Irregular Preterite Verbs

The following verbs undergo some kind of change in the PRETERITE tense. I have categorized them here for your convenience.

I. Verbs ending in –CAR, change “C” to “QU” before “É”:

busCAR→ busQUé

II. Verbs ending in – GAR, insert “U” before “É”:

paGAR → paGUé

III. Verbs ending in –ZAR, change “Z” to “C” before “É”:

reZAR → reCé

IV. Verbs whose stem ends in “A”, “E” or “O”, insert “Y” before “E” and “O”:

cA-er

lE-er

O-ír
caYó

leYó

oYó
caYeron

leYeron

oYeron

Please note: NO “i” after the “Y”. oyIeron is incorrect!!

Exception: trA-er and compounds:

trA –er

atA –er

distrA –er
traJo

atraJo

distraJo
traJeron

atraJeron

distraJeron

Please note: NO “i” after the “J”. trajIeron is incorrect!!

Conjugate: atraer and distraer

V. All verbs ending in – DUCIR have the following paradigm (conjugation) in the preterite:

traDUJE

traDUJISTE

traDUJO
traDUJIMOS

traDUJISTEIS

traDUJERON

Please note: NO “i” after the “J”. tradujIeron is incorrect!!

Conjugate fully the following verbs. You may ignore the vosotros form.

producir reducir introducir

1st 1st 1st

2nd 2nd 2nd

3rd 3rd 3rd

1st 1st 1st

3rd 3rd 3rd

VI-a. If an – IR verb with an E in the stem changed the E to IE in the PRESENT INDICATIVE, the “E” will change to “I” in the 3rd person singular and plural of the preterite. These types of verbs are usually listed in the vocabulary and elsewhere thus:

sEntir (ie, i)

This means:

1. That the “E” goes to “IE” in the 1st, 2nd , 3rd person singular and 3rd person plural in the PRESENT INDICATIVE:

siento

sientes

siente
sentimos

sentís

sienten

2. That the “E” goes to “I” in the 3rd person singular and plural of the PRETERITE.

sentí

sentiste

sIntió
sentimos

sentisteis

sIntieron

Add a list of similar verbs.

VI-b. Similarly, if an – IR verb with an “O” in the stem changed the “O” to “UE” in the PRESENT INDICATIVE, the “O” will change to “U” in the 3rd person singular and plural of the preterite. These types of verbs are usually listed in the vocabulary and elsewhere thus:

morir (ue, u)

morí

moriste

mUrió
morimos

moristeis

mUrieron

Can you think of two other verbs like morir?

VII. If an – IR verb with an “E” in the stem changed the “E” to “I” in the PRESENT INDICATIVE, the “E” will change to “I” in the 3rd person singular and plural of the preterite. These types of verbs are usually listed in the vocabulary and elsewhere thus:

pedir (i, i)

pedí

pediste

pIdió
pedimos

pedisteis

pIdieron

Make a list of similar verbs.

VIII. There is a group of verbs known as PRETÉRITOS GRAVES which follow a very different pattern. I call them the AD CHIPPS, STEV Q verbs. Here they are. Please check their conjugations in the PRETERITE.

andar

anduve anduviste anduvo anduvimos anduvisteis anduvieron

decir

caber

hacer

ir

poder

poner

saber

ser

tener

estar

venir

querer