November 15, 2020 by Ashley Reid Spanish Grammar 0 comments

50 Irregular Preterite Spanish Verbs You Want to Use Often

Are you ready to conquer irregular preterite Spanish verbs?

When you’re in the throws of mastering Spanish verbs, it may feel like one long-drawn, never-ending repetition of conjugation drills—and sometimes it has to be that way. But you can avoid becoming overwhelmed by the endless volume of conjugations (especially those you’re about to see in this blog post!) through a few tricks we’ll discuss.

Are you ready?

First, I’ll share with you the 50 most common irregular Spanish preterite verbs, which fall into one of six different categories. Second, we’ll cover how you can recognize important patterns that reduce the amount you’ll have to memorize. And finally, we’ll explore a set of tried-and-true tricks to improve your grammar proficiency faster.

¡Vamos a aprender conjugaciones!

50 Most Common Irregular Preterite Spanish Verbs

As you look at the following verb charts, you’ll notice that most of the verbs change only slightly in almost imperceptible ways. In fact, many of these stem-changing irregular preterite Spanish verbs even trip up native speakers! So make sure you pat yourself on the back for the hard work you’re putting in to memorize these verbs and use them correctly.

While it may be tempting to tackle all of the verbs in this blog post at once, give yourself the chance to absorb them one group at a time. Or, focus on mastering only one or two verbs before moving on. As you listen to podcasts, songs, audiobooks or radio programs in Spanish, look out for the native usage of these irregular preterite Spanish verbs. What’s more, include them in your written and spoken Spanish as often as possible to keep up your practice.

When Patterns Emerge

As you begin to study these irregular preterite Spanish verbs, you may notice certain consistent patterns by which you can group some sets of verbs. These patterns will help you easily remember the irregular forms. Three major patterns you should look out for are:

Verbs that have complete base changes in all conjugations do not take the normal accent marks found in preterite tenses

Tener
Correct: yo tuve, él tuvo
*Incorrect: yo *tuvé, él *tuvó
Verbs with base changes in all conjugations often have an –e ending for the yo form, despite the vast majority being -ER and -IR verbs.

Hacer
Correct: yo hice
*Incorrect: yo *hicí
Verbs with base changes in all conjugations usually use -ER and -IR endings for most conjugations, even if the verb is an -AR verb.

Estar
Correct: tú estuviste, nosotros estuvimos, ellos estuvieron
*Incorrect: tú *estuvaste, nosotros *estuvamos, ellos *estuvaron

Irregular Preterite Spanish Verb Charts

Alright, let’s dive into the wonders of irregular preterite Spanish verbs!

1. Stem-changing Verbs

Just like there are stem-changing verbs in the simple present tense, the largest group of irregular preterite Spanish verbs includes small stem changes. In the following charts, look for the bolded letters that represent the change.

There are a few different types of preterite stem changes, but for each verb, they only occur in the third-person (plus usted) conjugations. In other words, the conjugations are normal except for the usted, él, ella, ustedes, and ellos forms.

Vowel Change: E to I

The first set of stem-changing verbs changes the –e- to –i- in the third-person preterite tense.

	Sentir	Servir	Pedir
Yo	sentí	serví	pedí
Tú	sentiste	serviste	pediste
Usted	sintió	sirvió	pidió
Él, ella	sintió	sirvió	pidió
Nosotros	sentimos	servimos	pedimos
Ustedes	sintieron	sirvieron	pidieron
Ellos	sintieron	sirvieron	pidieron

	Conseguir	Vestirse	Sugerir
Yo	conseguí	Me vestí	sugerí
Tú	conseguiste	Te vestiste	sugeriste
Usted	consiguió	Se vistió	sugirió
Él, ella	consiguió	Se vistió	sugirió
Nosotros	conseguimos	Nos vestimos	sugerimos
Ustedes	consiguieron	Se vistieron	sugirieron
Ellos	consiguieron	Se vistieron	sugirieron

	Repetir	Despedirse	Divertirse
Yo	repetí	Me despedí	Me divertí
Tú	repetiste	Te despediste	Te divertiste
Usted	repitió	Se despidió	Se divirtió
Él, ella	repitió	Se despidió	Se divirtió
Nosotros	repetimos	Nos despedimos	Nos divertimos
Ustedes	repitieron	Se despidieron	Se divirtieron
Ellos	repitieron	Se despidieron	Se divirtieron

Vowel Change: O to U

Our second group is much smaller, and this one changes the –o- to –u-.

	Dormir	Morir
Yo	dormí	morí
Tú	dormiste	moriste
Usted	durmió	murió
Él, ella	durmió	murió
Nosotros	dormimos	morimos
Ustedes	durmieron	murieron
Ellos	durmieron	murieron

irregular preterite verbs in spanish — “*Sigue aprendiendo, lo estás haciendo muy bien”*

Vowel Change: Add -y-

This group of stem-changing verbs applies to verbs that end in -aer, -eer, oír, or -oer. The verb conjugations for usted, ustedes, él/ella, and ellos/ellas convert the -i- to -y- while the verbs with tú and nosotros use an irregular accent: -í-.

