Lesson 9 - The Past Tenses

Overview

A key difference between Spanish and English is that Spanish has two past tenses. They have somewhat different meanings and functions.

In general, the imperfect tense is used to describe situations or ongoing or repeated actions in the past. The other past tense, called the preterite, is used for brief actions, for events rather than situations. Link to more information on their uses.

First we will present the endings used to form the tenses, then discuss in more depth the uses.

Endings

The imperfect and preterit endings, like those in the present tense, are applied to the stem that remains after the infinitive ending is removed. To find the infinitive, then, one removes the ending, and applies -ar, -er, or -ir. The imperfect tense has very few irregular verbs, the preterite many. Don't think that later tenses have this many new endings to learn; they don't.

Index overbendings1.htmf Verb Endings. Since the number of endings is starting to multiply, with this lesson I'm providing an alphabetical index to verb endings. This is a tool I've created, since I've found it nowhere else. (All other verb tools go from the infinitive to the endings, rather than endings to the infinitive.)

Endings of the Imperfect Tense (used for description or repeated action):

• Regular Verbs
  • Endings for -ar verbs: -aba, -abas, -aba, -ábamos, -abais, -aban.
    Example: hablaba, hablabas, hablaba,hablábamos,hablábais, hablaban.
     
  • Endings for -er/-ir verbs: -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían.
    Example: vivia, vivías, vivía, vivíamos, vivíais, vivían.
     
  • Can you form the imperfect tense of rezar (to pray)? Click here for the answer. The imperfect of sentir (to feel, to be sorry)? Click here for the answer.
    
    
• Irregular verbs. There are only three irregular verbs in the imperfect:
  • Ser (to be): era, eras, era, éramos, erais, eran.
  • Ir (to go): iba, ibas, iba, íbamos, ibais, iban.
  • Ver (to see): veía, veías, veía, veíamos, veíais, veían. Ver is irregular only in that the stem contains an additional e. The endings themselves are regular.
    
    
• Comments on the first and third person endings. Note that the first and third persons share the same ending. While the verb subject is typically omitted in Spanish, it will not be omitted if ambiguity would result. The writer will see that only one meaning is possible.
  • Vivía en el campo. (The subject could be first or third person. In isolation, one cannot determine the subject of this sentence.)
  • Pedro era mi amigo. Vivía en el campo. (Pedro was my friend. He lived in the country.) Spanish convention says that the subject continues the same from one sentence to the next, unless a change is marked. Since Pedro is the subject of the first sentence, he continues as subject of the second, and thus the meaning of vivía is clear.
    
    
• Link to interesting, but unessential, information on imperfect endings.

Endings of the PreteriteTense (used for brief actions):

• Regular verbs.
  • -ar verbs: -é, -aste, -ó, -amos, -asteis, -aron. Example: hablé, hablaste, habló, hablamos, habláis, hablaron
    • Spelling changes. As previously discussed, certain vowels have an effect on the pronunciation of a preceding c or g. These are not considered irregular, because they are predictable.
      
      All the preterite endings of -ar verbs, except the first person singular, begin in a or o. Both a and o are from the same category of vowels (-a, -o, -u; -e, -i) as the a of the infinitive ending ar. But the vowel of the first person singular ending, e, is from the other category, and causes spelling changes:
      • alcancé > alcanzar
      • busqué > buscar
      • gocé > gozar
      • llegué > llegar
    • Remember, the sound of the consonant in question does not change. What changes is the way in which that consonant is written. The sounds are written differently depending on the vowel which follows.
  • -er/-ir verbs: -í, -iste, -ió, -imos, -isteis, ieron. Example: viví, viviste, vivió, vivimos, vivimos, vivisteis, vivieron
    • If the stem ends in a vowel,
      • In the first and second persons, the initial -i of the ending always takes an accent, not just in the first person singular. This prevents its combination with the stem vowel to form a diphthong: caíste, caímos.
    • In the third person, the initial weak iof the ending converts to y. For example, cayó > caer to fall), huyó > huir (to flee), contribuyeron > contribuir (to contribute).
  • Can you form the preterite tense of cazar (to hunt)? Click here for the answer. What about the preterite tense of caer? Click here for the answer.

