📖LearnModule 3 · Lesson 1 of 30Basic User · CEFR A2, first halfUnit 1 · El pretérito — the past, part I
Hablé, comí — the pretérito
Module 3 of the free Spanish course (CEFR A2, first half), lesson 1 of 30: . On this page: 7 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line, the conjugation table and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's QR.
The words
Spanish
English
Say it
yo hablé
I spoke
yoh ah-BLEH
tú comiste
you ate
too koh-MEES-teh
ella habló
she spoke
EH-yah ah-BLOH
nosotros comimos
we ate
noh-SOH-trohs koh-MEE-mohs
ellos hablaron
they spoke
EH-yohs ah-BLAH-rohn
el pretérito
the preterite (the simple past)
ehl preh-TEH-ree-toh
el pasado
the past
ehl pah-SAH-doh
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
La regla · The rule
The past tense of everyday Spanish is ONE word with a new ending: hablar becomes hablé (I spoke), comer becomes comí (I ate). No helper verb, no participle — the ending carries the tense and the person at once.
Y también · And also
The -ar endings: hablé, hablaste, habló, hablamos, hablaron. The -er and -ir endings are shared: comí, comiste, comió, comimos, comieron. The accent on hablé and habló is the whole difference from the present hable and hablo.
Ojo · Watch out
The accent mark IS the tense: hablo is I speak, habló is he spoke. Write the accent on the yo and él forms of every regular pretérito, or you have written the present.
hablar, pretérito — the table
yo hablé · tú hablaste · él/ella/usted habló · nosotros hablamos · ustedes hablaron · ellos/ellas hablaron
comer, pretérito — the table
yo comí · tú comiste · él/ella/usted comió · nosotros comimos · ustedes comieron · ellos/ellas comieron
Do it now — on paper
Say all 7 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with yo hablé.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write out hablar, pretérito and comer, pretérito in full from memory, every person, and check each form against the table above.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The Spanish Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Keep these words
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.