How do you conjugate stem changing verbs in the preterite?
Any examples?
2 Answers
Well, dude, the dude in the earlier answer was right--only -ir stem changing verbs change in the preterit, but this is only part of the story. Ya know how verbs like dormir change one letter (an"o") into two letters (a "ue")? And sometimes, like in advertir, you change the "e" to two letters, "ie"?
Well, in the preterit, when you change the letter in the stem, you change it from one letter to ONE letter. Either O to U or E to I. So...he slept would be durmió, for example, or he warned would be advirtió.
Finally, and critically, you remember how in spanish in the present tense, you don't stem change in the nosotros form? Yo pienso stem changes, but not nosotros pensamos. In the PRETERIT tense, you only change in the 3rd person singular and plural (the he/she form and the they forms). You do NOT stem change in the yo form, we form, you form, or any of them.
Thus--only -ir stem changing verbs in the preterit. AND only from one letter to one letter AND only in the he/she and they forms.
Toodles.
-ar and -er stem-changing verbs don't change in the preterite, but that doesn't get you off the hook because there are many, many irregular preterite verbs. As was pointed out, -ir stem changing verbs change in the preterite.
