Spanish · Chapter 9 · Lesson 6 · Grammar primer
The preterite tense
Past for specified-time events: ayer, anoche, el lunes pasado. Regular and irregular conjugations.
The short version
The irregular preterites take no accent
Regular preterites carry mandatory written accents on the yo and third-singular forms, and dropping one turns hablé into the subjunctive hable. The big irregular group does the opposite: tuve, pude, hice, vine, puse, quise take no written accent at all. The missing accent is the marker that you are in that group.
Tuve que trabajar el sábado.
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