Preterite Very Irregular Verbs Spanish Verb Conjugation

The “Very Irregular Spine Verb” Spanish lesson is the last set of irregular Spine verbs left to cover. These irregular spine verbs are very different from any of the other irregulars. They have both irregular endings as well as stem changes. This is a great step in learning a foreign language!

First, let’s take a look at the stem changes, then we’ll look at the new endings. I recommend going over this section a few times until you feel comfortable with these verbs and they start to sound natural to you. The good thing is that each of the verbs keeps the same stem through all of the conjugations (yo, tu, el, ella ud. and so forth)Let’s take a look at each Spanish verb and its irregular stem. Are you ready?

Now let’s look at the endings that go along with these verbs:

Now watch and see how it works. If I wanted to say “I came.” I would say “vine”

The phrase “She came” would be “vino”

 “We came” would be “vinimos”.

This works the same for every verb, but I’ll show you a few examples to help you better retain the concept.

In Spanish, the phrase “They put” would be “pusieron”, and “Juana, you put” would be “pusiste”.

Now, we’ll look at four more Spanish verbs that have a slight variation. They are the verbs “traer”, “decir”, “conducir” and “traducir” which means “to translate”.

The stems of these words are: traduj-, traj-, dij-, and conduj-.  The variation I was talking about with these verbs is for “ellos, ellas, and uds.” instead of the “i-e-r-o-n” ending, it’s simply “e-r-o-n” or “eron”.

Let’s try a few. The phrase “I said” would be “dije”. The phrase “they said” would be “dijeron”.

To say “I translated” would be “traduje”  and “they, or all of you translated” would be “tradujeron”.

Now, let’s run through the irregular stems one more time and the endings. As we go over them, try to memorize them.

Now let’s take another look at the endings.

Now, before we go to the practice session, we need to learn two more verbs that don’t fit into any category. They are the preterite, or “spine” form of the verbs “ir” and “ser”. Remember that “ir” means “to go” and “ser” means “to be”. The great thing is that the spine, or preterite conjugation of these verbs is the same. The only way to tell them apart is by the context in which they’re used.

Let’s take a look:

As you just saw, the verb “fui” means either “I went” or “I was” depending on the context. Take one more look at these verbs and continue when you’re ready,

Moving on now, you can continue to the practice session. Otherwise, you can continue to review this section until you feel like you have a good grasp on it. Before we begin our practice session, there are a few new words that you need to learn.

The first one is

As you continue on to the practice session, see if you can remember these very irregular verbs and their endings.

Spansih Spine Practice Session

This practice session will review the irregular verbs you learned in the previous lesson. Since these verbs are so irregular, I highly recommend going over this lesson 3 to 4 times until the verbs start to sound natural to you. Are you ready?

How did you do with those lessons? If you didn’t do as well as you would’ve liked, I recommend reviewing this section until you start to develop an ear for it.