Irregular Preterite Verbs:
BIG 4 (IR, SER, DAR, VER) & HACER
Many of the verbs in the preterite are irregular and just have to be memorized, meaning that they something change in their stems and they use slightly different verb endings. IR (to go), SER (to be), DAR (to give) and VER (to see) are what we call the BIG 4. All of the verbs referred to as "Irregular" do not have accent marks.
To see more of the irregular verbs and other aspects of the Preterite Tense conjugations, click HERE.
*The only irregular aspect of this verb is it has NO ACCENTS, the endings are actually the normal ER/IR verb endings.
To see more of the irregular verbs and other aspects of the Preterite Tense conjugations, click HERE.
*The only irregular aspect of this verb is it has NO ACCENTS, the endings are actually the normal ER/IR verb endings.
Ellos vieron la película en la casa de Marta.
They watched the movie in Marta's house. Yo no te vi en el supermercado ayer. I did not see you in the supermarket yesterday. |
Notice DAR takes ER/IR endings, not AR endings. It looks just like the VER conjugations.
Mis padres dieron las llaves del coche a mi hermano mayor.
My parents gave the keys to the car to my older brother. Nosotros no les dimos los regalos esta mañana. We did not give the gifts to them this morning. |
Notice these forms are strange, but we are used to SER being different.
Antonio y Nacho fueron buenos estudiantes en la clase de biología.
Antonio and Nacho were good students in Biology class. ¿Fuiste tú médico en la guerra? Were you a doctor in the war? |
Notice that we group IR and SER together because they have the same verb conjugations. What does differentiate them is
Inés fue al colegio en el autobús.
Inés went to school in the bus. Santiago y Fátima fueron a las pirámides de Egipto la semana pasada. Santiago and Fatima went to the Egyptian pyramids last week. |
Pattern for the other Irregular Verbs (the other endings through the Verb HACER)
HACER is the first of the irregulars that you will be introduced to become more acquainted with the endings for these types of verbs. With the BIG 4, notice that IR and SER are just odd and follow no pattern and just need to be memorized as they are. DAR and VER use the ER/IR Verb endings of the preterite, but do NOT have accents.
HACER is going to use the endings for the Irregulars, which takes the endings from both the -AR verbs as well as the -ER/-IR verbs. Also, notice that in the 3rd person Singular form the "c" has to change to a "z" in order to conserve the natural [s]/[th] of the "c".
Click HERE for further information on the Irregular Verbs of the Preterite.
HACER is going to use the endings for the Irregulars, which takes the endings from both the -AR verbs as well as the -ER/-IR verbs. Also, notice that in the 3rd person Singular form the "c" has to change to a "z" in order to conserve the natural [s]/[th] of the "c".
Click HERE for further information on the Irregular Verbs of the Preterite.
Nosotros no hicimos el pastel para la fiesta. Fue Marco.
We did not make the cake for the party. It was Marco. Pancha hizo proyecto para la clase de historia. Pancha did the project for history class. |