El tiempo pasado

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El tiempo pasado

• The past tense

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• Acabar de infinitive is used to say that
  something has just occurred. It is used for the
  very recent past.
• Note that acabar is in the present tense in this
  construction.
• Acabo de comprar una falda.
• I just bought a skirt.
• Acabas de ir de compras.
• You just went shopping.

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• Acabar de infinitive Tell what the subjects
  just did in the recent past

• Acabo de comer.
• Acabas de estudiar.
• Acaba de escribir.
• Acaba de trabajar.
• Acaba de llegar.
• Acabamos de volver.
• Acabáis de salir.
• Acaban de pagar.
• Acaban de ir.
• Acaban de llamar.

• Yo (comer)
• Tú (estudiar)
• Ud. (escribir)
• Él (trabajar)
• Ella (llegar)
• Nosotros (volver)
• Vosotros (salir)
• Uds. (pagar)
• Ellos (ir)
• Ellas (llamar)

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• ANTE TODO
• In order to talk about events in the past that
  did not just occur, Spanish uses two simple
  tenses the preterite and the imperfect.

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• The imperfect tense is used to express
  circumstances, descriptions, and uncountable
  actions in the past
• to describe in the past
• The car was red.
• to describe emotional or mental states in the
  past
• I was (feeling) angry.
• to state on-going (progressive) actions in the
  past
• They were studying and I was playing.
• to state uncountable, repeated actions in the
  past
• I used to go to the beach every summer.
• We frequently visited our grandparents.

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• In contrast, the preterite tense is used to
  express actions or reactions completed in the
  past that can be counted, including one time
  implied and the summary of a series of completed
  actions.

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• The preterite answers the questions
• What happened or ocurred?
• It rained. (Completed, countable action.)
• It was fun. (Summary statement)
• What did the subject do?
• I left the house. (1x implied)
• She saw the movie three times. (Action countable
  times)
• How did the subject react?
• We got angry. (reaction)

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• How does the preterite tense translate into
  English?
• In questions
• Qué compraste tú? What did you buy?
• Compraste tú una camisa? Did you buy a shirt?
• In statements
• Yo compré una camisa.
• I bought a shirt.
• I did buy a shirt.

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Words commonly used with the past tense and often
with preterite (The ones with absolutely
indicate preterite.)
anoche last night
anteayer the day before yesterday
ayer yesterday
de repente suddenly
desde from
hasta until
pasado/a (adj.) last past
el año pasado last year
la semana pasada last week
una vez once one time
dos veces twice two times
ya already
Ayer llegué a Santiago de Cuba. Anoche oí
un ruido extraño. Yesterday I arrived in Santiago
de Cuba. Last night I heard a strange
noise.
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Preterite of regular ar, er, and ir verbs

• -ar verbs -er verbs -ir verbs
• comprar vender escribir
• SINGULAR FORMS
• yo compré vendí escribí
• tú compraste vendiste escribiste
• Ud. / él / ella compró vendió escribió
• PLURAL FORMS
• nosotros/as compramos vendimos escribimos
• vosotros/as comprasteis vendisteis
  escribisteis
• Uds. / ellos / ellas compraron
  vendieron escribieron

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• ATENCIÓN!
• The yo and Ud. / él / ella forms of all three
  conjugations have written accents on the last
  syllable to show that it is stressed.
• As the preceding chart shows, the endings for
  regular er and ir verbs are identical in the
  preterite.

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• The ar and er verbs that have a stem change in
  the present tense are regular in the preterite.
  They do not have a stem change. (no boot changes
  for ar/-er preterite)
• PRESENT PRETERITE
• cerrar (eie) La tienda cierra a las seis.
  La tienda cerró a las seis.
• volver (oue) Carlitos vuelve tarde.
  Carlitos volvió tarde.
• jugar (uue) Él juega al fútbol. Él jugó
  al fútbol.

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• Note that the nosotros/as forms of regular ar
  and ir verbs in the preterite are identical to
  the present tense forms. Context will help you
  determine which tense is being used.
• En invierno compramos la ropa en la tienda de la
  universidad.
• In the winter, we buy clothing at the university
  store.
• Anoche compramos unos zapatos de tenis y unas
  sandalias.
• Last night we bought a pair of tennis shoes and a
  pair of sandals.

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• Verbs that end in car, gar, and zar have a
  spelling change in the first person singular (yo
  form only) in the preterite.
• buscar ? busc- ? qu- ? yo busqué
• llegar ? lleg- ? gu- ? yo llegué
• empezar ? empez- ? c- ? yo empecé
• Except for the yo form, all other forms of car,
  gar, and zar verbs are regular in the
  preterite.

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• Three other verbs creer, leer, and oír have
  spelling changes in the preterite.
• The i of the verb endings of creer, leer, and oír
  carries an accent in the yo, tú, nosotros/as, and
  vosotros/as forms, and changes to y in the Ud. /
  él / ella and Uds. / ellos / ellas forms.
• creer ? cre- ? creí, creíste, creyó, creímos,
  creísteis, creyeron
• leer ? le- ? leí, leíste, leyó, leímos,
  leísteis, leyeron
• oír ? o- ? oí, oíste, oyó, oímos,
  oísteis, oyeron
• Ver is regular in the preterite, but none of its
  forms has an accent.
• ver ? vi, viste, vio, vimos, visteis, vieron

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• INTÉNTALO! Provide the appropriate preterite
  forms of the verbs.
• celebrar
• Elena _____.
• celebró
• 2. Yo _____.
• celebré
• 3. Los chicos _____.
• celebraron
• 4. Emilio y yo _____.
• celebramos
• 5. Tú _____.
• celebraste

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• comer
• Los niños _____.
• comieron
• 2. Tú _____.
• comiste
• 3. Usted _____.
• comió
• 4. Nosotros _____.
• comimos
• Yo _____.
• comí

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• salir
• Tú y yo _____.
• salimos
• 2. Ella _____.
• salió
• 3. Pablo y Elena _____.
• salieron
• 4. Nosotros _____.
• salimos
• 5. Yo _____.
• salí

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• comenzar
• 1. Ustedes _____.
• comenzaron
• 2. Nosotros _____.
• comenzamos
• 3. Yo _____.
• comencé
• 4. Marcos _____.
• comenzó
• 5. Tú _____.
• comenzaste