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Time to celebrate!

Congratulations! Let’s assume you’ve already looked at The Preterite Tense: An introduction to Irregular Verbs and studied groups 1-5 of the irregular verbs in the Preterite Tense. If so, you’ve made it to the last set of irregulars and that deserves a cheer!

Here, we will look at what I call the final group (Group 6) and in all honesty there are not many of them. Plus, they are pretty easy to get to grips with after a bit of practice. One final bonus… when you say the verbs out loud you don’t really notice the irregularity. It’s just that when you write them there is a change to the normal Preterite formation rule.

Some people would say, “I’m not interested in learning the spelling irregularity if they sound the same anyway” and to be fair… that’s not a bad policy if you don’t expect to read or write Spanish. However, just in case you do want to be able to recognise it when it’s written or write it yourself, here’s how it works…

How and why does the verb change?

With this group, it’s all about having clear, separate syllables and at times if you put two vowels together (especially when there is an unaccented ‘i’ involved) they can sound like one syllable. By applying these changes it keeps the syllables nice and separate and clear.

Here is a list of the verb types that change:

Verbs which end in:	Examples
-aer	caer/decaer/recaer
-eer	leer/ preveer/sobreseer
-oír	oír/desoír/ entreoír
-oer	roer / corroer

There are a few changes to keep in mind for this group of irregular rebels:

1. For él/ella/usted, instead of ‘ió‘ we write ‘yó’.
2. For ellos/ellas/ustedes, instead of ‘ieron’ we write ‘yeron’.
3. The rest of the verb forms gain an accent on the ‘i‘ and become ‘í‘.

Let’s take a look at an example:

Creer (to believe)

creí

creíste

creyó

creímos

creísteis

creyeron

Other verbs that end in ‘-eer’ will work like ‘creer’. For example:

• poseer
• desposeer
• proveer
• desproveer
• leer
• sobreer

Here’s some more examples of verbs that will also do the same:

Caer (to fall)	Oír (to hear)	Roer (to gnaw/chew)
caí	oí	roí
caíste	oíste	roíste
cayó	oyó	royó
caímos	oímos	roímos
caísteis	oísteis	roísteis
cayeron	oyeron	royeron

Here are some verbs in action:

• Mi hermanastro no creyó lo que había visto- My stepbrother didn’t believe what he had seen.
• Oímos el ruido anoche- We heard the noise last night.
• ¡Los perros royeron el hueso y después mis zapatos!- The dags gnawed the bone and then my shoes!

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind:

There are a few exceptions for certain verbs ending in ‘aer’:

• *traer- to bring
• *atraer- to attract
• *distraer- to distract

These verbs don’t work like this… But don’t be fooled! These verbs are still irregular and you’ll find out more about them in Irregular Preterite Tense Group 3: High Frequency Verbs.

Also, verbs that end in -uir:

These change their spelling in the same way, however the extra accent only happens in the ‘yo’ form. Take a look:

Construir (to construct)

construí

construiste

construyó

construimos

construisteis

construyeron

Other verbs that end in ‘-uir’ will work like ‘construir’. For example:

• influir
• incluir
• destruir
• construir
• contribuir

However, take care with one syllable verbs like huir (to flee) and fluir (to flow) . These don’t have the usual accent on the ‘yo’ form at all because the general rule is that you don’t need an accent for a one syllable word.

Take a look:

Huir (to flee)

hui

huiste

huyó

huimos

huisteis

huyeron

How will I remember all these small changes?

In reality, these verbs just take some practice to get used to and if I’m honest, you’ll continue to forget where to put the accents for years to come. This is for two reasons… if you forget the spell changes or the extra accents it won’t really hold you back when speaking. Therefore, these verbs won’t be at the top of your priority list. Furthermore, you are likely to use them less than many other irregular verbs, especially in terms of writing, so you’ll forget the irregularities.

It’s totally normal, so don’t sweat it. Take some time to practise them and see how much you retain, then go back to them periodically and their irregularities will stick in. It really won’t stop you from speaking Spanish but it is worth learning them over time, so that you recognise and fully understand the verb forms when you see them with their spelling changes.

That’s all folks!

In terms of the Irregular Preterite Tense verbs, that’s your lot. If you’ve taken the time to look at all 6 groups you’ll have quite the list to work on!

If you need a reminder of the 6 different groups just see: The Preterite Tense: An introduction to Irregular Verbs .

My recommendation is to learn and practise them one group at a time and don’t put too much pressure on yourself to learn too many verbs in each group. Just take in a few from each, practise and allow the irregularities to sink in. That way, when you come across new verbs, you’ll begin to spot when one looks like it may be irregular and you can start adding more to your memory bank, bit by bit.

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