Last Updated on August 18, 2026 by I Love Spanish Club
The simple past in Spanish, known as pretérito indefinido (or pretérito perfecto simple), is used to describe completed actions that occurred at a specific point in the past. These actions have a clear beginning and end, making it different from other past tenses like the pretérito imperfecto, which describes ongoing or habitual actions. In this complete guide you’ll find conjugation tables, irregular verbs, time expressions, real conversation examples, and practice exercises. ¡Empecemos!
⏮️ When to Use the Simple Past
The pretérito indefinido is used to:
✅ Talk about finished actions with no connection to the present
✅ Describe events that occurred at a specific time in the past
✅ Narrate sequences of completed actions
| Ayer fui al cine. | Yesterday I went to the cinema. |
| Ella estudió toda la noche. | She studied all night. |
| El año pasado viajamos a México. | Last year we traveled to Mexico. |
📋 Regular Verb Conjugation
-AR Verbs: hablar (to speak)
| Pronoun | Conjugation |
|---|---|
| Yo | hablé |
| Tú | hablaste |
| Él/Ella/Usted | habló |
| Nosotros/as | hablamos |
| Vosotros/as | hablasteis |
| Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes | hablaron |
-ER Verbs: comer (to eat)
| Pronoun | Conjugation |
|---|---|
| Yo | comí |
| Tú | comiste |
| Él/Ella/Usted | comió |
| Nosotros/as | comimos |
| Vosotros/as | comisteis |
| Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes | comieron |
-IR Verbs: vivir (to live)
| Pronoun | Conjugation |
|---|---|
| Yo | viví |
| Tú | viviste |
| Él/Ella/Usted | vivió |
| Nosotros/as | vivimos |
| Vosotros/as | vivisteis |
| Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes | vivieron |
💡 Good news: -ER and -IR verbs share the same endings in the preterite! Only -AR verbs have different endings.
⚠️ Irregular Verbs in the Simple Past
Ser / Ir — they share the same conjugation!
| Pronoun | Ser/Ir |
|---|---|
| Yo | fui |
| Tú | fuiste |
| Él/Ella/Usted | fue |
| Nosotros/as | fuimos |
| Vosotros/as | fuisteis |
| Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes | fueron |
💭 Why do two completely different verbs share the same forms? This is one of the more surprising quirks in Spanish grammar, and it’s worth understanding why it doesn’t cause confusion in practice. Ser and ir merged in the preterite for historical reasons going back to Latin, but the two verbs almost never create genuine ambiguity because they demand different kinds of company: ir is followed by a + a destination (fui a la tienda), while ser is followed by a noun or adjective describing what something was (fue un desastre). Once you notice that pattern, you stop needing to “figure out” which verb it is — the sentence structure tells you automatically.
Other Common Irregular Verbs
| Verb | Yo | Tú | Él/Ella | Nosotros | Ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| tener | tuve | tuviste | tuvo | tuvimos | tuvieron |
| hacer | hice | hiciste | hizo | hicimos | hicieron |
| decir | dije | dijiste | dijo | dijimos | dijeron |
| poner | puse | pusiste | puso | pusimos | pusieron |
| venir | vine | viniste | vino | vinimos | vinieron |
| estar | estuve | estuviste | estuvo | estuvimos | estuvieron |
| poder | pude | pudiste | pudo | pudimos | pudieron |
Notice that these seven irregular verbs don’t just happen to look similar — they share a genuine underlying pattern once you strip away the stem. Every one of them uses the same irregular ending set (-e, -iste, -o, -imos, -isteis, -ieron, with no accent marks, unlike the regular endings). This is why grouping irregular preterite verbs by pattern, rather than memorizing each one in isolation, is so much more efficient: learn the ending set once, then just swap in the irregular stem (tuv-, hic-, dij-, pus-, vin-, estuv-, pud-) for each new verb.
📅 Time Expressions with the Simple Past
| Spanish | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Ayer | Yesterday | Ayer hablé con mi jefe. |
| La semana pasada | Last week | La semana pasada fuimos a la playa. |
| El año pasado | Last year | El año pasado viajé a Japón. |
| Hace + tiempo | Ago | Hace dos días vi a mi amigo. |
| El lunes / El martes… | On Monday / Tuesday… | El lunes llegué tarde. |
| En + year | In (year) | En 2020 todo cambió. |
| De repente | Suddenly | De repente empezó a llover. |
🆚 Simple Past vs Imperfect — Key Difference
| Pretérito Indefinido | Pretérito Imperfecto |
|---|---|
| Completed, specific action | Ongoing, habitual, or background action |
| Ayer comí en ese restaurante. (Yesterday I ate at that restaurant — once, done.) | Cuando era niño, comía allí todos los domingos. (When I was a child, I used to eat there every Sunday.) |
| Ayer estudié dos horas. (Yesterday I studied for 2 hours — finished.) | Estudiaba cuando llegó mi amigo. (I was studying when my friend arrived — ongoing background.) |
💬 Real Conversation Examples
📍 Talking about the weekend
Ana: ¿Qué hiciste el fin de semana?