Pro Tip: Note that all singular verbs (caí, caíste, cayó) are two to three syllable verbs with two vowels side by side.

	Caer	Leer	Oír
Yo	caí	leí	oí
Tú	caíste	leíste	oíste
Usted	cayó	leyó	oyó
Él, ella	cayó	leyó	oyó
Nosotros	caímos	leímos	oímos
Ustedes	cayeron	leyeron	oyeron
Ellos	cayeron	leyeron	oyeron

Similar to the previous group that ends in -aer, -eer, oír, or -oer, concluir replaces -i- with -y- for él, ella, usted, and ustedes. However, it doesn’t make use of an extra accent mark like we saw with caíste and oímos, for example

	Concluir
Yo	concluí
Tú	concluiste
Usted	concluyó
Él, ella	concluyó
Nosotros	concluimos
Ustedes	concluyeron
Ellos	concluyeron

Vowel Change: Omission of Accents

Remember that it’s not only the addition of tildes that makes a verb irregular, but also the omission of them. This group of stem-changing irregular preterite Spanish verbs does just that—it omits accented letters that are found in the infinitive.

For example, reír and sonreír both change in the same way due to their identical base, reír. While using these verbs with usted, él, ella, ustedes, and ellos, simply remove the e and use the regular endings (-ió, -eron).

	Reír	Sonreír
Yo	reí	sonreí
Tú	reíste	sonreíste
Usted	rió	sonrió
Él, ella	rió	sonrió
Nosotros	reímos	sonreímos
Ustedes	rieron	sonrieron
Ellos	rieron	sonrieron

2. Base with -uv-

In our second group of irregular preterite Spanish verbs, there is a complete change in the stem—and not only in a few conjugations, but in all of them. The base completely changes before adding preterite endings.

Because of the base change, the verbs (even with regular preterite endings) don’t use any accent marks.

	Andar	Estar	Tener
Yo	anduve	estuve	tuve
Tú	anduviste	estuviste	tuviste
Usted	anduvo	estuvo	tuvo
Él, ella	anduvo	estuvo	tuvo
Nosotros	anduvimos	estuvimos	tuvimos
Ustedes	anduvieron	estuvieron	tuvieron
Ellos	anduvieron	estuvieron	tuvieron

	Contener	Detener	Retener
Yo	contuve	detuve	retuve
Tú	contuviste	detuviste	retuviste
Usted	contuvo	detuvo	retuvo
Él, ella	contuvo	detuvo	retuvo
Nosotros	contuvimos	detuvimos	retuvimos
Ustedes	contuvieron	detuvieron	retuvieron
Ellos	contuvieron	detuvieron	retuvieron

Do you notice anything special about the conjugations for contener, detener, and retener?

Yes, they look like the tener conjugations!

Because these verbs contain the base tener, they are conjugated in the exact same way as tener. This actually makes your job of memorization much easier, because you only need to remember tener. Once you understand the tener form, you can quickly conjugate any verb that contains tener!

3. Base with -i-

Our next group is similar to the stem-changing verbs that we saw in the first section, except that these vowel changes occur in every single conjugation. Just like with the -uv- verbs in #2, the following verbs with an -i- in the base do not use the regular preterite accent marks.

These first few verbs follow a pattern like what we saw with tener. Focus on memorizing venir and then apply those endings to verbs that contain venir, like convenir and prevenir.

	Venir	Convenir	Prevenir
Yo	vine	convine	previne
Tú	viniste	conviniste	previniste
Usted	vino	convino	previno
Él, ella	vino	convino	previno
Nosotros	vinimos	convinimos	previnimos
Ustedes	vinieron	convinieron	previnieron
Ellos	vinieron	convinieron	previnieron

Hacer is a unique irregular verb. While it does have an -i- in the base, there is an additional change in the usted, él, and ella forms: the -c- changes to -z-! While this change may seem unnecessary, it’s actually done to maintain the soft “s” sound of the pronunciation.

Like tener and venir, hacer forms the base of other verbs. Once you know the preterite conjugations of hacer, you can easily master verbs like deshacer and rehacer.

	Hacer	Deshacer	Rehacer
Yo	hice	deshice	rehice
Tú	hiciste	deshiciste	rehiciste
Usted	hizo	deshizo	rehizo
Él, ella	hizo	deshizo	rehizo
Nosotros	hicimos	deshicimos	rehicimos
Ustedes	hicieron	deshicieron	rehicieron
Ellos	hicieron	deshicieron	rehicieron

Our final verb whose base changes to -i- is unique in that two letters change, not one. The base of querer changes from quer- to quis-. This base is in all of the conjugations.

	Querer
Yo	quise
Tú	quisiste
Usted	quiso
Él, ella	quiso
Nosotros	quisimos
Ustedes	quisieron
Ellos	quisieron

4. Base with -u-

The following verbs each have a vowel that changes to -u-. Similar to querer, another letter changes as well. As you’ll see, the -u- is followed by -d-, -s-, or -p-.

