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Verbs with irregular unstressed preterite endings

On this page, we look at certain common verbs that have irregular preterite (simple past tense) forms. In general, the stress falls on the first syllable of the preterite ending in Spanish: dor, dormiste, durmió etc.

However, there are a handful of Spanish verbs that have irregular preterite forms. These preterite forms have the following features:

  • they may have an irregular stem (e.g. decir has the stem dij-: dije, dijiste etc);
  • in the yo and él/ella forms, the endings are -e and -o, rather than and -ió (for example, he/she put = puso, not pusió);
  • in the yo and él/ella forms of these verbs, the stress therefore falls on the syllable before the ending.

Here are some common verbs with irregular preterite forms that follow this pattern:

VerbStemyo formél/ella formOther forms
andar
to go, walk
anduv-anduve
I went/walked
anduvo
he/she went/walked
anduviste, anduvimos, anduvisteis, anduvieron
caber
to fit
cup-cupe
I fit
cupo
he/she fit
cupiste, cupimos, cupisteis, cupieron
decir
to say
dij-dije
I said
dijo
he/she said
dijiste, dijimos, dijisteis, dijeron1
estar
to be
estuv-estuve
I was
estuvo
he/she was
estuviste, estuvimos, estuvisteis, estuvieron
hacer
to do, make
hic-hice
I did
hizo2
he/she did
hiciste, hicioms, hicisteis, hicieron.
poder
to be able
pud-pude
I could, was able to
pudo
he/she could, was able to
pudiste, pudimos, pudisteis, pudieron
poner
to put
pus-puse
I put
puso
he/she put
pusiste, pusimos, pusisteis, pusieron
producir3
to produce
produj-produje
I produced
produjo
he/she produced
produjiste, produjimos, produjisteis, produjeron1
querer
to want
quis-quise
I wanted
quiso
he/she wanted
quisiste, quisimos, quisisteis, quisieron
saber
to know, find out
sup-supe
I found out
supo
he/she found out
supiste, supimos, supisteis, supieron
tener
to have (to)
tuv-tuve
I had (to)
tuvo
he/she had (to)
tuviste, tuvimos, tuvisteis, tuvieron

1. Notice that where the stem ends in j (as in dij-), the i is dropped from the ending -(i)eron, giving dijeron.
2. The c changes to z to preserve the representation of the [s] sound.
3. Other verbs ending in -ducir follow a similar pattern.

Practise irregular preterites

In this exercise, you can practise the above forms by filling in the grid below with the appropriate preterite forms.

Further reading

Once you've mastered the forms presented on this page (plus other preterite forms, including regular preterite forms plus preterite forms with a vowel change, you may wish to look at

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