Let’s take a look at each verb and its irregular stem. Are you ready?
venir becomes vin-
hacer becomes hic-
estar becomes estuv-
poder becomes pud-
poner becomes pus-
tener becomes tuv-
saber becomes sup-
querer becomes quis-
hacer becomes hic-
estar becomes estuv-
poder becomes pud-
poner becomes pus-
tener becomes tuv-
saber becomes sup-
querer becomes quis-
Now let’s look at the endings that go along with these verbs:
yo | -e | nosotros | -imos |
tú | -iste | vosotros (used only in Spain) | -isteis |
él, ella, usted | -o | and finally, ellos, ellas, ustedes | -ieron |
Now watch and see how it works. If I wanted to say “I came.” I would say “vine”
The phrase “She came” would be “vino”
“We came” would be “vinimos”.
This works the same for every verb, but I’ll show you a few examples to help you better retain the concept.
The phrase “They put” would be “pusieron” and “Juana, you put” would be “pusiste”.
Now, we’ll look at four more verbs that have a slight variation. They are the verbs “traer”, “decir”, “conducir” and “traducir” which means “to translate”.
The stems of these words are: traduj-, traj-, dij-, and conduj-. The variation I was talking about with these verbs is for “ellos, ellas, and uds.” instead of the “i-e-r-o-n” ending, it’s simply “e-r-o-n” or “eron”.
Let’s try a few. The phrase “I said” would be “dije”. The phrase “they said” would be “dijeron”.
To say “I translated” would be “traduje” and “they, or all of you translated” would be “tradujeron”.
Now, let’s run through the irregular stems one more time and the endings. As we go over them, try to memorize them.
venir becomes | vin |
Hacer becomes | hic |
Estar becomes | estuv |
Poder becomes | pud |
poner becomes | pus |
tener becomes | tuv |
saber becomes | sup |
querer becomes | quis |
traer becomes | traj |
decir becomes | dij |
conducir becomes | conduj |
traducir becomes | traduj |
Now let’s take another look at the endings.
yo | -e | nosotros | -imos |
tú | -iste | vosotros (used only in Spain) | -isteis |
él, ella, usted | -o | ellos, ellas, ustedes | -ieron |
Now, before we go to the practice session, we need to learn two more verbs that don’t fit into any category. They are the preterite, or “spine” form of the verbs “ir” and “ser”. Remember that “ir” means “to go” and “ser” means “to be”. The great thing is that the spine, or preterite conjugation of these verbs is the same. The only way to tell them apart is by the context in which they’re used.
Let’s take a look:
I was / I went is: | (yo) | fui | We were / We went is: | (nosotros) | fuimos |
(Juana) You were / You went is: | (tú) | fuiste | You were / You went (used only in Spain) is: | (vosotros) | fuisteis |
He, she or you were / went is: | (él, ella, usted) | fue | They / All of you were or went is: | (ellos, ellas, ustedes) | fueron |
As you just saw, the verb “fui” means either “I went” or “I was” depending on the context. Take one more look at these verbs and continue when you’re ready,
Moving on now, you can continue to the practice session. Otherwise, you can continue to review this section until you feel like you have a good grasp on it. Before we begin our practice session, there are a few new words that you need to learn.
The first one is
late, tarde
early temprano
earlier más temprano
on time a tiempo
far lejos
fast rápido
early temprano
earlier más temprano
on time a tiempo
far lejos
fast rápido
