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The preterite tense has a significant number of irregular verbs. The good news is that most of these irregulars follow recognisable patterns — they share a special set of endings and have predictable stem changes. Once you learn the pattern, you can conjugate dozens of verbs.
Irregular preterite verbs use a unique set of endings that differ from both regular -AR and regular -ER/-IR patterns:
| Person | Irregular ending |
|---|---|
| yo | -e |
| tú | -iste |
| él / ella / usted | -o |
| nosotros / nosotras | -imos |
| vosotros / vosotras | -isteis |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | -ieron |
Critical difference: Notice there are no accent marks on the yo (-e) and él/ella (-o) forms. This is the opposite of regular preterite verbs. Compare: regular hablé (accent) vs. irregular tuve (no accent).
Each irregular verb has a new stem that replaces the infinitive stem. Here are the most important ones:
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