The Preterit of Stem Changing Verbs Flashcards
What is the preterit?
It’s a past tense.
The preterit tense (el pretérito) is one of several past tenses in Spanish and it is used to describe actions completed at one point in the past or that lasted a specific amount of time in the past and are now completed.
What are stem changing verbs?
They are verbs that have a spelling change in the stem.
What are the stem changes in the preterit?
1) Verbs that have an o change to u.
2) Verbs that have an e change to i.
Does the stem change affect all subjects?
No, in the preterit only the following subjects have the stem change:
usted, ustedes
él, ella, ellos, ellas
(includes any third person singular & plural subjects)
What infinitive (verb ending) is affected by stem changes in the preterit?
Only verbs that end in -ir have a stem change in the preterit.
Note: NOT all -ir verbs have a stem change. It is only a selected group.
What are the conjugations in the preterit for -ir ending verbs?
yo > Í
tú > iste
usted, él, ella > ió
nosotros, nosotras > imos
ustedes, ellos, ellas > ieron
What verbs have the stem change in the preterit?
There are two verbs in the o > u group:
morir
dormir
What are the verbs in the e > i group?
In the e > i group, there are 13 verbs that you need to know:
preferir, divertirse, mentir, sentir
pedir, competir, despedirse, repetir
reír, sonreír
seguir, servir, vestirse
What happens if the verb ends in -se like
divertirse, sentirse, despedirse, vestirse
The se attached to the infinitive indicates a reflexive verb. You need to use the reflexive pronoun in addition to conjugating the verb and changing the stem of the verb.
For example, Usted se divirtió en la fiesta.
Look at the bold print.
What are the reflexive pronouns?
The reflexive pronouns are: me, te, se, nos, se.
Note: Since the stem change in the preterit only occurs in the ud., él, ella, uds., ellos, ellas forms, the only reflexive pronoun you need to use is se for the test. But, in everyday language you would use all of them.
Where does the pronoun go in the sentence?
The placement of the reflexive pronoun is th same as with any other pronoun in any verb tense.
Option 1: if you only have ONE verb, put the reflexive
pronoun BEFORE the verb.
Pancho se divirtió en la fiesta.
Option 2: if you have TWO verbs, you have a choice.
In front of the first verb or attached to the infinitive of the second verb.
- Pancho quiso divert_irse_ en la fiesta.*
- Pancho se quiso divertir** en la fiesta.*
Conjugate sentirse in the preterit in order.
me sentí
te sentiste
se sintió
nos sentimos
se sintieron
Conjugate sonreír in the preterit.
sonreí
sonreíste
sonrió
sonreímos
sonrieron
(Note: reír conjugates the same way)
Conjugate dormir in the preterit.
dormí
dormiste
durmió
dormimos
durmieron
Conjugate despedirse in the preterit.
me despedí
te despediste
se despidió
nos despedimos
se despidieron
