How to use the preterite tense in Spanish?

The preterite, also known as the simple past, is one of the Spanish past tenses. The preterite is used for finished actions in a specific moment in the past, for example:

Today we’ll cover how to form regular verbs and irregular verbs in the preterite and how to use them correctly. Finally, we will go over the Spanish verbs that change meaning when used in their preterite form. Ready? Let’s see how you can incorporate the preterite in your Spanish conversations!

The preterite is a tense that is used in Spanish to express an action, an event, or a state that occurred and was finished at a specific time in the past. For example:

Just like with any other tense in Spanish, the preterite has its own set of endings.

Check out these Spanish conjugation tables that will help you learn the patterns for regular and irregular verbs.

Did you know that you can also use other tenses in Spanish to refer to the past? The imperfect, the present perfect, and the simple present can all be used to express past actions, although each has its own specific uses. For the time being, we’ll focus on the preterite. Now that you know how to form it, let’s learn how to use it.

Here are some different kinds of completed events where you'll use the preterite:

• Completed events/actions

  Imagine you have just arrived home from your summer vacation and you want to tell your friends all about it. If you mention the specific moment when each event happened, then you need the preterite:

  El verano pasado fui a Colombia.

  Translation: Last summer I went to Colombia.

  Phrases like el verano pasado (meaning last summer) are time markers commonly used with the preterite. We've created this list for you with the most common ones

• Habitual actions limited in time

  Use the preterite when talking about habits or routines from a specific time in the past:

  Mi mamá me llevó a la escuela durante tres años.

  Translation: My mom took me to school for three years.

• Repeated completed actions

  You can also use the preterite for repeated completed actions in the past:

  Mi mamá me llevó al parque tres veces el año pasado.

  Translation: My mom took me to the park three times last year.

When we want to list a sequence of events or actions that happened in a specific moment in the past that are now finished, we also need the preterite. This is frequently used in narrations and biographies.

• Single and consecutive actions in general

  Imagine you're telling your friends about the sequence of events that happened on August 4th, before you took your flight to Colombia:

  Me desperté a las 7, me bañé, dasayuné y llamé a un taxi para ir al aeropuerto

  Translation: I woke up at 7, took a shower, had breakfast, and called a taxi to go to the airport.

• Narrations

  Let’s continue with our summer vacation story. Imagine you’re talking about the tour you took on August 5th and you want to list all the things you did that day. Let’s see how that would look using the preterite:

  Primero visitamos la catedral. Después fuimos a la bahía. Luego estuvimos en el castillo de San Felipe, donde aprendimos sobre piratas.

  Translation: First, we visited the cathedral. Then we went to the bay. Then we were at San Felipe Castle, where we learned about pirates.

• Biographies

  In biographies, we list the most important events in a person’s life. It’s also appropriate to use the preterite here:

  La guía habló sobre el pirata Francis Drake. Él nació en 1540, empezó su carrera como marino a los 13 años, exploró todos los mares del mundo, participó en guerras y murió en Panamá en 1596.

  Translation: The guide talked about the pirate Francis Drake. He was born in 1540, started his sailing career at the age of 13, explored all the seas in the world, participated in wars, and died in Panama in 1596.

  If you want to sound more fluent when using the preterite, we've gathered some useful connectors for a sequence of events. Make sure you check it out!

Here are some cases when you'll give the time of a completed past action:

• The duration of an action

  If we emphasize how long an activity took in the past, then the preterite is our go-to tense:

  El recorrido por la ciudad tomó 5 horas.

  Translation: The city tour took 5 hours.

  You can also use the preterite in Spanish to emphasize:

• The beginning or end of an action

  You can indicate when an action started:

  Empecé a planear mi viaje en abril.

  Translation: I started to plan my trip in April.

  Or, if you know when an action ended:

  Ayer caminé por la ciudad hasta las 9 de la noche.

  Translation: Yesterday I walked around the city until 9 pm.

Combined with a verb in the imperfect, the preterite can be used to talk about an interrupting action or event in progress:

We can use the preterite when talking about a change in a condition or belief. When referring to a change in belief, the belief is expressed in the preterite and the change is expressed with the Spanish imperfect:

Typically a change in condition is expressed simply by using a preterite verb:

The preterite is used to refer to events that typically happen once in a lifetime or that are not typically recurrent. For example, we’re only born once and we only die once. So, these types of verbs, such as nacer (meaning to be born) and morir (meaning to die) are used in the preterite. Some other events, like milestones, typically only happen once (or rarely), so we use the preterite for verbs such as graduarse (meaning to graduate), cumplir años (meaning to turn a specific age), and jubilarse (meaning to retire), etc. As you can see, all of these actions refer to specific stages in life. Let’s look at some examples (featuring my grandfather):

Notice how these actions cannot be repeated or are usually not repeated. So when talking about life’s stages, the preterite will be with you for each step! Check out this list of commonly used Spanish verbs in the preterite!

There is a group of verbs such as poder (meaning to be able to) and saber (meaning to know) that change meaning when they are in the preterite. That is, in the present they mean something different than in the past. Let’s go over these verbs!

Some of the verbs described above belong to a category of verbs called modal verbs. If you are interested in knowing more about them, head over to our post on Modal verbs in Spanish!

The verbs ser (meaning to be) and ir (meaning to go) have different meanings, but they happen to be twins in the preterite — meaning they have the same forms! Because of this, it’s very important to rely on the context of the sentence or conversation to distinguish them.

To refresh your memory on the conjugations, we’ve added a table here.

Let's see some examples:

Because the meanings of ser and ir are so different, it’s difficult to mix them up. But to help you know whether the verb is ser or ir, keep the following contextual cues in mind:

As you already know, the verb ser is used to describe the qualities or characteristics of a person or thing. We can use ser to express opinions, such as making assessments of a past fact or situation that has been completed. Some situations that are typically completed include life stages, experiences, or events. For example:

• A life stage

  Mi adolescencia fue caótica.

  Translation: My teenage years were chaotic.

• An experience

  El recorrido en barco fue emocionante.

  Translation: The ship tour was exciting.

• Events

  La boda de mi primo fue muy elegante.

  Translation: My cousin's wedding was very elegant.

In this post we have discussed when to use the preterite in Spanish. Let’s have a quick recap. Use the preterite:

• when talking about actions that happened in a specific moment in the past that are now finished

• when listing a sequence of finished actions in the past

• when emphasizing the duration of a past event

• when talking about interrupting actions in the past

• when indicating changes in a condition or belief

• to express actions or events that are not usually repeated.

Also, keep in mind that:

• the meanings of some verbs change in the preterite

• the verbs ser and ir have the same conjugation in the preterite

• Ser in the preterite is used to assess past facts or situations.

Finally, we’ve created two sets of activities to practice the Spanish preterite: 1) for beginners and 2) for advanced learners. Happy learning!