The Preterite is one of the past tenses in Spanish. Study the new verb endings below and apply them to verbs you have already learned and used during your study of the present tense. With the Preterite, you can now begin to use your Spanish skills more fully by telling about events that have already taken place.

To conjugate regular -ar verbs in the preterite, simply drop the ending (-ar) and add one of the following:

é
aste
ó
amos
asteis
aron

To conjugate regular -er and -ir verbs in the preterite, simply drop the ending (-er or -ir) and add one of the following
í
iste
ió
imos
isteis
ieron
Here are all three regular preterite verb forms together:

hablar	comer	vivir
hablé	comí	viví
hablaste	comiste	viviste
habló	comió	vivió
hablamos	comimos	vivimos
hablasteis	comisteis	vivisteis
hablaron	comieron	vivieron

Note: the nosotros forms for -ar and -ir verbs are the same in both preterite and present tenses: hablamos, vivimos.

The preterite is used for actions that can be viewed as single events.

Ella caminó por el parque. She walked through the park.

Ellos llegaron a las ocho. They arrived at eight o'clock.

The preterite is used for actions that were repeated a specific number of times, or occurred during a specific period of time.

Ayer escribí tres cartas. Yesterday I wrote three letters.

Vivimos allí por cuatro años. We lived there for four years.

The preterite is used for actions that were part of a chain of events.

Ella se levantó, se vistió, y salió de la casa.

She got up, dressed, and left the house.

The preterite is used to state the beginning or the end of an action.

Empezó a nevar a las ocho de la mañana.

It began to snow at eight in the morning.

The above examples all fall within our general rule for using the preterite:

The preterite is used for past actions that are seen as completed.