Lesson 22: Pretérito indefinido — irregular verbs

Part 1: The big idea — one set of endings for almost everyone

In Lesson 21 you got the regular preterite endings. The irregular preterites use a different set — but the same set is shared across nearly all irregular verbs.

Person	Ending
yo	-e
tú	-iste
él / ella / usted	-o
nosotros	-imos
vosotros	-isteis
ellos / ellas / ustedes	-ieron (or -eron after a j-stem)

The single biggest trap: in 1st and 3rd person singular (yo, él), NO tilde! tuve, tuvo — never tuvé, never tuvó. hice, hizo — never hicé, never hizó. This is exactly what separates irregular preterites from the regular ones you saw in Lesson 21 (where hablé and habló DO carry tildes). The stress in irregular preterites falls on the stem, not the ending — so no tilde is needed.

If you learn the stem of each irregular verb, the rest of the paradigm comes free — the endings are always the same.

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Part 2: U-stems — the biggest family

Seven verbs replace their regular vowel with a u.

Infinitive	Stem	English
tener	tuv-	to have
estar	estuv-	to be (location/state)
poder	pud-	to be able to
poner	pus-	to put
saber	sup-	to know (a fact)
haber	hub-	to have (aux.) / there was
andar	anduv-	to walk

Full paradigm (example: tener)

Person	Form
yo	tuve
tú	tuviste
él / ella / Ud.	tuvo
nosotros	tuvimos
vosotros	tuvisteis
ellos / ellas / Uds.	tuvieron

Same machine for the other six: anduve … anduvieron, estuve … estuvieron, pude … pudieron, puse … pusieron, supe … supieron, hube … hubieron.

Meaning shifts to learn cold:

• supe (from saber) = "I found out" (the moment information arrived), not "I knew". Lo supe ayer. — "I found out yesterday."
• pude (from poder) = "I managed / I was able to". No pude = "I couldn't / didn't manage to".
• tuve que + infinitive = "I had to" (and I did it). Tuve que ir al médico. — "I had to go to the doctor."
• hubo = "there was / there were" (one-time event in the past). Hubo un accidente. — "There was an accident."

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Part 3: I-stems — three verbs

The stem-vowel changes to i.

Infinitive	Stem	English
querer	quis-	to want, to love
hacer	hic- / hiz-	to do, to make
venir	vin-	to come

Full paradigm (example: hacer)

Person	Form
yo	hice
tú	hiciste
él / ella / Ud.	hizo
nosotros	hicimos
vosotros	hicisteis
ellos / ellas / Uds.	hicieron

Spelling trap: in the 3rd person singular, it's hizo (with z, not c!). Why? Spanish spelling rules say c+o would be pronounced "ko". To keep the soft "s/th" sound before o, you must switch to z. Same logic as empecé (Lesson 21).

Querer: quise, quisiste, quiso, quisimos, quisisteis, quisieron. Venir: vine, viniste, vino, vinimos, vinisteis, vinieron.

Meaning shifts:

• quise + infinitive = "I tried to": Quise abrir la puerta. — "I tried to open the door (and may have failed)."
• no quise + infinitive = "I refused to": No quise ir. — "I refused to go."
• hice + general past activity = "I did, I made". Ayer hice la cena. — "I made dinner yesterday."

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Part 4: J-stems — the "dij-" family

A few verbs have a stem ending in j. The unique feature: in 3rd person plural the ending is not -ieron but -eron — the j swallows the i.

In our list this matters for one verb: decir. (Verbs in -ucir like traducir, conducir, producir and the verb traer also belong to this family — they all drop the i in ellos.)

Infinitive	Stem	English
decir	dij-	to say, to tell

Full paradigm (example: decir)

Person	Form
yo	dije
tú	dijiste
él / ella / Ud.	dijo
nosotros	dijimos
vosotros	dijisteis
ellos / ellas / Uds.	dijeron ← no i!

Trap: not dijieron. The "ieron" rule disappears after a j-stem.

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Part 5: The four "wild" verbs — ser, ir, dar, ver

These four are short, super-frequent, and have to be memorized one paradigm at a time. The good news: they're tiny, you'll hear them constantly, and they cement themselves fast.

Ser and Ir — identical forms!

Yes, "to be" and "to go" share the exact same preterite paradigm. Context tells you which one is meant: Fui a Madrid = "I went to Madrid"; Fui profesor = "I was a teacher". A Spanish speaker decodes this in 0.2 seconds — and so will you.

Person	ser / ir
yo	fui
tú	fuiste
él / ella / Ud.	fue
nosotros	fuimos
vosotros	fuisteis
ellos / ellas / Uds.	fueron

No tildes! fui, fue — short one-syllable words. The stress is automatic, so no written accent. (Until 1999 students were taught to write fuí, fué with accents — that rule was abolished. Modern Spanish: never tilde them.)

Dar — takes -ER/-IR endings

Yes, the infinitive is -AR, but the preterite of dar borrows the -ER/-IR endings — and drops all tildes (because the forms are one syllable each, or stressed correctly without them).

Person	dar
yo	di
tú	diste
él / ella / Ud.	dio
nosotros	dimos
vosotros	disteis
ellos / ellas / Uds.	dieron

Ver — looks almost regular, but tildeless

Person	ver
yo	vi
tú	viste
él / ella / Ud.	vio
nosotros	vimos
vosotros	visteis
ellos / ellas / Uds.	vieron

Why no tildes on vi, vio, di, dio, fui, fue? They're all one-syllable words — vio and dio read as a single syllable ("byoh", "dyoh"). Spanish orthography forbids tildes on monosyllables (except a few homographs like sí/si, él/el). In Lesson 21 the regular preterite gave you habló, comió with tildes, but those are two-syllable forms.

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