The Preterite Tense of Regular Verbs

The Preterite Tense of Regular Verbs are basically words that talk about past actions that you have done. These types of verbs end with -ar, -er, and -ir.



When trying to conjugate -ar verbs all you have to do is drop the (-ar) :

for yo use the ending -e

for tu use the ending -aste

for el use the ending -o

for nosotros use the ending -amos

for ellos use the ending -aron



One important thing you need to know is the Preterite cannot be used to describe and emotional state of being. When when you have a sentence like, "She was sad" you would use a different kind of past tense. This is called the Imperfect past tense.


When you are conjugating regular -er and -ir verbs you then drop the ending (-er and -ir) and you add:

i
iste
io
imos
ieron


Here are some examples of all three verbs conjugated:

hablar: comer vivir
*hable *comi *vivi
*hablaste *comiste *viviste
*hablo *comio *vivio
*hablamos *comimos *vivimos
*hablaron *comieron *vivieron