Irregular Preterite Verbs: Past Tense Spanish Made Simple

Past tense Spanish is something that tends to confuse many Spanish students, especially when dealing with irregular preterite verbs.

Let’s back up a bit about the most important Spanish past tenses.

In the indicative mood, there are two ways to speak about the past tense: the preterite (aka simple past) tense and the imperfect tense.

The Spanish preterite tense is used to describe actions completed at a specific point in the past; whereas the imperfect is used to describe habitual or continuous actions in the past with no specific beginning or end.

For more on preterite vs imperfect tense, read here.

How To Conjugate Irregular Preterite Verbs In Spanish

All verbs listed in the post can be considered irregular.

However, you’ll see that some verbs only require subtle changes, others undergo drastic spelling changes and some, quite frankly, do not abide by any rules whatsoever.

In this post, we are going to categorize irregular verbs into the following:

• Verbs that require significant changes: Ser, Ir, Dar, Hacer, Ver
• Verbs that require a stem change, but use regular endings
• Verbs ending in -ir that require a stem change
• Verbs ending in -ucir
• Verbs that are irregular in the “yo” form

1) Verbs that require significant changes

These verbs belong in the wild west of conjugations.

In other words, they are completely irregular as they do not follow any pattern whatsoever.

• Ser (to be)
• Ir (to go)
• Dar (to give)
• Hacer (to do)
• Ver (to see)

These five verbs are probably the most commonly used irregular verbs in the preterite, and so it’s important to memorize the conjugations by heart.

Let’s dive in.

Subject	Verb: Ser (to be)	English Equivalent
Yo	fui	I was
Tú	fuiste	You were
Él/Ella/Usted	fue	He/She was
Nosotros/Nosotras	fuimos	We were
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	fueron	They were

Subject	Verb: Ir (to go)	English Equivalent
Yo	fui	I went
Tú	fuiste	You went
Él/Ella/Usted	fue	He/She went
Nosotros/Nosotras	fuimos	We went
Ellos/ellas/Ustedes	fueron	They went

Sidenote:

Hopefully, you noticed that Ser and Ir verbs have identical conjugations in the preterite.

While this may seem confusing, a reasonably easy and effective trick to tell both verbs apart is to remember that the verb Ir is used when something moves somewhere else, and so it will most likely include prepositions such as the “a”, or alternatively “para”. The only time it doesn’t need a preposition is when a location is already mentioned – usually naming a physical place.

Let’s compare the two below.

• I went to see my neighbor –  Fui a ver a mi vecino
• I was his neighbor for many years – Fui su vecino por muchos años

All clear?

Good. Let’s move on.

Subject	Verb: Dar (to give)	English Equivalent
Yo	dí	I gave
Tú	diste	You give
Él/Ella/Usted	dió	He/She gave
Nosotros/Nosotras	dimos	We gave
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	dieron	They gave

Subject	Verb: Hacer (to do or to make)	English Equivalent
Yo	hice	I did
Tú	hiciste	You did
Él/Ella/Usted	hizo	He/She did
Nosotros/Nosotras	hicimos	We did
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	hicieron	They did

Subject	Verb: Ver (to see)	English Equivalent
Yo	vi	I saw
Tú	viste	You saw
Él/Ella/Usted	vio	He/She saw
Nosotros/Nosotras	vimos	We saw
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	vieron	They saw

Moving on, we can look at stem changing verbs in the preterite.

The good news is the following verbs follow certain patterns, making them easier to memorize.

 2) Irregular Preterite Verbs That Have Stem Changes, But Regular Endings

This group of verbs undergo a stem change when conjugated in the preterite, but use the same endings that are shown in the table below.

Subject	Verb Endings
Yo	-e
Tú	-iste
Él/Ella/Usted	-o
Nosotros/Nosotras	-imos
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	-ieron

Once you learn these endings, simply add them to the new stem for the verb you wish to use..

Verbs	Preterite Stem	English Equivalent
Andar	Anduv-	To walk
Caber	Cup-	To fit
Estar	Estuv-	To be
Haber	Hub-	To have
Poder	Pud-	Be able to
Poner	Pus-	To put
Querer	Quis-	To want
Saber	Sup-	To know
Tener	Tuv-	To have
Venir	Vin-	To come

And that’s it.

Relatively straightforward, no?

