The completed past

What you will practice

• Form the regular completed past of hablar, comer, and vivir.
• Use fui, tuve, and hice for finished events.
• Keep the written accent that separates this past from the present.

Explanation

A finished event

The completed past, called pretérito indefinido, reports an event the sentence presents as finished. Time words such as ayer, anoche, and el año pasado often mark that moment. Ayer hablé con Ana means the conversation happened and is over. This is not the tense for a habit or for background description. Those uses need a different past, and they are not part of this lesson. Here every example is one completed event.

Regular endings

A regular -ar verb takes hablé, hablaste, habló, hablamos, hablaron. A regular -er or -ir verb takes comí, comiste, comió, comimos, comieron, and in the same pattern viví, viviste, vivió, vivimos, vivieron. The accent on the yo form and on the él form is required. hablo is present. hablé is this past. usted shares the él form, and plural you, ustedes, shares the “they” form. For “we,” hablamos and vivimos look like the present, so ayer shows the past.

fui, tuve, and hice

ser and ir share one completed past: fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fueron. Context shows which verb you mean. Ayer fui al mercado is ir. La fiesta fue el sábado is ser. The yo form of tener is tuve: Ayer tuve un examen. The yo form of hacer is hice, and the él form changes spelling to hizo: Ayer hice la tarea, Ella hizo la tarea. Do not write hació.

Examples

1. Ayer hablé con Ana.I spoke with Ana yesterday.
2. Ayer comí tacos.I ate tacos yesterday.
3. El año pasado viví en Lima.I lived in Lima last year.
4. Ayer fui al mercado.I went to the market yesterday.
5. Ayer hice la tarea.I did the homework yesterday.

Common mistakes

• hablamos can be present or this past. A word such as ayer shows that the event is finished. Present “we eat” is comemos, not comimos.
• hizo is spelled with z. hice does not become hació in the él form.