In Spanish, we use the preterite tense or past tense (“el pretérito indefinido”) to describe completed actions or events that took place at a specific point in the past and are now concluded. This tense is essential for narrating past stories and events.

Remember, in Spanish verbs end in -ar, -er, or -ir in the infinitive, or “pure” form (when they are not conjugated). 

However, it is important to keep in mind that when conjugating verbs in the past tense, some of them are regular (and adhere to a pattern), while others are irregular (and require different conjugation forms). 

Just like in the present tense, regular verbs in the past tense follow a pattern:

*As you may have noticed, “ar” verbs and “ir” verbs maintain the same conjugation in the “nosotros / nosotras” form in both the present and past tenses. Thus, “nosotros cocinamos” translates to both “we cook” and “we cooked”, while “nosotros abrimos” means both “we open” and “we opened”. But do not worry, context usually clarifies any confusion.

Here are some helpful tips to remember the conjugations for regular verbs:

-You only need to learn two patterns instead of three, as -er verbs and -ir verbs follow the same conjugation!

-The first person singular (“yo”) and the third person singular (“él”, “ella”, “usted”) forms have a written accent. By the way, it is very important to emphasize the pronunciation of this accent.

Exercises / Ejercicios

In this lesson, we focused on the past tense of regular verbs in Spanish. We outlined the conjugation pattern of regular verbs, common expressions used in the past tense as well as examples. Also, we provided a general understanding of how to properly form and apply the past tense correctly when recounting past events. If you would like to continue grasping Spanish grammar, you can explore “Irregular Verbs in the Past Tense” or “Introduction to Spanish Conjugations”.