📖LearnModule 4 · Lesson 1 of 30Basic User · CEFR A2, completedUnit 1 · El pretérito, part II — the irregulars
Tuve, estuve — the irregular past I
Module 4 of the free Spanish course (CEFR A2, completed), lesson 1 of 30: . On this page: 8 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 tuve
I had
yoh TOO-beh
ella tuvo
she had
EH-yah TOO-boh
yo estuve
I was (somewhere)
yoh ehs-TOO-beh
estuvimos en la playa
we were at the beach
ehs-too-BEE-mohs ehn lah PLAH-yah
yo tuve un problema
I had a problem
yoh TOO-beh oon proh-BLEH-mah
el problema
the problem
ehl proh-BLEH-mah
ustedes estuvieron aquí
you were here (plural)
oos-TEH-dehs ehs-too-BYEH-rohn ah-KEE
la lista
the list
lah LEES-tah
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
A club of common verbs builds its pretérito on a new stem with its own endings: tener gives tuve, tuviste, tuvo, tuvimos, tuvieron; estar gives estuve, estuviste, estuvo, estuvimos, estuvieron. No accent marks anywhere — the stem carries the stress.
Y también · And also
Tuve un problema (I had a problem — el problema is masculine, like el día). Estuvimos en la playa. The endings -e, -iste, -o, -imos, -ieron are shared by the whole club, so learn them once here.
Ojo · Watch out
The irregular club has NO accents: tuvo, estuvo — not tuvó. And el problema takes el though it ends in -a, exactly like el día.
tener, pretérito — the table
yo tuve · tú tuviste · él/ella/usted tuvo · nosotros tuvimos · ustedes tuvieron · ellos/ellas tuvieron
estar, pretérito — the table
yo estuve · tú estuviste · él/ella/usted estuvo · nosotros estuvimos · ustedes estuvieron · ellos/ellas estuvieron
Do it now — on paper
Say all 8 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with yo tuve.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write out tener, pretérito and estar, 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.