Spanish II: Truly Irregular Verbs in the Preterit

Truly Irregular Verbs in the Preterit

A few verbs in the preterit follow no patterns and must be memorized. The verbs ir (to go) and ser (to be) are conjugated exactly the same in the preterit. The context of a sentence determines which verb is being used. Also, any form of ir is always followed by the preposition a. Table 1 presents the preterit forms of two of the most common verbs in the Spanish language.

TABLE 1

Preterit Forms of the Verbs Ir (to Go) and Ser (to Be)

Subject	Verb	Subject	Verb
yo	fui	nosotros/nosotras	fuimos
tú	fuiste	vosotros/vosotras	fuisteis
él	fue	ellos	fueron
ella	fue	ellas	fueron
usted	fue	ustedes	fueron

Dar (to give) and ver (to see) are usually learned together in the preterit because their forms are similar. Ver uses the regular endings for a normal - er verb in the preterit and is only irregular because it does not have accent marks. The verb dar is strange because it is conjugated like ver even though it is an - ar verb. Notice that there are no accents on any of the forms in Table 2 and that the forms of dar are not the normal forms for an - ar verb.

TABLE 2

Preterit Forms of Dar (to Give)

Subject	Verb	Subject	Verb
yo	di	nosotros/nosotras	dimos
tú	diste	vosotros/vosotras	disteis
él	dio	ellos	dieron
ella	dio	ellas	dieron
usted	dio	ustedes	dieron