There are multiple types of past tense in Spanish, at GCSE, the one we will need to have the best grasp of is the Preterite Tense (el pretérito). Much like in the present tense, to conjucate a verb we have to take off the -ar, -er or -ir to create the infinitive of the verb, and then add back on the Preterite tense which matches the subject doing the verb. In the Regular (i.e with a regular verb) Preterite Tense, there are only two sets of endings you need to learn, for -ar and -er -ir (which are the same in this tense) For -ar verbs, we add the following: Yo - ....-é Tú - ....-aste él, ella, usted - ...-ó nostoros - ...-amos vosotros - ...-asteis ellos, ellas, ustedes - ...-aron For example: (Conjucating Hablar) We take the ending off to get the infinitive of the verb: Hablar Then we add the correct ending: Yo - Hablé Tú - Hablaste él, ella, usted - Habló Nosotros - Hablamos Vosotros - Hablasteis ellos, ellas, ustedes - Hablaron We can also do this for -er and -ir verbs with the following endings: Yo - ....-í Tú - ...-iste él, ella, usted - ...-ió Nosotros - ...-imos Vosotros - ...-isteis ellos, ellas, ustedes - ...-ieron For example: Conjugating Comer We take the ending off to get the infinitive of the verb: Comer Then we add the correct ending: Yo - Comí Tú - Comiste él, ella, usted - Comió Nosotros - Comimos Vosotros - Comisteis ellos, ellas, ustedes - Comieron Now try to conjugate the following yourself: (answers below!) 1. You called - (Llamar, tú) 2. I lived - (Vivir, yo) 3. They (pl) bought - (Comprar, ellos) 4. She wrote - (Escribir, ella) 5. You (pl) drank - (Aprender, vosotros) 6. We took - (Tomar, nosotros) -------------------------------------------------------- ANSWERS 1. Llamaste 2. Viví 3. Compraron 4. Escribió 5. Bebisteis 6. Tomamos