and you will need to pace yourself. It takes time for your brain to truly internalize all the information that you are exposing it to. Take your time. Spend more time in the exercises. After a few days, return to the exercises from the earlier units. Repeated exposure is the key.
It can be overwhelming to keep adding new material until you really have committed the earlier lessons to your long-term memory. Keep that in mind as you work through these lessons. There's no need to rush into new material. But if you're ready, let's move on to...
Forming the Preterite, or the Simple Past Tense
The verb comprar means to buy. Do you remember how you would say I buy in the present tense? It's compro.
But what if we want to say I bought in the past tense?
To form the first person singular in past tense, we will drop the -ar, and add -é to get compré.
Note the accented é which means that we place the stress on the final syllable. So you pronounce compré as "com-PRAY".
Just like with the present tense, each pronoun has a specific ending in the preterite tense. Here is the full conjugation of comprar to see how it works.
Preterite Conjugation of comprar
An Example Sentence
To say She bought the book, we could simply say Compró el libro.
Of course the very same sentence in Spanish could also mean He bought the book or You bought the book (using the formal usted version of you). If the meaning isn't clear from context, you would probably include a pronoun to make it clear: Ella compró el libro.
A Few Things to Note
There are a few tricky parts about the preterite verb endings. The first one is regarding the accent marks. Be sure you understand how to distinguish between compro
and compró
. The first is present tense and means I buy, while the second one is past tense and means He (or she) bought.
Then take a look at the we or nosotros form, compramos. Hey, that looks exactly like the present tense!
That is correct. To say We buy in Spanish, we say Nosotros compramos. And to say We bought, it is exactly the same sentence: Nosotros compramos. So how do Spanish speakers tell the difference? Only by context. There is no difference in pronunciation or spelling.
A Reminder about Typing Accent Marks
In the upcoming exercises, you will need to type letters with accent marks much more frequently than you did in the previous lessons. If you do not remember how to type the accent marks, please review Lesson 0.5 where we described several easy methods.
Listen for the New Endings
If your experience is like mine, you will find that once you start to recognize the past tense in spoken Spanish, you will see the effect in your overall ability to understand what you are hearing. These new verb endings, like -aste and -aron will start to jump out at you in the materials you are hearing. It may be a while yet before you can put all the pieces together at full speed while listening, but perceiving them is the first step.
So when you are listening to material, try to pick out those new endings even if you don't yet know all the verbs they are attached to!
Another Example
Next we will look at the verb ayudar which means to help.
Preterite Conjugation of ayudar
So let's see how to say You helped in the kitchen.
That would be Ayudaste en la cocina.
As in previous lessons, we have linked to many excellent outside resources that explain how to form the preterite tense in -ar verbs. If you still have questions, check out some of those before proceeding to the exercises to practice.
Additional Study Resources
Videos:
Websites:
Books:
On to the Exercises and the Quiz
To practice the verb forms in this lesson, click Practice Exercises below.
Whenever you want, you can take the quiz for this lesson.
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