What is a trick to remembering the stem changes of preterite verbs?
Is there any trick to remembering the normal changes and then the irregular verbs also? I failed a Spanish 3 test on this subject! Help Please!
1 Answer
I'm not sure there is a trick other than remembering the orthographic changes in the regular verbs.
Verbs that end in -gar, -car and -zar all change somewhat before the final -e in the first person preterite. This is only to preserve the pronunciation of the g, c, and z from the infinitive form, which all change when followed by an e. Thus, the u is added in
llegué, jugué, pagué, etc
and qu is added in
busqué, clarifiqué, practiqué, etc
and z is changed to c in
comencé, organicé, tropecé
Those aren't irregularities, but are necessary spelling changes in regular verbs.
The irregular verbs just have to be memorized.
I recommend Practice Makes Perfect- Spanish Verb Tenses by Dorothy Richmond.
Que tenga buena suerte.
