The Preterite

The preterite, also known as preterite perfect simple, is a verb tense that focuses on events that occurred entirely in the Spanish past, it should be noted that its equivalent in English is the simple past.

In the formation of the preterite based on the regular verbs with termination in the particles -ar, this is eliminated and the terminations -é, -aste, -ó, -amos, -asteis, -aron are added in each concrete case. On the other hand, in the other verbs with endings in the particles -er or -ir, we proceed to substitute them with the endings -í, -iste, -io, -imos, -isteis, -ieron, where each one corresponds. Let's see.

It is important to remember that in the conjugations of "yo", "él/ella", the major differential factor of the verb is based on the accent or tilde corresponding to the syllable.

It is important to note that in the whole structure of the expressions belonging to the simple preterite perfect, all their meaning is completely lacking connection or nexus with the present. 



A curious fact to close this topic, we find it in recent studies that have shown the decrease of its use in Spanish-speaking countries like Spain, Mexico and Chile but in the rest of Latin American countries has increased proportionally its use, the structural reasons are unknown, however, is an important fact to take into account in the study of the language.