Preterite Two Verbs Spanish Verb Conjugation

Welcome to the last lesson in the Spine (or preterite) verbs. Here, we’ll take a look at how to use the spine tense with two verbs. It’s very simple and similar to what you’ve done before. Take a look here and see how it’s done in Spanish.

The first Spanish verb is conjugated in the spine tense, and the second verb is left in its infinitive form. (In other words, it isn’t conjugated.) For example, if you wanted to say “I went to eat”, you would say “(Yo) fui a comer”. Remember the “yo” is optional.

The phrase “I had to go” would be “Tuve que ir”.

And finally, the phrase “I couldn’t hear” would be “No pude oír”.

Notice that in each of these examples, the first verb is conjugated in the spine tense and the second verb is not conjugated.

Now, we’ll take a look at a unique irregular verb before we practice. It’s the verb “gustar”. To say, “I liked the book” we would say “Me gustó el libro”. As I’ve mentioned before, “gustar” is an irregular verb. Because it’s conjugated backwards, you are literally saying “the book pleased me”. Even if you said, “I, you, he, she we, or they liked the book”, you would always use “gustó”.

Me, Te, Le, Nos, Les - gustó el libro

Just like you learned in the present tense section, if we’re talking about liking more than one thing, we have to change gustar. For the past or spine tense, we change it to: “gustaron”. For example if I said, “I, you, he, she we, or they liked the books (plural)”, you would use “gustaron”.

Me, Te, Le, Nos, Les - gustaron los libros

With all of those concepts in mind, you should now be ready to practice.

Spine Spanish Practice Session

This practice session practices a few two-verb spine verbs.

Like usual, if you feel comfortable with these, please move on.