Practice Makes Perfect Spanish Verb Tenses, Second ... - Ktooba.com

6. At that moment, she preferred not to say anything.
7. Did they advise you of your rights?
8. Dorothy followed the yellow brick (el ladrillo) road.
9. They [m.] repeated the question twice.
10. He asked his boss for a raise.
Verbs that change i to y in the preterite
For those -er and -ir verbs with a vowel immediately preceding the infi nitive ending, the verb
ending for the preterite forms follows this pattern: Th e third-person singular verb ending changes
from -ío to -yó, and the third-person plural verb ending changes from -ieron to -yeron, and in all
other conjugated forms in the preterite (instead of only the fi rst-person singular form), the i becomes
í (with a written accent).
creer to believe
creí creímos
creíste creísteis
creyó creyeron
Below are several common verbs with the i y change in the preterite, together with their thirdperson
singular and plural forms showing the change.
VOCABULARIO
caer to fall cayó cayeron
caer(se) to fall down se cayó se cayeron
creer to believe creyó creyeron
leer to read leyó leyeron
oír to hear oyó oyeron
poseer to possess poseyó poseyeron
proveer to provide proveyó proveyeron
Th ere are a few exceptions to this pattern.
1 Th e verb traer and its compound verbs atraer and distraer follow a diff erent pattern for their
conjugations in the preterite. See page 122.
2 Verbs ending with -guir (for example, seguir) simply follow the pattern for stem-changing -ir
verbs, because the u is not pronounced.
The preterite tense 127