3) Irregular Preterite Verbs Ending In -IR

IR verbs that change stems in the simple present tense also require a change in the preterite.

However, once the stem changes, you can use the same preterite endings for all regular IR verbs.

Before we elaborate on this, let’s review the endings for IR verbs in the preterite tense.

Personal pronoun	-IR verb Ending
Yo	-í
Tú	-iste
Él/Ella/Usted	-ió
Nosotros	-imos
Ustedes/Ellos/Ellas	-ieron

The above is quite straightforward.

Verbs ending in -IR that change stem in the simple present tense, will also change in the preterite, but only for the personal pronouns: él,ella,usted,ustedes,ellos,ellas.

The required stem change can be summarized into two groups, according to its changes:

Changes in Preterite tense

From (e) – to (i)

From (o) – to (u)

Let’s see some examples of these changes applied in the preterite tense.

Personal pronoun	Repetir (To repeat)	Morir (To die)
e – i	o – u
Yo	Repetí	Morí
Tú	Repetiste	Moriste
Él/Ella/Usted	Repitió	Murió
Nosotros	Repetimos	Morimos
Ustedes/Ellos/Ellas	Repitieron	Murieron

Other verbs that require a similar change.

• To have fun – Divertirse
• To sleep – Dormir
• To lie – Mentir
• To ask for – Pedir
• To prefer – Preferir
• To feel – Sentir
• To suggest – Sugerir
• To wear/to get dressed – Vestir/se

4) Irregular Preterite Verbs Ending In -UCIR

All Spanish verbs ending in -ucir, such as: conducir (to drive), producir (to produce), traducir (to translate), etc, plus the verbs traer (to bring) and decir (to say), have the following endings in the preterite:

Subject	Verb Ending
Yo	-je
Tú	-jiste
Él/Ella/Usted	-jo
Nosotros/Nosotras	-jimos
Ellos/ellas/Ustedes	-jeron

Let’s see the proper conjugation for the previously mentioned verbs :

Subject	Verb: Traer (to bring)	English Equivalent
Yo	traje	I brought
Tú	trajiste	You brought
Él/Ella/Usted	trajo	He/She brought
Nosotros/Nosotras	trajimos	We brought
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	trajeron	They brought

Subject	Verb: Decir (to say)	English Equivalent
Yo	dije	I said
Tú	dijiste	You said
Él/Ella/Usted	dijo	He/She said
Nosotros/Nosotras	dijimos	We said
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	dijeron	They said

Sidenote

The verb Decir keeps the same vowel change (e to i) from the simple present tense (decir to digo) in all the pronouns for all tenses (except the imperfect tense).

Subject	Verb: Conducir (to drive)	English Equivalent
Yo	conduje	I drove
Tú	condujiste	You drove
Él/Ella/Usted	condujo	He/She drove
Nosotros/Nosotras	condujimos	We drove
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	condujeron	They drove

Subject	Verb: Producir (to produce)	English Equivalent
Yo	produje	I produced
Tú	produjiste	You produced
Él/Ella/Usted	produjo	He/She produced
Nosotros/Nosotras	produjimos	We produced
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	produjeron	They produced

Subject	Verb: Traducir (to translate)	English Equivalent
Yo	traduje	I translated
Tú	tradujiste	You translated
Él/Ella/Usted	tradujo	He/She translated
Nosotros/Nosotras	tradujimos	We translated
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	tradujeron	They translated

Sidenote

• There is no accent in the Third Person Singular (él/ella/usted) -jo ending.

5) Verbs that are irregular in the “yo” form

And last, but certainly not least, this group of verbs falls into a category called “Orthographically Irregular Verbs”

So what exactly does this mean?

In this group of verbs, most of the conjugation can be treated as regular, but first person singular (yo) requires a small spelling change when conjugated in the preterite.

There are three categories of verbs where this happens:

• Verbs ending in -car change c to qu
• Verbs ending in -gar change g to gu
• Verbs ending in -zar change z to c

a) Verbs ending in -car change c to qu

Let’s see some examples.

