Severn Spanish

Preterite II: Stem changing verbs

 

Introduction:

By this point, you should be familiar with the conjugation of regular and CAR/GAR/ZAR verbs in the preterite. You should also know a few of the more common irregulars, such as ser, ir, tener, estar, etc. Now we can move onto stem changing verbs, which seem confusing at first but are in many ways easier in the preterite than in the present.

 

What Happens in the Preterite?

The answer to this question depends on the infinitive ending of the verb. -AR and -ER verbs have no stem changes in the preterite, which makes your job super easy. They are treated like normal verbs, unless they have some other irregularity (such as jugar, which won’t have a preterite stem change but is a CAR/GAR/ZAR verb). Here are some examples of verbs with stem changes in the present, conjugated in both tenses. Notice that the preterite forms are completely normal: no stem changes.

 

cerrar (to close; e to ie in present)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

volver (to return; o to ue in present)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now let’s talk about -IR verbs, which are a different story. -IR verbs with stem changes in the present tense do have stem changes in the preterite, but ONLY in the 3rd person (él/ella/usted and ellos/ellas/ustedes forms). Those stem changes are also a little bit different than you are used to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before you panic, take a look at these conjugation comparisons.

 

mentir (to lie; e to ie in present)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

pedir (to ask for; e to i in present)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

dormir (to sleep; o to ue in present)