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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