Ch 8 · Lesson 13Spanish · Chapter 8 · Lesson 13 · Grammar primer
Tuve, hice, dije: the irregular stems
About a dozen common verbs take a new stem and unaccented endings: gives , gives , gives and .
The short version
The irregular preterites take no accent
.
Why?Hide
Regular preterites carry mandatory written accents on the yo and third-singular forms, and dropping one turns into the subjunctive . The big irregular group does the opposite: , , , , , take no written accent at all. The missing accent is the marker that you are in that group.
The irregular stems: tuve, hice, dije
About a dozen common verbs take a new stem and one shared set of endings: -e, -iste, -o, -imos, -isteis, -ieron. None of them has a written accent:
| Verb | Stem | yo |
|---|---|---|
| tuv- | |
| estuv- | |
| anduv- | |
| pud- | |
| pus- | |
| sup- | |
| quis- | |
| vin- | |
| hic- | |
| dij- | |
| traj- | |
Two twists:
writes z before o:María .- María made dinner.- After j, the plural is -eron, not -ieron:
.- They told the truth.
belongs here too (, there was), and so does (, ).
Going further: The preterite at a glance and the rest of the guide, when you want them. This lesson does not need them.
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