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Lesson 17: The Rest of the Preterite: Spelling, Stems, and Yo Forms

lesson on Spanish the rest of the preterite tense

17.1

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+Y in 3rd Person

So we have one more “group” to take a look at in the preterite. It’s a bit of a hodge-podge of some things we’ve seen before; there are some stems that change, sometimes and there are some spelling changes. We’ll group them as best we can to help you sort it out. Here goes…

There are some verbs that need to add a Y in the 3rd person forms of the preterite. This makes the pronunciation and spelling work together. Notice that -ER verbs have accents on the I for all other forms. Here are three examples:

Conjugations for incluir in the Spanish preterite tensecreer preterite tense Spanish conjugation tablecaer preterite tense Spanish conjugation table

17.2

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Stem-Change in 3rd Person

Some other verbs are only going to have stem changes in the 3rd person forms: the O becomes a U in one group, and the E becomes an I in the other. See these examples.

morir preterite tense Spanish conjugation tableseguir preterite tense Spanish conjugation table

Dormir (to sleep) is another common example that works like morir, and pedir (to ask for) and sentir (to feel) are two more that work like seguir.

Practice Time!

The only way to master these verbs is through targeted practice. Fortunately for you, VerbMaster’s intelligent tutoring system makes conjugation practice a breeze!

In this session, you’ll practice conjugating creer, incluir, caer, morir, and seguir in the preterite tense.
So what are you waiting for? Get to studying, you’re on your way to becoming a VerbMaster!

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