Beginning Spanish ¡Empecemos por aquí!

Module C: Places and travels  • 233 Tomar Responder Abrir Yo tom é respond í abr í Tú tom aste respond iste abr iste Ella, él, usted tom ó respond ió abr ió Nosotras, nosotros tom amos respond imos abr imos Ellas, ellos, ustedes tom aron respond ieron abr ieron Alternative forms Vos tom aste respond iste abr iste Vosotros tom asteis respond isteis abr isteis Notice that all of the yo and ella / él / usted forms have accent marks on the final letter. These accent marks are important. For example, what would be the difference in meaning between hablo and habló ? The first is present tense first person (I speak), and the second is preterite tense third person (she, he spoke). The verbs that had stem changes in the present tense will not have stem changes in the preterite, unless they are -ir verbs. We will learn more about those later. Another interesting feature is that the nosotros form is the same in the preterite as it was in the present for -ar and -ir verbs. This makes context especially important. There are several common words and expressions that tend to accompany preterite verbs: ayer yesterday anoche last night esta mañana this morning en marzo in March el mes pasado last month la semana pasada last week el lunes on Monday hace dos días two days ago el cuatro de enero on January fourth ayer por la mañana yesterday morning Remember that there is another past tense—the imperfect—and so there are limits as to when we can use preterite. The preterite is for actions. We can use preterite to say I walked to the store, I saw my friend, I bought some milk, and I tripped on the steps. We cannot use preterite for description or ongoing situations, so it will not work in sentences such as these: