Simple Past For Intermediate learners

What is the Simple Past Tense?

The indicative simple past tense (pretérito indefinido or pretérito perfecto simple) is used to talk about actions completed in the past with no direct connection to the present.

Conjugation

Spanish verbs in the past simple indicative change their endings depending on the subject. The table below shows how the past simple conjugation works for the three types of verbs in Spanish based on the infinitive form ending. Keep in mind that the "vosotros" form is only used in Spain, and Latin American Spanish uses the "ustedes" form in all contexts.

	-ar verbs	-er/-ir verbs
yo	-é	-í
tú	-aste	-iste
él/ella/usted	-ó	-ió
nosotros/as	-amos	-imos
vosotros/as	-asteis	-isteis
ellos/ellas/ustedes	-aron	-ieron

Here are examples of how each type of verb would be conjugated in the simple past tense:

hablar → hablé, hablaste, habló, hablamos, hablasteis, hablaron

comer → comí, comiste, comió, comimos, comisteis, comieron

vivir → viví, viviste, vivió, vivimos, vivisteis, vivieron

Here are some example sentences:

Example

El año pasado viajamos a Perú.

Last year we traveled to Peru.

Ella escribió tres libros.

She wrote three books.

Comí demasiado anoche.

I ate too much last night.

Warning!

As you can see in the table, the first and third-person singular endings have written accents. Missing these accents can change the tense and/or subject of the sentence, so pay close attention to them.

Example

Entró.

He entered

Third-person singular past simple

Entro.

I enter.

First-person singular present simple

Irregular Verbs

Past simple is one of the tenses with the most irregular verb forms. Here are some of the most-commonly used Spanish verbs with completely irregular conjugation in the past simple tense:

	ser/ir	hacer	ver
yo	fui	hice	vi
tú	fuiste	hiciste	viste
él/ella/usted	fue	hizo	vio
nosotros/as	fuimos	hicimos	vimos
vosotros/as	fuisteis	hicisteis	visteis
ellos/ellas/ustedes	fueron	hicieron	vieron

For example:

Example

Ayer fui al cine.

I went to the cinema yesterday.

Vi una película.

I saw a movie.

There's another group of verbs that undergo stem change in past simple conjugation. Common examples include:

tener → tuv-

estar → estuv-

poder → pud-

poner → pus-

saber → sup-

querer → quis-

decir → dij-

Here are some example sentences:

Example

Tuvimos un problema ayer.

We had a problem yesterday.

Estuvo en casa.

He/She was at home.

Dijiste la verdad.

You told the truth.

Pusieron el libro en la mesa.

They put the book on the table.

Negation

To negate verbs in the past simple tense, the negative marker "no" is added before the verb or the object/reflexive pronoun, if there is one. For example: