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Last semester you started learning about the preterite in Spanish—that it is one of the
forms of the past tense, and that it has numerous wrinkles in its formation. The regular conjugations
look nothing like the present tense; there are stem-changing verbs even in the preterite,
and both ser and ir do not look anything like what we would expect. In this video we will
do a quick review of what we have already learned, and also discuss the irregular verbs
in the preterite. We'll also talk a bit about the usage of the preterite.
As we recall, the formation of regular preterite verbs is a bit tricky, since the endings look
nothing like what we have used in the present tense. And that makes sense—it ensures that
the audience can never misunderstand that this is past tense, not present.
One of the most frustrating parts for the preterite is that we have to remember that
the first and third person singular forms—the forms of 'yo' and of 'él, ella, Usted'—have
accent marks on the last vowel. It is imperative that we remember this; failure to not write
the accent mark or to not stress the last vowel of those words leads to complete confusion,
particularly with --ar verbs. It implies a present construction—you know, the one thing
that we are trying not to confuse. There are some verbs that will undergo spelling
changes, but these changes do not affect pronunciation. All --car and --gar verbs will add a 'u',
and the --c will changes to a 'q'. Again, this is merely to keep the reader on track
and understanding what sounds are being represented—there is zero difference in pronunciation. So 'busqué'
sounds right...'buscé' doesn't, and that's what the reader would think when reading a
non-edited paper. As for those verbs that have two vowels to
end the word—such as leer, creer and the like—we will employ the use of a 'y' so
as to break the word into other syllables. This way, Spanish stays true to its roots,
and it makes for clearer pronunciation. And remember that stem-changing verbs in the
preterite are only those --ir verbs that stem changed in the present tense, and that it
is only the third person forms that will have a stem-change. There are no diphthongs here;
just straight '-e' to 'i', 'o' to 'u'. While the Spanish preterite is relatively
easy to understand for native English speakers, there are several irregular verbs which make
it difficult to learn. However, most of the irregular verbs fall into one of three groups,
based on the thematic vowel or consonant: a 'J'-group, an 'I'-group, and a 'U'-group.
Let's look at each one of these groups to better understand them.
The 'J'-group all have 'j's in their preterite root. This group has slightly different endings.
The 'U'-group has a very radical change in the vowel of the stem, with a 'u' showing
up unexpectedly. In some of these verbs, there is also a consonant change. The 'I'-group
has a much less radical change—usually an 'e' changing to an 'i'. Both the 'U'-group
and the 'I'-group share the same endings. We have studied that ser and ir share preterite
forms. Dar is also unusual; despite being an --ar verb, it uses endings that look remarkably
like --er/-ir endings. Speaking of endings, note that not one accent
mark shows up. There are zero accent marks for the irregular preterite forms. It is just
one more wrinkle in learning the preterite. So why do we use the preterite in the first
place? As mentioned earlier, we English speakers have a hard time remembering the forms of
the preterite, but the usage is fairly recognizable to us.
Primarily, we use the preterite to talk about a single, completed action or event. Another
way to think of this is to think of this event as a step in the narration. So when we say,
"Ayer yo fui al supermercado." Or: "Mi madre me compró un perro." Both of these sentences
would be events that happened at one time, and probably could be steps in a story.
Secondly, we use the preterite to mark a change in mental state. Such as: "Tuve miedo cuando
vi la serpiente." Or: "Yo supe la verdad esta mañana." In both cases, we are talking about
a change in emotion or mental process, and as such we use the preterite to mark that
change. Next, we use the preterite to mark the beginning
or end of an action or event: "Empezó a llover a las dos." This again is marking an event—something
that we use preterite for. If you have not yet picked up the pattern,
here is another reminder: We use the preterite to advance the plot of narration. It marks
out the events of the story as if marking out the steps of the story's timeline. So
when we say: "Yo fui a la clase, comí el almuerzo, y estudié en la biblioteca," we
are marking out the events of the day—as if marking them on a timeline.
Finally, we use preterite to interrupt an ongoing action in the imperfect. An example
of this is: "Cuando llegaste, nosotros comíamos." This will make more sense next chapter when
we compare and contrast the preterite and imperfect.
And let's face it: preterite is not a form that we have in English. We mark these same
exact events in the past by using the past tense, in combination with certain adverbs.
So in Spanish, we can also use adverbs to help intensify the preterite and its role.
To better understand what the preterite does in Spanish, let's look at this paragraph,
written entirely in the past tense, so that we can see the preterite in action.
"Ayer mi compañera de cuarto habló con su hermano, Héctor, y él decidió visitarnos
la semana que viene. El año pasado cuando llegó aquí para su visita anual, fue un
desastre. Preparamos una comida deliciosa, pero Héctor no comió nada. El día siguiente
fuimos a un restaurante y él bebió cinco cervezas y no pagó nada. Aquella noche miró
la televisión y el día siguiente no hizo nada tampoco."
In this paragraph we are using the preterite to primarily give the steps in the narration—or
to think of it another way, we are marking the events are in the story on a timeline.
And each event is marked on that line. But what is the preterite? It's past tense—that
we know—but what does it tell us? It tells us that the event in question is at a certain
time; in other words, that it's punctual. And for reasons that we do not need to talk
about now, we can talk about preterite being indicative—but like I said, we will come
back to this later. For now, we can leave the lesson here.