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¡Hola! Let's explore how to talk about things you did yesterday or last week using the Spanish preterite tense.
The preterite tense in Spanish is used to talk about completed actions in the past. It is like saying 'I walked' or 'she ate' in English.
To change an -AR verb like hablar (to speak) into the past, you drop the -ar ending. Then, you add new endings like -é for 'I' or -ó for 'he/she'.
For -ER and -IR verbs, the endings are identical to each other in the preterite. For example, both comer (to eat) and vivir (to live) use -í for the 'I' form.
Analyzing the subject of your sentence is the key to choosing the correct ending. If the subject is 'ellos' (they), you must use the plural ending.
Translate the sentence 'They drank water' into Spanish. The verb for 'to drink' is beber (beh-BEHR).
- Identify the subject of the sentence, which is 'They'. In Spanish, this translates to 'Ellos' (EH-yohs).
- Find the infinitive verb for 'to drink', which is 'beber'. This is a regular -ER verb.
- Drop the -er ending from 'beber' to find the verb stem, which leaves you with 'beb-'.
- Look up the preterite ending for -ER verbs when the subject is 'ellos'. The correct ending is '-ieron' (ee-EHR-ohn).
- Combine the stem 'beb-' with the ending '-ieron' to get 'bebieron' (beh-BYEH-rohn).
- Add the word for water, which is 'agua' (AH-gwah). The final correct sentence is: 'Ellos bebieron agua'.
