If you're learning Spanish and want to talk about what you did yesterday, where you went last weekend, or what happened last year — you need the pretérito indefinido 👍, one of the most common ⌛ past tenses in Spanish.
The pretérito indefinido is the Spanish equivalent of the past simple in English. It is used to talk about completed actions in the past — things that happened at a specific time and are now finished.
We use it when:
✔️ An action happened once
✔️ It has a clear beginning and end
✔️ It occurred at a specific moment
✔️ We’re telling a sequence of events
💬 Think of it as saying:
👉 I went, I saw, I ate, I worked…
🧾 Examples:
Ayer comí pizza. (Yesterday I ate pizza.) 🍕
El año pasado viví en Madrid. (Last year I lived in Madrid.) 🏙️
Se levantó, se duchó y salió. (He got up, showered and left.) 🚿
⚠️ If you want to describe habits or what things were like in the past, you'll need the imperfect tense instead.
Check on our blog 🔗👉: The Imperfect Tense in Spanish
The tense is formed by removing the infinitive ending (-ar, -er, -ir) and adding the preterite endings.
| Subject | -AR verbs (like hablar): | -ER / -IR verbs (like comer and vivir) |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | habl-é | com-í / viv-í |
| Tú | habl-aste | com-iste / viv-iste |
| Él/ella/usted | habl-ó | com-ió / viv-ió |
| Nosotros/as | habl-amos | com-imos / viv-imos |
| Vosotros/as | habl-asteis | com-isteis / viv- isteis |
| Ellos/ellas/ustedes | habl-aron | com-ieron / viv- ieron |
Some verbs change their stem and do not use accents. These are important to practice and memorize.
| Infinitive | Stem | Example |
|---|---|---|
| tener | tuv- | Tuve un problema ayer. |
| estar | estuv- | Estuve en casa todo el día. |
| hacer | hic- (hiz- for él/ella) | Hizo los deberes por la tarde. |
| decir | dij- | Dije la verdad. |
| poder | pud- | No pude ir a la fiesta. |
| saber | sup- | Supe la noticia ayer. |
| venir | vin- | Vine muy temprano. |
| poner | pus- | Puse la mesa. |
| querer | quis- | Quise ayudarte. |
💡 These verbs are very frequent in real conversations!
| Subject | Ending |
|---|---|
| yo | -e |
| tú | -iste |
| él/ella/usted | -o |
| nosotros/as | -imos |
| vosotros/as | -isteis |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | -ieron* |
⚠️Verbs with stems ending in -j (like decir → dij-) drop the “i” in the third person plural: dijeron (not dijieron).
These expressions help us identify when to use the pretérito indefinido:
ayer (yesterday)
anoche (last night)
la semana pasada (last week)
el mes pasado (last month)
el otro día (the other day)
hace + cantidad de tiempo - 'hace dos días' (two days ago)
en 2015 (in 2015)
una vez (once)
de repente (suddenly)
Example:
Hace tres años viajé a México. (Three years ago I travelled to Mexico.) ✈️
This tense is used for narrating specific and finished events in the past. Here are the most typical situations:
🧾 Estudié medicina en la universidad. (I studied medicine at university.) 🎓
🧾 Comimos en ese restaurante hace dos días. (We ate at that restaurant two days ago.) 🍽️
🧾 Una vez viajé sola a Argentina. (Once I travelled alone to Argentina.) ✈️
🧾 Conocí a mi mejor amigo en una fiesta. (I met my best friend at a party.) 🥳
🧾 Me levanté, me duché y salí de casa. (I got up, showered and left the house.) 🚿🚪
🧾 Primero llamé a Marta, luego fui al supermercado. (First I called Marta, then I went to the supermarket.) 📞🛒
🧾 Viví en Chile durante seis meses. (I lived in Chile for six months.) 🇨🇱
🧾 Trabajé en esa empresa entre 2018 y 2020. (I worked at that company from 2018 to 2020.) 🏢
🧾 Cuando me lo dijo, me enfadé mucho. (When he told me, I got really angry.) 😡
🧾 En cuanto escuchó la noticia, empezó a llorar. (As soon as she heard the news, she started crying.) 😢
The verb ser (to be) is irregular and shares the same form as ir (to go) in the past. Don’t worry — the context will tell you which one it is. 😄
✅ Conjugation:
Yo fui
Tú fuiste
Él/ella/usted fue
Nosotros/as fuimos
Vosotros/as fuisteis
Ellos/ellas/ustedes fueron
La película fue muy emocionante. 📽️
Mi primer día de clase fue un desastre. 😫
¿Cómo fue tu fin de semana? 🤗
✔️ The pretérito indefinido is the go-to tense for finished actions in the past.
✔️ Use it with time expressions like ayer, el otro día, la semana pasada.
✔️ Regular verbs follow clear patterns, but many irregular verbs must be memorised.
✔️ Use it for completed actions, one-time events, sequences and emotional reactions.
✔️ The verb ser is irregular — but essential for telling past stories!
👇✍️ Now do these exercises to practice ✍️👇
🔚 Now that you’ve completed the activity, you’ve practised both regular and irregular verbs in the pretérito indefinido. Keep paying attention to common patterns and irregular stems — they’re essential for telling stories and sharing past experiences in Spanish! 💬🇪🇸
Write a short sentence using the pretérito indefinido and one of the time markers above.👇 Leave your sentence in the comments and keep practising!
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