• Irregular Verbs. In contrast with the very regular imperfect tense, the preterite tense has many irregularities. (The same is true of Latin and the other romance languages.)
  • Verbs for which one only needs to learn the first person singular. For most verbs, only the first person singular need be learned, since from it, one can derive the remaining forms.
    
    The stems of these verbs typically have both a vowel change in the stressed syllable, typically to i or u, and a consonant change. One will never derive the infinitive tener from the preferite tuve. Fortunately, these verbs are not numerous.
    
    Note that these verbs differ from the regular preterites not just in the stem, but that the first and third person singular forms are not accented. For example, the ending -e can be either a third person present tense ending or an irregular preterite ending. However, ambiguity is not produced. Faced with a form like dije, if the ending were present tense, the verb would be *dijer or *dijir. Since the dictionary will reveal that there are no such verbs, the e can only be an irregular preterite ending. (The asterisk * is a symbol linguists use to mark non-existent words, made up for the purposes of discussion.) Link to interesting, but not essential, information on this topic.
    • conduje (conducir, to drive). Full tense: conduje, condujiste, condujo, condujimos, condujistes, condujeron.
    • cupe (caber, to fit into)
    • dije (decir, to say)
    • hice (hacer, to do or make). The third person singular is not *hico. Can you guess how it is spelled? Click here for the answer.
    • hube (haber, to have; auxiliary only. Note that hubo, the third person singular form, is the preterite of the special form hay. Just as hay means both "there is" and "there are," hubo means both "there was" and "there were." Hubo protestas: there were protests.
    • pude (poder, to be able). See note below on its special meaning in the preterite.
    • puse (poner, to put)
    • quise (querer, to want or love). See note below on its special meaning in the preterite.
    • supe (saber, to know). See note below on its special meaning in the preterite.
    • traje (traer, to bring)
    • tuve (tener, to have)
    • vine (venir, to come)
  • Compound verbs. Compound verbs formed with a prefix and one of these irregular verbs, share the same irregularities in the preterite. Examples:
    • maldije (maldecir, to curse)
    • retuve (retener, to retain)
  • Additional stem vowel changes. Verbs with a stem vowel change in the preterite third person. Some -ir verbs have a stem vowel change in the third person singular and plural of the preterite. For these verbs, an -e- changes to -i- and an -o- changes to -u-. Common examples:
    • durmió, durmieron > dormir (to sleep)
    • murió, murieron > morir (to die)
    • pidió, pidieron > pedir (to ask for)
    • rio, rieron > reír (to laugh). The -e- of the stem has changed to an -i-, and it and the -i- of the ending have collapsed into one. Note the lack of an accent on rio, because it is monosyllabic. The stress is on the o, in contrast with río, the first person singular present tense of the verb, and also the noun "river." Reír has an accent to maintain the -ir, with its weak vowel i, as the stressed final syllable. The same is true of the verb freír (to fry).
    • sintió, sintieron > sentir (to feel, to be sorry)
• Really Irregular Preterites (cannot be constructed from the first person singular alone):
  • Ser and ir. The verbs ser and ir have identical preterites: fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fuisteis, fueron. Although this seems destined to cause confusion, it almost never does so.
    • Fuimos a Sevilla must be "We went to Seville." (Verb is ir.)
    • Fue condenado a un año de cárcel must be "He was sentenced to a year in jail." (Verb is ser.)
  • Dar. The verb dar takes regular -er/-ir endings: di, diste, dio, dimos, disteis, dieron. There are no accents on di and dio because they are monosyllabic.
  • Andar and estar. These two are the only ar verbs that are irregular in the preterite. They take the same endings as the irregular er/ir verbs, like decir or traer.
    • Andar, to walk: anduve, anduviste, anduvo, anduvimos, anduvisteis, anduvieron.
    • Estar, to be: estuve, estuviste, estuvo, estuvimos, estuvisteis, estuvieron.

EXERCISE on past tense endings. Take each of these forms and identify (a) the infinitive, (b) whether they are in the present, imperfect, or preterite tense, (c) the meaning (not of the infinitive, but of this specific verb form). For the purpose of this exercise you may assume the third person subjects to be "he" and "they."

1. tomaron
2. sabían
3. supieron
4. fueron
5. alcancé
6. acababan
7. iba
8. alquiló
9. sentó
10. sintió
11. sentamos
12. sentimos
13. sentíamos
14. dio
15. tuvimos
16. éramos
17. anduvimos
18. veían
19. murieron
20. prometía

Click here for the answers to this exercise.

