Preterite: common irregular verbs (ser/ir, tener, hacer, estar, dar, ver, decir, venir, poder, poner, saber, querer, traer)

Fui al mercado y compré fruta.I went to the market and bought fruit.

Some of the most common Spanish verbs don't follow the regular preterite patterns or the smaller spelling and stem tweaks you've already seen. Many of them replace their stem completely and then share one special set of endings; a couple of others, like dar and ver, keep a regular-looking stem but use short, unaccented forms instead. The good news is that a handful of these irregular verbs cover most of what you'll actually want to say about the past.

Quick shortcut: ser and ir share one identical set of forms (fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fuisteis, fueron); many other irregular verbs share a "strong" stem plus one special ending set (-e, -iste, -o, -imos, -isteis, -ieron, no accents); dar and ver just borrow the -er/-ir endings without any accent.

ser and ir: identical, and irregular in the same way

Ser (to be) and ir (to go) share exactly the same preterite forms — the only two verbs in Spanish that do this:

Only the context tells you which verb is meant: Fui a Madrid (I went to Madrid — ir) versus Fui profesor (I was a teacher — ser). Fuimos al cine. (We went to the cinema.) Ella fue muy amable. (She was very kind.)

dar and ver: short forms, no accents

Dar (to give) is an -ar verb, but it borrows the -er/-ir endings — and ver (to see), which looks like a regular -er verb, drops the accents you'd otherwise expect:

Le di un regalo. (I gave her a gift.) Vimos una película. (We watched a movie.) Because these forms are short, an accent on dio or vio would actually be wrong — one-syllable words like these don't take a written accent.

The "strong" stem group: one stem change, one shared ending set

Several very common verbs replace their stem with an irregular one, and then all of them take the same set of endings — -e, -iste, -o, -imos, -isteis, -ieron — with no written accents anywhere:

Tuve una idea. (I had an idea.) Estuvimos en casa todo el día. (We were at home all day.) No pude venir. (I couldn't come.) Hicimos la tarea. (We did the homework.)

Hacer needs one extra spelling note: in the usted/él/ella form, c changes to z before -o (hizo, not hico), to keep the sound consistent with the rest of the pattern.

Two more verbs follow this same stem-and-ending logic, but with a small twist in the ustedes/ellos/ellas form: when the irregular stem already ends in -j, the ending drops its i and becomes -eron instead of -ieron:

Dijeron la verdad. (They told the truth.) Traje mi computadora. (I brought my computer.)

Common mistakes

• ❌ Yo tengo la llave ayer. → ✅ Yo tuve la llave ayer. (the stem changes completely to tuv- in the preterite; the present-tense stem teng- doesn't carry over)
• ❌ Él hació la cena. → ✅ Él hizo la cena. (c becomes z before -o in hacer's irregular stem)
• ❌ Ellos dijieron que sí. → ✅ Ellos dijeron que sí. (a stem ending in -j takes -eron, never -ieron)
• ❌ Ella dió el libro. → ✅ Ella dio el libro. (dio and vio are one syllable and never take a written accent)

Quick check

Here are five sentences to complete with the preterite form of the verb in parentheses.

1. Ayer yo ___ (tener) mucho trabajo.
2. Nosotros ___ (ir) al parque.
3. Ella ___ (hacer) la comida.
4. Ellos ___ (decir) la verdad.
5. Yo le ___ (dar) las gracias.

Key takeaways

• ser and ir share identical preterite forms (fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fuisteis, fueron) — only context tells them apart.
• dar and ver take short, unaccented -er/-ir-style endings (di, dio... / vi, vio...).
• tener, estar, poder, poner, saber, querer, venir and hacer replace their stem and share one ending set (-e, -iste, -o, -imos, -isteis, -ieron), never accented.
• hacer changes c→z before -o (hizo); decir and traer end in -eron, not -ieron (dijeron, trajeron).
• Knowing when to reach for the preterite at all, rather than the imperfect, is its own topic once both tenses are familiar.