The Preterit Tense

Mr. Jackson

What is the preterit tense?

• A verb tense that describes events that happened in the past.

• Used in all languages

• What does this look like in English?

Preterit Tense in Spanish

• Now that we can identify the preterit tense in English, let’s apply it to Spanish!

• We use the preterit tense to describe:o Completed actions in the past

• One time thingo Narrate a series of past actions

Words to Trigger the Use of Preterit

• Example words/ phrases to look for:oel (día/mes/año/estación) pasado • [last (day, month, year, season)]

oUna vez [one time…]oAyer [yesterday]

Creating Preterit for –AR Verbs• The preterit form of –AR Verbs is created

by dropping the ending (-ar) and adding the following endings.

é amosaste asteis ó aron

Let’s PracticeHablar

You and Your Table PartnerTomar

You AloneTrabajar