The Preterit of Verb that Change i >y

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

or that it lasted a specific amount of time 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

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 > -imos

uds., ellos, ellas > -ieron

Question 4

So, what are the conjugations for verbs that

change the i > y

like leer, oír, creer, caerse?

Answer 4

The i > 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

Question 5

So, what is the conjugation in the preterit for

leer?

Answer 5

leí

leíste

leyó

leímos

leyeron

(creer, oír conjugate the same way)

Question 6

How do you conjugate

destruir in the preterit?

Answer 6

destruí

destruiste

destruyó

destruimos

destruyeron

(notice that tú and nosotros do not have accents on the i)

Question 7

How do you conjugate

caerse?

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Does the i to y change apply

to all subjects?

Answer 8

NO!

It only applies to usted, ustedes

él, ellos

ella, ellas