Preterite (pretérito indefinido): regular verbs

Ayer hablé con mi hermana. Comimos juntos y después volví a casa.Yesterday I talked with my sister. We ate together and afterwards I went back home.

The preterite (pretérito indefinido) is the tense you reach for when you're presenting something as a completed, bounded event — rather than as background, an ongoing situation, or a repeated habit. Regular verbs in this tense follow one of two patterns, depending on whether the infinitive ends in -ar or in -er/-ir.

Quick shortcut: -ar verbs take -é, -aste, -ó, -amos, -asteis, -aron; -er and -ir verbs share -í, -iste, -ió, -imos, -isteis, -ieron.

-ar verbs

Removing -ar from the infinitive leaves the stem, which then takes these endings:

Trabajé toda la tarde. (I worked all afternoon.) · Ella llegó tarde. (She arrived late.) · Estudiamos para el examen. (We studied for the exam.)

Notice that the nosotros form (hablamos) is spelled exactly like the present tense — only the context around it tells you which one is meant: Hoy hablamos con el jefe (present) vs. Ayer hablamos con el jefe (preterite).

-er and -ir verbs

These two groups share one set of endings — removing -er or -ir leaves the stem, which then takes:

Comí una manzana. (I ate an apple.) · ¿Escribiste la carta? (Did you write the letter?) · Vivieron en Madrid dos años. (They lived in Madrid for two years.)

For -ir verbs, the nosotros form (vivimos) is also identical to the present tense, the same overlap you saw with -ar verbs.

When to use the preterite

The preterite frames an action as a completed, whole event — you're reporting that it happened, not describing what things were like at the time or something that used to happen repeatedly. It often appears with time expressions that point to a specific, closed moment — though these are clues, not strict rules, since the same word can turn up with the imperfect too if the sentence is describing a state rather than reporting an event (En enero hacía frío, "It was cold in January," describes the weather, so it takes the imperfect):

• ayer (yesterday), anoche (last night), anteayer (the day before yesterday)
• la semana pasada, el mes pasado, el año pasado (last week/month/year)
• en 2020, hace tres días (in 2020, three days ago)
• una vez, de repente (once, suddenly)

El año pasado viajé a Perú. (Last year I traveled to Peru.) En enero de 2020 viajé a Perú. (In January 2020 I traveled to Peru — a specific, bounded trip.) De repente empezó a llover. (Suddenly it started to rain.)

Describing ongoing background situations or repeated habits in the past instead uses a different tense: the imperfect. Knowing when to reach for one or the other is its own topic, covered once both tenses are on the table.

Common mistakes

• ❌ Ayer yo hablo con mi amigo. → ✅ Ayer yo hablé con mi amigo. (a past time marker needs a past tense, not the present)
• ❌ Ella comio una manzana. → ✅ Ella comió una manzana. (the accent on -ió is required — it marks the stress; dropping it isn't a valid alternate spelling)
• ❌ Nosotros hablastes por dos horas. → ✅ Nosotros hablamos por dos horas. (nosotros takes -amos, not a form built on -aste)
• ❌ Yo vivi en Barcelona. → ✅ Yo viví en Barcelona. (the accent on -í is required — without it the spelling is nonstandard)

Quick check

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

1. Ayer yo ___ (trabajar) hasta las ocho.
2. ¿Tú ___ (comer) en casa anoche?
3. Ella ___ (vivir) en México el año pasado.
4. Nosotros ___ (hablar) con el profesor la semana pasada.
5. Ellos ___ (escribir) la carta anteayer.

Key takeaways

• -ar verbs take -é, -aste, -ó, -amos, -asteis, -aron; -er/-ir verbs share -í, -iste, -ió, -imos, -isteis, -ieron.
• The nosotros form of -ar and -ir verbs looks identical to the present tense — context tells them apart.
• The preterite reports a completed, whole event, often alongside a time marker like ayer, la semana pasada or en 2020.
• Accents on -ó, -ió and -í are required — they mark the stress, and dropping them can even land on a different word (hablo "I speak" vs. habló "he/she spoke").
• Some very common verbs (ser, ir, tener, hacer...) don't follow this regular pattern at all.