Preterite — regular verbs

The pretérito indefinido (simple past) is the tense used to talk about actions that were completed at a specific, defined moment in the past. Regular verbs follow predictable ending patterns according to their infinitive class: -ar, -er, or -ir. The stem is formed by removing the infinitive ending, and the preterite endings are then added directly to that stem. A written accent on the final vowel of the first- and third-person singular forms is obligatory — it is not decorative, but distinguishes preterite from present (e.g. hablo «I speak» vs. habló «he/she spoke»).

• Completed actions at a specific time. Use the preterite when the action happened at a named or clearly bounded point in the past: ayer, el sábado, el año pasado, a las tres.

• A counted number of occurrences. When the action happened a specific number of times: Llamé tres veces. (I called three times.)

• A sequence of completed events. When narrating a chain of events that happened one after another: Llegué, comí y salí. (I arrived, ate, and left.)

• Not for habitual past actions. If the action was repeated regularly or describes a past routine, the imperfect tense is required instead: De niño, comía en el parque todos los días. (As a child, I used to eat in the park every day.)

Remove the infinitive ending (-ar, -er, -ir) to get the stem, then add the endings below. Note that -er and -ir verbs share identical endings in the preterite.

• Dropping the written accent. Writing hablo instead of habló changes the meaning from «he/she spoke» to «I speak». The accent is obligatory on the first- and third-person singular forms (hablé, habló; comí, comió; viví, vivió) and must not be omitted.

• Mixing -er and -ir endings. Because -er and -ir verbs share preterite endings, learners sometimes apply -ar endings to them by mistake (e.g. ✗ comaron instead of ✓ comieron). Memorise the two sets separately: -ar uses -é, -aste, -ó, -amos, -asteis, -aron; -er/-ir uses -í, -iste, -ió, -imos, -isteis, -ieron.

• Using the preterite for habitual past actions. The preterite describes a completed event, not a past habit or ongoing state. For habitual or repeated past actions, use the imperfect. Compare: ✓ El sábado comí en el parque. (one specific occasion) vs. ✓ Comía en el parque todos los sábados. (habitual — imperfect required).