1.30530 · Section 1: Grammar

Verbs: the preterite tense

Key learnings

Regular preterite endings + yo changes
The preterite is the completed-past tense. Drop the infinitive ending and add: -ar -> -é, -aste, -ó, -amos, -asteis, -aron; -er/-ir (shared) -> -í, -iste, -ió, -imos, -isteis, -ieron. Only the yo (-é/-í) and él/ella (-ó/-ió) forms take a written accent. -car/-gar/-zar verbs change spelling in the yo form only: buscar -> busqué, llegar -> llegué, empezar -> empecé.
High-frequency irregular preterites
Several very common verbs have irregular stems with unaccented endings (-e, -iste, -o, -imos, -isteis, -ieron): ser/ir -> fui, fue (identical — context decides); tener -> tuve, tuvo; estar -> estuve, estuvo; hacer -> hice, hizo (él uses z); poder -> pude, pudo; decir -> dije, dijo, dijeron (no i after j). Also ver -> vi, vio, dar -> di, dio (no accent).

Common mistakes

Drawn from real examiner reports.

Missing accent on the él preterite

In regular verbs a single accent separates present yo from preterite él/ella: hablo (I speak) vs habló (he spoke); compro (I buy) vs compró (he bought). The accent is not decoration — it carries the person AND the tense, so a missing accent is a meaning error (a different word), not a spelling slip. Always accent the yo (-é/-í) and él (-ó/-ió) endings.

Missing accents that changed the meaning invalidated the mark: gustó/gusto, llevó/llevo, saludó/saludo (s23 Reading Key Messages).

Forgetting the -car/-gar/-zar yo change

Verbs in -car, -gar, -zar do not take a plain -é in the yo form — the spelling changes so the consonant keeps its hard sound: buscar -> busqué (not buscé), llegar -> llegué (not llegé), empezar -> empecé (not empezé). Rule: c->qu, g->gu, z->c before -é, in the yo form only; every other person is regular (buscaste, buscó).

(general FL trap)

Preterite used for a past habit

Spanish has two simple past tenses. Use the preterite for a completed one-off event, the imperfect for a repeated habit or description: Comí paella ayer vs Comía paella todos los domingos. Signals: ayer, la semana pasada -> preterite; todos los días, siempre, mientras -> imperfect. The wrong choice caps the accuracy mark.

Speaking candidates repeatedly "had difficulties using a past time frame" across role plays and topic conversations (s23).

Malformed irregular preterites

Irregular preterites are often invented. decir makes dijeron, never dijieron — a j-stem drops the i of -ieron. hacer makes hizo (with z), never hació. Reports also list garbled forms like fuiemos, fuieron, tuvía. Fix: learn the block (fui, tuve, estuve, hice, pude, dije) as fixed forms, not from a rule.

Malformed preterites of ir/tener (fuiemos, fuieron, tuvía) named on the Writing common-errors list (s23 P41/P42; w23 P41).

Writing "yo fue" instead of "fui"

ser and ir share the preterite fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fuisteis, fueron, but the person must still be right: yo fui (I went/was), él fue (he went/was). Writing yo fue for "I went" is a person error examiners flag, as is fuiste where fui is meant. Match the ending to the subject.

ser/ir preterite person confusion — yo fue for fui (s23 P41 Q3a Task 3); on the Writing common-errors list.

English -ed is not always the preterite

A common belief is that the preterite is simply "the past tense", so any English past takes preterite endings. It does not: "I used to work" and "I was working" are imperfect (trabajaba), not preterite (trabajé). The preterite marks a bounded, completed action; the imperfect a habit or ongoing description — Cuando era niño, jugaba al fútbol is all imperfect.

Speaking candidates struggled to sustain a past time frame — the preterite/imperfect boundary (s23).

Exam tips

Anchor the past, then check the accent
For any past answer: add a time marker (ayer, el fin de semana pasado) to fix the frame; choose preterite (completed event) vs imperfect (habit); pick the endings by verb group; then audit the accent on every yo (-é/-í) and él (-ó/-ió) form.
Check the irregular block first
Before conjugating, ask whether the verb is a high-frequency irregular: ser/ir, tener, estar, hacer, poder, decir, ver, dar. If so, use the memorised stem (fui, tuve, estuve, hice, pude, dije) with the unaccented endings — never add regular -í/-ió endings to an irregular stem.
Mix tenses to reach the Range marks
In Writing, deliberately mix present + preterite + near future (voy a...) so the examiner sees several tenses — this lifts the Range mark. In a Speaking role play, first hear whether the question is present, past or future, then answer in that same tense.

Revision notes