Take note that poder is the only verb in this group that uses -ud- and maintains the -d- from its original form.

Additionally, poner uses -us-, and is essential to memorize because it’s the base for numerous other verbs like componer and proponer.

	Poder	Poner	Componer
Yo	pude	puse	compuse
Tú	pudiste	pusiste	compusiste
Usted	pudo	puso	compuso
Él, ella	pudo	puso	compuso
Nosotros	pudimos	pusimos	compusimos
Ustedes	pudieron	pusieron	compusieron
Ellos	pudieron	pusieron	compusieron

	Descomponer	Disponer	Proponer
Yo	descompuse	dispuse	propuse
Tú	descompusiste	dispusiste	propusiste
Usted	descompuso	dispuso	propuso
Él, ella	descompuso	dispuso	propuso
Nosotros	descompusimos	dispusimos	propusimos
Ustedes	descompusieron	dispusieron	propusieron
Ellos	descompusieron	dispusieron	propusieron

The only three verbs that have the -up- form are caber, haber, and saber. One way to remember them is to recognize that they’re the only verbs in this group that change -a- to -u-, whereas the other verbs change from -o- to -u-.

	Caber	Haber	Saber
Yo	cupe	hube	supe
Tú	cupiste	hubiste	supiste
Usted	cupo	hubo	supo
Él, ella	cupo	hubo	supo
Nosotros	cupimos	hubimos	supimos
Ustedes	cupieron	hubieron	supieron
Ellos	cupieron	hubieron	supieron

As you learn the irregular form of haber, remember that this verb is incredibly special. It has two meanings: the auxiliary verb “to have” and “there is/there are.” If you want to say “there was” in singular or “there was” in plural, ONLY use hubo.

The other forms of haber are used exclusively in compound verb structures, but aren’t common.

5. Base with -j-

This group is important to memorize because it contains one of the most common verbs: decir. While the forms may seem strange, it’s crucial to practice them frequently because you’ll use decir in most of your Spanish conversations.

The first three verbs with -j- in the stem look similar:they all end in -ducir. And like all other verbs that have complete base changes, there are no accent marks.

	Conducir	Producir	Traducir
Yo	conduje	produje	traduje
Tú	condujiste	produjiste	tradujiste
Usted	condujo	produjo	tradujo
Él, ella	condujo	produjo	tradujo
Nosotros	condujimos	produjimos	tradujimos
Ustedes	condujeron	produjeron	tradujeron
Ellos	condejeron	produjeron	tradujeron

Decir, apart from being a crucial part of written and spoken Spanish, also makes up the structure of other more complex verbs. Note that the -e- in decir also changes to -i-, making this a completely unique verb.

	Decir	Contradecir	Predecir
Yo	dije	contradije	predije
Tú	dijiste	contradijiste	predijiste
Usted	dijo	contradijo	predijo
Él, ella	dijo	contradijo	predijo
Nosotros	dijimos	contradijimos	predijimos
Ustedes	dijeron	contradijeron	predijeron
Ellos	dijeron	contradijeron	predijeron

The last verb in our list that uses -j- is traer. This verb is similar to the other verbs in #5, except that it doesn’t end in -ir.

	Traer
Yo	traje
Tú	trajiste
Usted	trajo
Él, ella	trajo
Nosotros	trajimos
Ustedes	trajeron
Ellos	trajeron

6. Special Irregular Verbs

Of course, there are completely irregular verbs that don’t follow any particular pattern. Luckily, there are only four, and they are quite similar to one another.

For example, the preterite form of ir and ser are conjugated identically. Without an obvious difference, how do you know which verb is being used? The answer is context clues! Normally, the verb ir precedes a place, while ser precedes an adjective.

	Ir	Ser
Yo	fui	fui
Tú	fuiste	fuiste
Usted	fue	fue
Él, ella	fue	fue
Nosotros	fuimos	fuimos
Ustedes	fueron	fueron
Ellos	fueron	fueron

The last two irregular preterite Spanish verbs, dar and ver, have different endings for the infinitive form, but their preterite changes are exactly the same.

	Dar	Ver
Yo	di	vi
Tú	diste	viste
Usted	dio	vio
Él, ella	dio	vio
Nosotros	dimos	vimos
Ustedes	dieron	vieron
Ellos	dieron	vieron

Practice Makes Perfect!

50 irregular preterite Spanish verbs are a lot to memorize, so be sure to bookmark this blog post and come back for quick reference! By using the patterns and groups we’ve shared with you above, you can easily tackle the irregular preterite Spanish verbs in no time. Use these verbs as often as possible in both spoken and written Spanish, and don’t be afraid to make mistakes!

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Ashley Reid

Freelance Writer at Homeschool Spanish Academy

I have lived in Latin America for 6 years now, and I have worked as an ESL teacher, translator, and missionary during that time. I absolutely love languages and am always learning a new one. However, Spanish is my preferred language! I am a happy wife and mom to an adorable baby boy. In my free time, I love drawing and painting portraits and reading fantasy novels.