Usage of the Imperfect and Preterite Tenses

• More on the Imperfect.
  • The imperfect is always used to tell time in the past: Eran las ocho. (It was eight o'clock.)
  • The imperfect indicates that an action was repeated, habitual, or is viewed as lengthy.
    • Íbamos a la playa. (We went to the beach repeatedly.)
  • Vivía en Barcelona. (I was living in Barcelona - emphasis on the duration of the experience.)
• More on the Preterite.
  • The preterite is used for a one-time action, a brief action, or an action which is not on-going. The preterite looks at a change in state or condition - I played, then I stopped; there was no light, then there was; I lived in Barcelona but now I don't.
    • Fuimos a la playa. (We went to the beach once.)
  • Dijo Dios: "Haya (let there be) luz, y hubo luz." (God said "Let there be light," and there was light.)
  • Viví en Barcelona. (I lived - or "used to live" - in Barcelona. Emphasis on the change from living there.)
  • Special meanings in the preterite.. Four verbs whose meaning always implies duration have special senses in the preterite. These meanings correspond to a momentary application of the verb's action.
    • Conocer means to be acquainted with. This implies duration. Therefore the preterite conocí means I met (an inherently brief action).
    • pude — I succeeded (not just “I was able,” but “I took action based on my ability”)
    • no pudimos — We failed (not just “we lacked the capacity,” but “we took action and our lack of capacity showed itself”)
    • quiso — He/she/it/Ud. tried (not just “he wanted,” but “he took action based on his desire”)
    • no quise — I refused (not just “I did not want to,” but “I took action based on my lack of desire”)
    • supe — I found out (a brief action; “I knew” would imply some duration, and therefore the imperfect)
• Both imperfect and preterite used in the same sentence. The two tenses are sometimes used for temporal contrast. The imperfect sets the scene, and the preterite gives the action.
  • Estaba en el baño cuando sonó el teléfono. (I was in the bathtub when the telephone rang.)
  • Íbamos a la playa cuando hubo un accidente. (We were going to the beach [once] when an accident occured.)
• Reduced importance of the difference between imperfect and preterite. The difference between the imperfect and the preterite can be impossible to capture in English. It may reflect the writer's point of view. In which case, don't worry about it. More often than not, it is enough to recognize that something took place in the past.
  • Vivimos un año en Nueva York. (We lived a year in New York - implies distance felt from the time period. It is over and done with.)
  • Vivíamos un año en Nueva York. (We lived a year in New York - implies it is remembered strongly, whether pleasantly or unpleasantly.)

Lectura 4: España, un país judío

Los judíos actualmente están divididos en dos grupos: askenazíes (alemanes) y sefardíes (españoles). Sefarad fue el nombre hebreo de España.

Los judíos vivieron en España desde tiempos muy antiguos. Según una tradición, vinieron con los comerciantes fenicios,⁽¹⁾ en tiempos bíblicos. Consideraron España como un país históricamente judío.

Durante el período visigodo,⁽²⁾ después de la desaparición del imperio romano, los judíos sufrieron discriminación y represión. Deseando libertad religiosa, los judíos invitaron a los árabes a conquistar el país. Colaboraron con ellos.

Bajo el dominio árabe de España, los judíos prosperaron. La cultura de los judíos llegó a alturas desconocidas desde tiempos bíblicos. Los judíos eran médicos, científicos, abogados, estadistas y filósofos. El médico y filósofo más famoso⁽³⁾ fue Maimónides, pero hubo⁽⁴⁾ muchos otros.

Fue en España donde la lengua hebrea fue usada por vez primera para poesía profana. En España comenzaron los estudios bíblicos. Sabios judíos⁽⁵⁾ prepararon el primer diccionario de la Biblia. Fueron identificados los dos autores del libro Isaías.

Los judíos en otras partes del mundo reconocieron a Sefarad como el centro del judaísmo. El misterioso y riquísimo⁽⁶⁾ reino de Granada fue al principio un reino judío.

La reina Isabel la Católica desterró a los judíos en 1492. Los judíos sufrieron mucho. Fueron a Holanda, a Italia y especialmente al imperio otomano. Varios emigraron, después, al Nuevo Mundo.

Conservan la identidad sefardí hasta hoy. En Israel hay actualmente periódicos en español, escritos con el alfabeto hebreo.

