📖LearnModule 4 · Lesson 2 of 30Basic User · CEFR A2, completedUnit 1 · El pretérito, part II — the irregulars
Pude, puse, vine — more of the club
Module 4 of the free Spanish course (CEFR A2, completed), lesson 2 of 30: Poder gives pude (I could), poner gives puse (I put), venir gives vine (I came). 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 pude
I could
yoh POO-deh
yo no pude ir
I could not go
yoh noh POO-deh eer
poner
to put
poh-NEHR
yo puse la mesa
I set the table
yoh POO-seh lah MEH-sah
venir
to come
beh-NEER
ella vino a mi casa
she came to my house
EH-yah BEE-noh ah mee KAH-sah
temprano
early
tehm-PRAH-noh
tarde
late
TAR-deh
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
Poder gives pude (I could), poner gives puse (I put), venir gives vine (I came). Same endings, new stems: pude, pudiste, pudo; puse, pusiste, puso; vine, viniste, vino.
Y también · And also
No pude ir — I could not go. Puse la mesa — I set the table. Ella vino a mi casa temprano — she came to my house early. Vino, the past of venir, is also the word for wine; the sentence tells them apart.
Ojo · Watch out
temprano (early) and tarde (late) are the pair that times the past: llegué temprano, llegué tarde. tarde with la, from Module 2, is the afternoon.
poder, pretérito — the table
yo pude · tú pudiste · él/ella/usted pudo · nosotros pudimos · ustedes pudieron · ellos/ellas pudieron
poner, pretérito — the table
yo puse · tú pusiste · él/ella/usted puso · nosotros pusimos · ustedes pusieron · ellos/ellas pusieron
venir, pretérito — the table
yo vine · tú viniste · él/ella/usted vino · nosotros vinimos · ustedes vinieron · ellos/ellas vinieron
Do it now — on paper
Say all 8 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with yo pude.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write out poder, pretérito and poner, pretérito and venir, 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.