Subject	Verb: Tocar (to touch)	English Equivalent
Yo	toqué	I touched
Tú	tocaste	You touched
Él/Ella/Usted	tocó	He/She touched
Nosotros/Nosotras	tocamos	We touched
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	tocaron	They touched

Subject	Verb: Secar (to dry)	English Equivalent
Yo	sequé	I dried
Tú	secaste	You dried
Él/Ella/Usted	secó	He/She dried
Nosotros/Nosotras	secamos	We dried
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	secaron	They dried

Subject	Verb: Buscar (to look for)	English Equivalent
Yo	busqué	I looked for
Tú	buscaste	You looked for
Él/Ella/Usted	buscó	He/She looked for
Nosotros/Nosotras	buscamos	We looked for
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	buscaron	They looked for

B) Verbs ending in -gar change g to gu

Subject	Verb: Regar (to water)	English Equivalent
Yo	regué	I watered
Tú	regaste	You watered
Él/Ella/Usted	regó	He/She watered
Nosotros/Nosotras	regamos	We watered
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	regaron	They watered

Subject	Verb: Pagar (to pay)	English Equivalent
Yo	pagué	I paid
Tú	pagaste	You paid
Él/Ella/Usted	pagó	He/She paid
Nosotros/Nosotras	pagamos	We paid
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	pagaron	They paid

Subject	Verb: Llegar (to arrive)	English Equivalent
Yo	llegué	I arrived
Tú	llegaste	You arrived
Él/Ella/Usted	llegó	He/She arrived
Nosotros/Nosotras	llegamos	We arrived
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	llegaron	They arrived

C) Verbs ending in -zar change z to c

Subject	Verb: Cazar (to hunt)	English Equivalent
Yo	cacé	I hunted
Tú	cazaste	You hunted
Él/Ella/Usted	cazó	He/She hunted
Nosotros/Nosotras	cazamos	We hunted
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	cazaron	They hunted

Subject	Verb: Empezar (to start)	English Equivalent
Yo	empecé	I started
Tú	empezaste	You started
Él/Ella/Usted	empezó	He/She started
Nosotros/Nosotras	empezamos	We started
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	empezaron	They started

Subject	Verb: Rezar (to pray)	English Equivalent
Yo	recé	I prayed
Tú	rezaste	You prayed
Él/Ella/Usted	rezó	He/she prayed
Nosotros/Nosotras	rezamos	We prayed
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes	rezaron	They prayed

Irregular Preterite Verbs: Practice

Conjugate the verb into the correct Preterite form

1. El año pasado mi hermana y yo (ir) ____ a Chile
2. La semana pasada mi esposa (cocinar) ____ una pasta deliciosa con albóndigas
3. Mi hermano (ser) ____ un buen estudiante. Siempre sacaba buenas notas en las pruebas de Matemáticas
4. Mis padres (tener) ____ abandonar sus estudios, porque eran muy costosos
5. Mi familia no (traer) ____ nada de comida o pasapalos a la fiesta pasada de cumpleaños.
6. La película (comenzar) hace media hora. (Llegar) (Tú) ____ muy tarde
7. Al fin (encontrar) (yo) ____ mis llaves. Las había dejado dentro de la gaveta de la cocina
8. Ella me (pedir) ____ un carro nuevo la navidad pasada. Desafortunadamente no (poder) (yo) ____ comprarlo porque no tenía dinero suficiente
9. Karla no (traducir) el documento completo, es por eso que ahora tiene mucho más trabajo por hacer.
10. Hace dos años mi familia y yo (viajar) a Estados Unidos de vacaciones. (Ser) ___ un viaje genial.

Answers

1. El año pasado mi hermana y yo fuimos a Chile
2. La semana pasada mi esposa cocinó una pasta deliciosa con albóndigas
3. Mi hermano fue un buen estudiante. Siempre sacaba buenas notas en las pruebas de Matemáticas
4. Mis padres tuvieron que abandonar sus estudios, porque eran muy costosos
5. Mi familia no trajo nada de comida o pasapalos a la fiesta pasada de cumpleaños
6. La película comenzó hace media hora. Llegaste muy tarde
7. Al fin encontré mis llaves. Las había dejado dentro de la gaveta de la cocina.
8. Ella me pidió un carro nuevo la navidad pasada. Desafortunadamente no pude comprarlo porque no tenía dinero suficiente.
9. Karla no tradujo el documento completo, es por eso que ahora tiene mucho más trabajo por hacer.
10. Hace dos años mi familia y yo viajamos a Estados Unidos de vacaciones. Fue un viaje genial.