The Past Tense: “Pretérito Indefinido”

We use this specific past tense if the action or event only happened once and did not take up that much time.

In this lesson, we are going to take a look at a specific past tense called the Pretérito Indefinido. We use this specific past tense if the action or event only happened once and did not take up that much time.

Some common expressions we use it with are:

1. Ayer (Yesterday)

2. Anteayer (The day before yesterday)

3. Anoche (Last Night)

4. La semana pasada (Last Week)

5. El fin de semana pasado (Last Weekend)

6. El (name of the day) pasado (F.E: Last Monday)

7. En 1994 (In 1994)

8. Hace # años (2 years ago)

We will start with four very popular Irregular Verbs in a conversation: SER/IR/HACER/ESTAR. Tú and Vos have the same conjugation in this tense.

SER/IR (To Be/To Go)

Yo fuí

Vos/Tú fuiste

Ud./Él/Ella fue

Nosotros-as fuimos

Uds./Ellos-as fueron

ESTAR (To Be)

Yo estuve

Vos/Tú estuviste Ud./Él/Ella estuvo

Nosotros-as estuvimos

Uds./Ellos-as estuvieron

HACER (To Do)

Yo hice

Vos/Tú hiciste

Ud./ÉL/Ella hizo

Nosotros-as hicimos

Uds./Ellos-as hicieron

Let’s take a look at it in a conversation:

Eric: Sole, ¿Qué hiciste ayer? (What did you do yesterday?)

Sole: Ayer estuve en la casa de Sandra, tomamos mate y después fui- mos al cine. (Yesterday I was at Sandra’s house, we drank mate and went to the movies afterwards.)

The Regular Verbs: Examples of AR –ER - IR:

Caminar (To Walk)

Yo caminé

Vos/Tú caminaste

Ud./Él/Ella caminó Nosotros-as caminamos

Uds./Ellos-as caminaron

Comer (To Eat)

Yo comí

Vos/Tú comiste

Ud./Él/Ella comió

Nosotros comimos

Uds./Ellos-as comieron

Salir (To Go Out)

Yo salí

Vos/Tú saliste

Ud./Él/Ella salió

Nosotros salimos

Uds./Ellos-as salieron

For some practice, try to answer the following questions:

1. ¿Dónde naciste? (Where were you born?)

2. ¿Cuándo llegaste a Buenos Aires? (When did you arrive to B.A?)

3. ¿Con quién viajaste la última vez? (With whom did you travel the last time?)

4. ¿Dónde estuvieron tus amigos el fin de semana? (Where were your friends last weekend?)

5. ¿Qué cenaste anoche? (What did you eat for dinner last night?)

6. ¿Qué estudiamos la clase pasada? (What did we study last class?)

In another post we will look at the “Pretérito Indefinido” and when you should use it compared to the “Pretérito Imperfecto.” As you start speaking more Spanish, this becomes a confusing topic for many students, but at this point, there is no need to confuse you more!!

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Practice Exercises (For Paid Subscribers Only)

The practice exercises below are only for paid subscribers. In them, you will find practice exercises pertaining to this lesson in the post and as an attached pdf so you can print them out. You also have the opportunity to email me at speakspanish@substack.com if you have any questions. Upgrade to a paid subscription to access the exercise and other subscriber-only benefits!

Fill the space. Use the same word as in the present sentence.

1. Los fines de semana siempre salgo. El fin de semana pasado no _______ .

2. Generalmente en mi casa cenamos tarde, pero ayer _________  temprano porque había visitas.