Muchos cristianos españoles eran judíos convertidos, o descendientes de ellos. Américo Castro descubrió el abolengo judaico de muchos españoles famosos: Cervantes, Loyola, Santa Teresa y varios otros. La gran cultura católica española tiene un origen judío. Comparte con el judaísmo, en parte, una actitud hacia el mundo.

Translation of this reading.

1. One of the near-insoluble problems of Spanish vocabulary is caused by the fact that Spanish uses capital letters much less than English does. As a result, nationalities, languages, adjectives derived from political parties or geographical names, and many other derivations of proper nouns will have nothing to alert you to what they are, but will not be found in the dictionary either. If an adjective (like español, Spanish, or tico, Costa Rican) or a noun (los conquenses, those from Cuenca,, los ibicencos, those from Ibiza) is not found in the dictionary, consider whether it could be proper noun or derivative of one.

In this case, fenicios is a proper noun. Can you guess its English meaning?

2. Visigodos = Visigoths, a Germanic tribe that ruled the Iberian peninsula after the fall of the Roman empire.

3. Más (more) or menos (less) plus adjective forms the comparative (the equivalent of English adjective suffix -er). The definite article plus this construction forms the superlative (equivalent of the English adjective suffix -est). "El ____ más famoso" = "The most famous."

Note that "más famoso" modifies both médico and filósofo.

4. "There were." Hubo is singular, but just like its present tense form hay, it is used for both singular and plural. Both are forms of haber.

5. "Sabios" is the noun, "judíos" an adjective modifying it.

6. "Very rich." The -ísimo ending is an intensifier. Note the change, from c to qu, in concluding consonant of the noun stem. This is a regular (predictable) spelling change, the same change as in the verb. This is the same change discussed above regarding the preterites of certain -ar verbs, or of

Answers to Exercises:

Conjugation of imperfect tense of rezar (to pray):

rezaba

rezabas

rezaba

rezábamos

rezababais

rezaban

Conjugation of imperfect tense of sentir (to feel, to be sorry):

sentía

sentías

sentía

sentíamos

sentíais

sentían

Conjugation of preterite tense of cazar (to hunt):

cacé

cazaste

cazó

cazamos

cazasteis

cazaron

Conjugation of preterite tense of caer (to fall):

caí

caíste

cayó

caímos

caísteis

cayeron

The third person singular preterite of hacer is hizo.

Answers to exercise on finding infinitives:

More comments on imperfect endings

Note that all imperfect endings have the stress on the first syllable of the ending.

Why do all the -er/-ir endings have an accent, but only some of the -ar endings?

The endings are two or three syllables. There are no one-syllable endings in the imperfect.

In the case of -er/-ir verbs, all the endings have an -i- as the first syllable, followed by an -a- for the second syllable. According to the rules of syllable definition, the "weak" i would combine with the "strong" a to form a single syllable. If so, there would be monosyllabic endings. To prevent this combination, the accent is added to the i, making it equally "strong" as the a and impeding their combination into a single syllable.

This concern does not exist with the -ar verbs, since the endings all start with -ab- (as in hablaba). But with them we have a different problem.

In the present tense, four of the fourms – the three singulars and the third person plural

More comments on regular and irregular preterites

A point often confusing students is that some first and third person singular preterite endings have a written accent on the ending (habló, viví), while others do not (dije, tuvo). All regular verbs have the written accents, but the irregular verbs do not.

This reflects the fact that the regular verbs have the stress on the ending, while the irregular verbs have it on the stem. Thus, hablé has an accent to show that the -blé is stressed, whereas dije has no accent because the stressed syllable is di-. This is true for all irregular verbs in the preterite. The stress is on the stem, on the syllable with the vowel change: pude, puse, cupe, anduve, and so on. The linguists' terms for the verbs with the stress on the ending (the regular verbs) is "weak," and those with the stress on the stem (the irregular verbs) are "strong."

While English stress rules are dramatically different from those of Spanish, we still see that regular past tenses in English add an ending: walked, studied. Irregular verbs change their stem vowel: run, ran; swim, swam; dig, dug; sit, sat, and so on.

This page Copyright © 1998 Daniel Eisenberg. Please report errors or omissions: daniel.eisenberg@bigfoot.com. ¡Mil gracias!