GrammarPreteriteC2G2L2

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	In English, the simple past tense expresses an action or process that already took place. For regular verbs in English, the past tense is formed by adding -ed to the verb.
		Ariel played soccer yesterday.
		I cooked the pasta.
	In Spanish the preterite tense, like the simple past tense in English, is used to talk about events that have already taken place.
	The prerterite tense is used to talk about events completed sometime in the past and past actions complete within a certain time frame.

The preterite endings for *-ar* verbs are:
		Singular		Plural
		yo	-é	nosotros	-amos
		tú	-aste	vosotros	-asteis
		él, ella, Ud.	-ó	ellos, ellas, Uds.	-aron
	Notice the accent marks.
	For *-ar* verbs, the first person singular (yo form) in the present tense and the thrid person singular (él, ella, Ud. form) are distinguised only by the accent mark (stress), i.e. tomo/I take and tomó/he, she took.
	For *-ar* verbs, the first person plural (nosotros form) is the same in the present tense and the preterit tense, i.e. tomamos/we take and tomamos/we took. The meaning is clarified by context.

Preterite -ar verb
Example: preparar/to prepare
	Singular	Plural
	(yo) preparé	(nosotros) spreparamos
	I prepared	we prepared
	(tú) preparaste	(vosotros) preparasteis
	you (familiar) prepared	you (plural) prepared
	(él, ella, Ud.) preparó	(ellos, ellas, Uds.) prepararon
	he, she, you (polite) prepared	They, you (plural) prepared



The preterite endings for **-er and -ir** verbs are:
		Singular		Plural
		yo	-í	nosotros	-imos
		tú	-iste	vosotros	-isteis
		él, ella, Ud.	-ió	ellos, ellas, Uds.	-ieron
	Notice the accent marks.
	For *-er* and *-ir* verbs, the endings are exactly a like.
	For *-ir* verbs, the first person plural (nosotros form) is the same in the present tense and the preterit tense, i.e. escribimos/we write and escribimos/we wrote. The meaning is clarified by context.

	Preterite -er verb
	Example: comer/to eat
	Singular		Plural
	(yo) comí		(nosotros) comimos
	I ate		we ate
	(tú) comiste		(vosotros) comisteis
	you (familiar) ate		you (plural) ate
	(él, ella, Ud.) comió		(ellos, ellas, Uds.) comieron
	he, she, you (polite) ate		they, you (plural) ate

	Preterite -ir verb
	Example: vivir/to live
	Singular		Plural
	(yo) viví		(nosotros) vivimos
	I lived		we lived
	(tú) viviste		(vosotros) vivisteis
	you (familiar) lived		you (plural) lived
	(él, ella, Ud.) vivió		(ellos, ellas, Uds.) vivieron
	he, she, you (polite) lived		they, you (plural) lived

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