Past Tense
Past tense verbs are used in the following situations:
Express a definate action in past that is considered finished.
- Termino la clase de español.
Hacer + expression of time + que + past tense.
- Hace una semana que regreso a su país.
Expressions of time where the past tense is used
| Spanish | English |
| Anoche | Last Night |
| Ayer | Yesterday |
| El otro día | The other day |
| La semana pasada | Last week |
| El mes pasado | Last month |
| El año pasado | Last year |
| El lunes pasado | Last Monday |
| Hace una semana (un mes, un año, un siglo) |
One week ago |
- Ayer estudie mucho.
Regular Verbs
| Verbs that end in 'AR', 'ER' and 'IR' | |||||
| Verb Ending | Yo |
Tu |
Usted, El, Ella |
Nosotros |
Ustedes, Ellos, Ellas |
AR |
E |
ASTE |
O |
AMOS |
ARON |
ER |
I |
ISTE |
O |
IMOS |
IERON |
IR |
I |
ISTE |
O |
IMOS |
IERON |
Examples
| Verb | Yo | Tu | Usted, El, Ella | Nosotros | Ustedes, Ellos, Ellas |
| Caminar | camine | caminaste | camino | caminamos | caminaron |
| Beber | bebí | bebiste | bebió | bebimos | bebieron |
| Vivir | viví | viviste | vivió | vivimos | vivieron |
There are a number of irregular verbs in past tense such as hacer, querer and saber that change in the first person only. Other verbs such as decir and traer have letters that change within the verbs themselves. There are a number of irregular verbs such as those that end in UIR, CAR, GAR and ZAR.