What did you do this weekend?
Luis: El sábado fui al cine con mi familia y el domingo me quedé en casa.
On Saturday I went to the cinema with my family and on Sunday I stayed home.
Ana: ¿Qué película viste?
What movie did you see?
Luis: Vi una comedia. ¡Me reí mucho! ¿Y tú, saliste?
I saw a comedy. I laughed a lot! And you, did you go out?
Ana: Sí, el sábado comí con mis amigas y luego fuimos a caminar por el parque.
Yes, on Saturday I had lunch with my friends and then we went for a walk in the park.
Notice that almost every verb in this short exchange is in the preterite — hiciste, fui, quedé, viste, vi, reí, saliste, comí, fuimos — because “what did you do this weekend” is, by definition, a request for a sequence of finished, specific events. This is exactly the kind of everyday exchange where the preterite dominates, which makes it one of the highest-value tenses to master early: almost any small talk about your recent past will lean on it heavily.
Talking about what you did last weekend, last year, or on a trip is one of the most natural conversation topics in Spanish — and it’s entirely in the preterite. A native tutor on Italki can do a full “what did you do this week?” conversation with you, giving you real-time corrections on your preterite forms until they feel completely natural.
⚠️ Common Mistakes English Speakers Make
❌ Forgetting accent marks
The accents on hablé (yo) and habló (él/ella) are essential — without them the meaning changes completely. Hable is a subjunctive form; hablo is present tense. Never skip the accent! This is one case where a “small” typo genuinely changes the grammar of the sentence, not just the spelling — it’s worth double-checking anything you type quickly, like a text message, where accents are easy to skip out of habit.
❌ Mixing up hice/hizo
Hice = I did (yo). Hizo = he/she did (él/ella). The spelling change (c→z) happens only in the él/ella form to preserve the “s” sound. Yo hice, él hizo — not yo hizo!
❌ Using imperfect when you should use preterite
If the action happened once and is clearly finished → preterite. Ayer comí pizza (Yesterday I ate pizza — done). Save the imperfect for background descriptions, habits, and ongoing states.
🎯 Practice Exercises
Fill in the correct preterite form:
- Ayer yo ___ (hablar) con mi jefe sobre el proyecto.
- El año pasado, nosotros ___ (viajar) a Perú.
- Ella ___ (ir) al concierto la semana pasada.
- ¿Tú ___ (hacer) la tarea anoche?
- De repente, ellos ___ (decir) que no podían venir.
- Hace tres años, yo ___ (estar) en Argentina.
👁️ Show Answers
- Ayer yo hablé con mi jefe sobre el proyecto.
- El año pasado, nosotros viajamos a Perú.
- Ella fue al concierto la semana pasada.
- ¿Tú hiciste la tarea anoche?
- De repente, ellos dijeron que no podían venir.
- Hace tres años, yo estuve en Argentina.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Why do ser and ir have the same conjugation in the preterite?
This is just a historical coincidence — the two verbs evolved to share identical preterite forms. Context always makes it clear which one is meant: fui al mercado (ir — I went to the market) vs fue un desastre (ser — it was a disaster).
What’s the difference between “hace” + time and “hacía” + time?
Hace dos años viví en Madrid (I lived in Madrid two years ago — preterite, completed) vs Hacía dos años que vivía en Madrid (I had been living in Madrid for two years — imperfect, ongoing past state). The first is a finished event; the second is a duration that was ongoing at some past moment.
How can I memorize irregular preterite verbs?
Group them by pattern: tuve/estuve/pude/puse/vine all follow the same irregular stem + endings (-e, -iste, -o, -imos, -isteis, -ieron). Once you know the pattern, learning new verbs in the group is much faster. Hearing them constantly in stories and telenovelas on LingoPie is the fastest way to make them feel automatic — narrative past tense is the backbone of storytelling in Spanish.
📚 Keep Learning
Let´s practice
- Write the correct form of the verb in the preterite tense
2. Select the correct form of the verb
3. Match verbs with their correct conjugation
4. Transforming the present into the past
5. Incomplete stories, you must complete the gaps with the correct form of the verb in the preterite tense.
6. Several sentences that describe a sequence of events in disorder. You must arrange the sentences in the correct order.
7. You will read a sentence and you will have to determine if the conjugation in the preterite tense is correct or incorrect.