The first verb is conjugated in the spine tense, and the second verb is left in its infinitive form. (In other words, it isn’t conjugated.) For example, if you wanted to say “I went to eat”, you would say “(Yo) fui a comer”. Remember the “yo” is optional.
The phrase “I had to go” would be “Tuve que ir”.
And finally, the phrase “I couldn’t hear” would be “No pude oír”.
Notice that in each of these examples, the first verb is conjugated in the spine tense and the second verb is not conjugated.
Now, we’ll take a look at a unique irregular verb before we practice. It’s the verb “gustar”. To say, “I liked the book” we would say “Me gustó el libro”. As I’ve mentioned before, “gustar” is an irregular verb. Because it’s conjugated backwards, you are literally saying “the book pleased me”. Even if you said, “I, you, he, she we, or they liked the book”, you would always use “gustó”.
Me
Te
Le gustó el libro
Nos
Les
Me
Te
Le gustó el libro
Nos
Les
Just like you learned in the present tense section, if we’re talking about liking more than one thing, we have to change gustar. For the past or spine tense, we change it to: “gustaron”. For example if I said, “I, you, he, she we, or they liked the books (plural)”, you would use “gustaron”.
MeTe
Le gustaron los libros
Nos
Les
