really struggling

Question

I am really struggling with the preterit spelling changes with creer, leer, and oír especially, but others as well. The Spanish grammar articles on it don't seem to help. I have a test today, and that is going to be on it. Can anyone help me?

Answer 1

The way I think of it there are three changes.

1) Orthographic Changes

2) IR Stem Changes

3) Oir/Leer/Creer Changes

1) Orthographic: Look up the changes for:

-car -zar -gar -ger -gir

i.e. buscar -> busqué

2) IR Verbs only stem change in the 3rd person sing. and plural. Also, they use the first letter of their present stem change.

i.e. dormir (pres. o -> ue; pret. o -> u) i.e. pedir (pres. e -> i; pret. e -> i)

So:

Él sirvió... Ellas durmieron... Usted pidió...

Note how it is just the first letter of the present stem change.

3) Oir, Leer, Creer

Él/ella/usted and Ellos/Ustedes -> add y in 3rd person sing. and plural.

Tú, Nosotros and Vosotros. -> add accents to the i

So:

yo -> oí, leí

tú (add accent) -> oíste, leíste (etc.)

él/ella/Ud. (add y) -> oyó, leyó

nosotros (add accent) -> oímos

vosotros (add accent) -> oísteis

ellos/Uds. (add y) -> oyeron

Answer 2

For creer etc, conjugate as normal, change 'i' in 3rd person (he/she/it) to a 'y' and make sure that accents are on the other 'i's. I'm guessing that the other irregular ones aren't easy to grasp too, but if you practice one of each kind of change (for example, creer, jugar, dormir etc.) hopefully it should make a bit more sense. Good luck for the test

Answer 3

If you are not surrounded by these spellings everyday, then for a test the best I can offer is to spend a little time looking at a list of the conjugations. You may not remember all spellings, but at least you will become familiar, ie:

FORMAS NO PERSONALES

Infinitivo

creer

Participio

creído

Gerundio

creyendo INDICATIVO

SUBJUNTIVO

Presente

creo crees / creés cree creemos creéis / creen creen

Futuro simple o Futuro

creeré creerás creerá creeremos creeréis / creerán creerán

Presente

crea creas crea creamos creáis / crean crean

Pretérito imperfecto o Copretérito

creía creías creía creíamos creíais / creían creían

Condicional simple o Pospretérito

creería creerías creería creeríamos creeríais / creerían creerían

Pretérito imperfecto o Pretérito

creyera o creyese creyeras o creyeses creyera o creyese creyéramos o creyésemos creyerais o creyeseis / creyeran o creyesen creyeran o creyesen

Pretérito perfecto simple o Pretérito

creí creíste creyó creímos creísteis / creyeron creyeron

Futuro simple o Futuro

creyere creyeres creyere creyéremos creyereis / creyeren creyeren IMPERATIVO cree (tú) / creé (vos) creed (vosotros) / crean (ustedes)

Real Academia Española © Todos los derechos reservados

The actual list on the RAE site is much easier to read than this cut-and paste and the order makes sense.

Answer 4

Sorry. That's not my area of knowledge. Have you tried Google? That might help.

kind of. I have been searching for help on different things all day - actorgirl, Dec 11, 2013