The simple past tense in Spanish is used to describe past actions that were performed at a specific time and have already been completed. Irregular verbs of the simple past are those that do not follow the regular rules of conjugation for this tense. These verbs can have a different conjugation for each grammatical person, which can make them difficult to learn and use correctly. In these activities, we will explore some of the most common irregular verbs of the simple past and how they are conjugated in this tense.
Verbs Ir and Ser
The verbs ser and ir share the same conjugation in all persons. We can differentiate one from the other by context.
¿Ser o ir?
Verbs that change the root
The best way to learn these types of verbs is to memorize the new root, since the endings are the same for all verbs (-ar, -er, -ir). Here is a list of verbs that change their root:
Conjugate the verb and then make a sentence.
Verbs ending in -ducir
In verbs that have the ending -ducir (such as conducir and producir) we replace the “c” at the end of the root with a “j” and use the same endings as the verbs that change the root (-e, -iste, -o, -imos, -eron).
Verbs that change vowels
Most verbs ending in -ir, which change vowels in the present tense, also have a vowel change (-e ➜ -i / -o ➜ -u) in the past tense but only in the third person (Él/Ella – Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes).
Verbs that change “i” to “y“
In verbs with -er or -ir endings and with a vowel ending in the root, we have to change the “i” for “y” in the third person singular and plural conjugation (Él/Ella – Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes).
