| Let's look at the sentence pattern. |
| Do you remember how the character said, |
| "Of course, I arrived many years ago to meet my grandmother." |
| Claro, llegué hace muchos años para conocer a mi abuela. |
| Claro, llegué hace muchos años para conocer a mi abuela. |
| In this sentence, you can recognize a verb in the preterite: llegué, meaning "I arrived." |
| In Spanish, we use the preterite tense to talk about specific completed actions in the past—things that happened at a particular moment. |
| Let's review how the preterite is formed for three common types of regular verbs. |
| Here are the preterite tense conjugations for regular verbs: |
| Llegar, meaning "to arrive," ends with |
| -AR and the conjugation will be: |
| yo llegué – "I arrived" |
| tú llegaste – "you arrived" |
| él / ella llegó – "he/she arrived" |
| nosotros llegamos – "we arrived" |
| vosotros llegasteis – "you all arrived" |
| ellos / ellas llegaron – "they arrived" |
| Then we have verbs ending in -ER, for example, comer, meaning "to eat" |
| yo comí – "I ate" |
| tú comiste – "you ate" |
| él / ella comió – "he/she ate" |
| nosotros comimos – "we ate" |
| vosotros comisteis – "you all ate" |
| ellos / ellas comieron – "they ate" |
| Finally, let's look at the -IR verbs, like vivir, "to live" |
| yo viví – "I lived" |
| tú viviste – "you lived" |
| él / ella vivió – "he/she lived" |
| nosotros vivimos – "we lived" |
| vosotros vivisteis – "you all lived" |
| ellos / ellas vivieron – "they lived" |
| Now let's go back to the example sentence: |
| Claro, llegué hace muchos años para conocer a mi abuela. |
| "Of course, I arrived many years ago to meet my grandmother." |
| llegué is the yo-form of the -AR verb llegar in the preterite. |
| It describes a completed action—I arrived. |
| hace muchos años means "many years ago"—this gives us the time reference. |
| para conocer a mi abuela means "to meet my grandmother"—this shows the purpose of the trip. |
| This sentence clearly uses the preterite to describe one specific action in the past. |
| Now you know how to use regular preterite verbs to talk about completed actions. |
| There are two other verbs from the dialogue that also follow the regular conjugation patterns. |
| In the sentence |
| Visitamos el centro histórico y probé antojitos típicos. |
| "We visited the historic center and I tried typical local snacks." |
| Both visitamos and probé are regular -AR ending verbs in the preterite. |
| Their dictionary forms are |
| visitar – "to visit" |
| probar – "to try" or "to taste" |
| Now let's look at some speaking examples. |
| Ayer cociné una cena especial para mi familia. |
| "Yesterday I cooked a special dinner for my family." |
| Can you see how the pattern applies here? |
| Let's break it down: |
| ayer – meaning "yesterday" |
| This gives the time reference. It's a common signal for the preterite. |
| cociné – which means "I cooked" |
| This is the preterite yo form of the -AR verb cocinar. It shows a completed action in the past. |
| una cena especial – meaning "a special dinner" |
| This is the object of the verb—it tells us what was cooked. |
| para mi familia – meaning "for my family" |
| This shows the purpose or who benefited from the action. |
| The verb cociné is used in the preterite to talk about one specific action completed in the past. |
| Here's another example |
| ¿Bebiste café esta mañana? |
| "Did you drink coffee this morning?" |
| ¿Bebiste café esta mañana? |
| "Did you drink coffee this morning?" |
| bebiste – which means "you drank" |
| This is the preterite tú form of the -ER verb beber. |
| Let's try one more, |
| Mis amigos aprendieron mucho en la clase de español. |
| "My friends learned a lot in Spanish class." |
| Mis amigos aprendieron mucho en la clase de español. |
| "My friends learned a lot in Spanish class." |
| aprendieron – which means "they learned" |
| This is the preterite ellos/ellas form of the -ER verb aprender. |
| Another one. |
| Camila bailó en la fiesta el sábado pasado. |
| "Camila danced at the party last Saturday." |
| Camila bailó en la fiesta el sábado pasado. |
| "Camila danced at the party last Saturday." |
| bailó – which means "she danced" |
| This is the preterite ella form of the -AR verb bailar |
| One last example. |
| Nosotros abrimos los regalos después de cenar. |
| "We opened the presents after dinner." |
| Nosotros abrimos los regalos después de cenar. |
| "We opened the presents after dinner." |
| abrimos – which means "we opened" |
| This is the preterite nosotros form of the -IR verb abrir. |
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