Spanish: An Essential Grammar

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Table 10.21Preterite tense (regular forms)

Person Hablar Beber Subir

Singular
1 (yo) hablé bebí subí
2 (tú/vos) hablaste bebiste subiste
3 (él etc.) habló bebió subió
Plural
1 (nosotros) hablamos bebimos subimos
2 (vosotros) hablasteis [SP] bebisteis [SP] subisteis [SP]
3 (ellos etc.) hablaron bebieron subieron

Irregular preterite forms

Radical changing verbs

Apart from venir‘come’, which is dealt with in 10.4.2.2, all -irradical
changing verbs exhibit a stem vowel change in the 3rd person forms of the
preterite. In almost every case the change in question is from eto i.
In the verbs morir ‘die’ and dormir‘sleep’ the change is from oto u. The
two patterns are illustrated in Table 10.22.

Table 10.22Radical changes in preterite

Person Pedir‘ask for’ Dormir‘sleep’

Singular
1 (yo) pedí dormí
2 (tú/vos) pediste dormiste
3 (él etc.) pidió durmió
Plural
1 (nosotros) pedimos dormimos
2 (vosotros) pedisteis [SP] dormisteis [SP]
3 (ellos etc.) pidieron durmieron

10.4.2.1

10.4.2

1111


2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9


1011


1


12111


3 4 5 6 7 8 9


20111


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9


30111


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9


40


41111


10


Verb forms


116

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