i to y verbs in the preterit

Question 1

What is the preterit tense? Explain.

Answer 1

The preterit is a tense used to describe actions completed at one point in the past. It is an action that lasted a specific amount of time in the past and now it is completed. For example, I walked to school.

Question 2

What are the conjugations for

regular -ar ending verbs

in the preterit?

Answer 2

yo > -é

tú > -aste

ud., él, ella > ó

nosotros > -amos

uds., ellos, ellas > aron

(hablé, hablaste, habló, hablamos, hablaron)

Question 3

What are the conjugations

for -er, -ir REGULAR VERBS

in the preterit?

Answer 3

yo > -í

tú > -iste

ud., él, ella > ió

nosotros, nosotras > -imos

uds., ellos, ellas > -ieron

(escribí, escribiste, escribió, escribimos, escribieron)

Question 4

What is this i to y concept about?

What are the i to y verbs in the preterit?

Answer 4

This is part of the preterit tense. Some verbs will go extra changes like caerse, leer, destruir, oír, creer, caer, caerse.

The preterit conjugations are as follows:

• ió changes to -yó
• ieron changes to -yeron

Question 5

Does the i to y change apply to all subjects?

Answer 5

NO! It only applies to:

usted, ustedes

él, ellos

ella, ellas

Question 6

So, why does the change occur?

Answer 6

Because verbs like leer, caer, caerse, oír, destruir, creer have a vowel immediately before the infinitive.

leer

caer

oír

destruir

creer

Question 7

So, what are the conjugations for verbs

that change the i to y

like leer, oír, creer, caerse, caer, destruir?

Answer 7

The i to y spelling change only applies to some -er, -ir ending verbs; therefore, the conjugations are as follows:

yo > -í

tú > -íste

ud., él, ella > -yó

nosotros > -ímos

uds., ellos, ellas > -yeron

(destruir does not have the accent in the stem, only in the conjugation)

Question 8

So, what is the conjugation

in the preterit for leer?

Answer 8

yo leí

tú leíste

ud., él, ella leyó

nosotros, nosotras leímos

uds., ellos, ellas leyeron

Question 9

How do you conjugate

destruir in the preterit?

Answer 9

yo destruí

tú destruiste

ud., éd, ella destruyó

nosotros, nosotras destruimos

uds., ellos, ellas destruyeron

(notice that tú and nosotros do not have accents on the i like oír, leer, creer, caer, and caerse)

Question 10

How do you conjugate caerse?

Answer 10

caerse is a reflexive verb - you need to use the reflexive pronoun before the verb:

yo me caí

tú te caíste

ud., él, ella se cayó

nosotros nos caímos

uds., ellos, ellas se cayeron

(don’t forget the accent mark on the i’s as well)

Question 11

What is the conjugation of CAER?

Answer 11

yo caí

tú caíste

ud., él, ella cayó

nosotros, nosotras caímos

uds., ellos, ellas cayeron

Question 12

What is the conjugation of creer?

Answer 12

yo creí

tú creíste

ud., él, ella creyó

nosotros, nosotras creímos

uds., ellos, ellas creyeron

Question 13

What is the conjugation for oír?

Answer 13

yo oí

tú oíste

ud., él, ella oyó

nosotros, nosotras oímos

uds., ellos, ellas oyeron