Lesson Transcript

Let's look at the sentence pattern.
Do you remember how the character said,
"I went to the stadium with my dad to watch a soccer match."
Fui al estadio con mi papá para ver un partido de fútbol.
Fui al estadio con mi papá para ver un partido de fútbol.
This sentence follows the pattern here:
Subject (optional) + Irregular verb in the preterite + complement
In Spanish, the preterite is one of the past tenses. We use it to talk about completed actions — things that happened once or were finished in the past.
We often leave out the subject because the verb form already tells us who is doing the action. But it's okay to include it too.
Here's how the line from the dialogue uses the pattern.
Fui al estadio con mi papá para ver un partido de fútbol.
"I went to the stadium with my dad to watch a soccer match."
Let's break it down:
fui – This is the first-person singular form of ir in the preterite, meaning "I went," the subject "yo" is dropped because fui already tells us it's first person.
It shows a completed past action.
al estadio – meaning "to the stadium"
This tells us where the action happened.
con mi papá – meaning "with my dad"
This shows who accompanied the speaker.
para ver un partido de fútbol – meaning "to watch a soccer match"
This gives the reason or purpose for the action.
This sentence clearly uses the preterite to talk about one specific event that happened over the weekend.
You'll see more examples later, and soon you'll be ready to describe your own past experiences too.
Let's look at the preterite forms of the irregular verbs we're focusing on in this lesson:
ir (to go)
fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fueron
hacer (to do or to make)
hice, hiciste, hizo, hicimos, hicieron
ser (to be)
fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fueron
ver (to see or to watch)
vi, viste, vio, vimos, vieron
Notice that ir and ser share the exact same preterite forms — context tells you which one is meant.
These four verbs are very common in everyday speech, especially when talking about past events, so it's worth getting comfortable with their forms.
Now let's look at some speaking examples.
Mi hermana fue al cine con sus amigas.
"My sister went to the movies with her friends."
Can you see how the pattern applies here?
Let's break it down:
Mi hermana – This is the subject, my sister.
fue – This is the irregular preterite form of ir, meaning "went." It shows that the action is completed in the past.
al cine – means "to the movies."
con sus amigas – means "with her friends."
So this sentence fits the pattern:
Subject + Irregular verb in the preterite + Complement
to describe a completed past event.
Here's another example
Mis padres hicieron una cena deliciosa anoche.
"My parents made a delicious dinner last night."
Mis padres hicieron una cena deliciosa anoche.
"My parents made a delicious dinner last night."
Hicieron is the third-person plural form of hacer (to make/do) in the preterite.
Let's try one more,
¿Fuiste al museo con tu clase?
"Did you go to the museum with your class?"
¿Fuiste al museo con tu clase?
"Did you go to the museum with your class?"
Fuiste is the second person singular form (tú) of ir in the preterite.
Another one.
Vimos una película muy interesante el viernes.
"We watched a very interesting movie on Friday."
Vimos una película muy interesante el viernes.
"We watched a very interesting movie on Friday."
Vimos is the first-person plural form of ver in the preterite.
One last example.
La fiesta fue en casa de mi primo.
"The party was at my cousin's house."
La fiesta fue en casa de mi primo.
"The party was at my cousin's house."
Fue is the third-person singular form of ser in the preterite.
The form fue is used for both ser (to be) and ir (to go) in the preterite.
How do we know which one it is? Context tells us.
In "La fiesta fue en casa de mi primo," it's clearly ser because we're talking about the location of an event.
In contrast, in "Mi hermana fue al cine," it's ir — we're describing where someone went.

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