Severn Spanish

CAR/GAR/ZAR verbs in the preterite I/II

 

Introduction

Sometimes in Spanish, certain conjugation endings can cause a verb to sound weird because of the way some vowels change the sound of certain consonants. Below are some of these weird letter combinations. Say the infinitve out loud, and then say the incorrect preterite yo form provided to see why these verbs are "special."

buscar -- buscé (pronounced "boosay")

practicar -- practicé (pronounced "practisay")

jugar -- jugé (pronounced "whoohay")

 

Spelling Changes

What do you notice about the incorrect conjugations above? The reason they are all so weird is because the preterite yo forms involve an e, which makes the consonant that comes before it soft. In the infinitive form, and most other conjugated forms, the a causes the consonants to have hard sounds. In order to preserve the normal, hard-consonant sounds in the yo form of the preterite, certain spelling changes must be made. They are as follows:

CAR verbs -- change c to qu -- buscar: busqué

GAR verbs -- change g to gu -- jugar: jugué

Now you are probably wondering why ZAR verbs are included in this whole thing. The reason for that is because Spanish is fussy about the letters it likes to have paired with z. If possible, the language avoids placing an e or i after z. Therefore:

ZAR verbs -- change the z to c -- comenzar: comencé

Remember that these changes are ONLY for the yo form. All other forms keep the normal spelling. For example, the verb practicar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Practice