Beginning Spanish ¡Empecemos por aquí!

288 •  Chapter 4: La vida que vivimos Stem-changing -ir verbs do have a stem change in preterite tense, but it does not match what hap- pens in the present. You can read about this feature in Lengua 5.2. For now, we will keep it in mind and memorize a few examples, but we will not try to memorize the rules. Stem-changing -ir verbs have a stem change (only to u or i ) in just the third person forms: Pedir (to ask) Yo ped í Tú ped iste Ella, él, usted pid ió Nosotras, nosotros ped imos Ellas, ellos, ustedes pid ieron Here are a few more examples: Volver: volví, volviste, volvió, volvimos, volvieron Comenzar: comencé, comenzaste, comenzó, comenzamos, comenzaron Entender: entendí, entendiste, entendió, entendimos, entendieron Jugar: jugué, jugaste, jugó, jugamos, jugaron All of these are -ar or-er verbs, so they do not have a stem change in the preterite. Comenzar and jugar have a spelling change in the yo form, which affects all -car , -gar , and -zar verbs in the preterite. Elegir: elegí, elegiste, eligió, elegimos, eligieron Dormir: dormí, dormiste, durmió, dormimos, durmieron Convertirse: me convertí, te convertiste, se convirtió, nos convertimos, se convirtieron Conseguir: conseguí, conseguiste, consiguió, conseguimos, consiguieron All of these are -ir verbs, so they do have a stem change in the preterite, but only in the third person forms. 15. La conjugación Fill in the chart below with the correct conjugations of these stem-changing verbs. Some will be conjugated in the present, and others will be conjugated in the preterite.