Possible mistake in reference for preterite
Ola! I think there may be a few typos in the Reference section for the preterit. Should not the statement: "The 1st and 2nd person singular have tildes (written accents) to differentiate them from present tense conjugations." say 1st and 3rd person singular? Also should not the statement "The 3rd person plural endings for -ar and -ir verbs are the same for preterit and present tenses." say 1st person plural? Is there any way to feed this back the organisers of this excellent reference resource? Kev HopHello! 
I think there may be a few typos in the Reference section for the preterit. Should not the statement: "The 1st and 2nd person singular have tildes (written accents) to differentiate them from present tense conjugations." say 1st and 3rd person singular? Also should not the statement "The 3rd person plural endings for -ar and -ir verbs are the same for preterit and present tenses." say 1st person plural? Is there any way to feed this back the organisers of this excellent reference resource? Kev Hop
6 Answers
You are probably right, James. However, your examples make it much, much clearer. In fact, it was not clear to me what was meant before at all. Examples are wonderful, as is, too, the example list of the verbs that do not follow such a rule.
Well...I agree with Lazarus that this is not a matter of a "rule" in any case. It is just someone in the reference section trying to make it easier for the learner to remember something. It will not help everyone. But if it is to help, then we learners must thank Kev for getting it corrected. Certainly it cannot help if it is totally wrong.
James Santiago said:
I think you are misunderstanding what he means. He said:"Should not the statement: 'The 1st and 2nd person singular have tildes (written accents) to differentiate them from present tense conjugations.' say 1st and 3rd person singular'"That is, he is suggesting that the rule should read "The 1st and 3rd person singular [forms of regular -ar verbs] have tildes (written accents) to differentiate them from present tense conjugations."Hablé and habló are 1st and 3rd person singular preterit forms, and they have accents. Hable and hablo are present tense (subjunctive and indicative) forms that do not take an accent. The accents tell the reader the proper tense (and thus pronunciation). I'm sure that this is what Kev Hop was talking about.
>
I think you are misunderstanding what he means. He said:
"Should not the statement: 'The 1st and 2nd person singular have tildes (written accents) to differentiate them from present tense conjugations.' say 1st and 3rd person singular'"
That is, he is suggesting that the rule should read "The 1st and 3rd person singular [forms of regular -ar verbs] have tildes (written accents) to differentiate them from present tense conjugations."
Hablé and habló are 1st and 3rd person singular preterit forms, and they have accents. Hable and hablo are present tense (subjunctive and indicative) forms that do not take an accent. The accents tell the reader the proper tense (and thus pronunciation). I'm sure that this is what Kev Hop was talking about.
James Santiago said:
I think he's talking about verb conjugations such as hablo and habló. You have a good point, though, that the "rule" doesn't apply to all verbs. It only applies to regular -ar verbs.
*
It doesn't apply to ANY verb for the first person.That's why I mentioned it.
verbs in -ar: amo - amé
verbs in -er: como - comí
verbs in -ir: vivo - viví*
Well, I am assuming that they refer to the present indicative. It does coincides with the subjunctive, but there is hardly room for mistakes between these two moods anyway.
Yes, but the so-called rule makes no sense to me anyway. The endings for the first person are different, regardless of the accent.
I think he's talking about verb conjugations such as hablo and habló. You have a good point, though, that the "rule" doesn't apply to all verbs. It only applies to regular -ar verbs.
Yes.
Yes.
Quite a few mistakes have been found, and I'm sure the person in charge will be happy to hear from you. If you scroll through the list of forums, there is one having to do with list administration. Try posting there. But there's no need for the duplication in the message above.
By the way, it's "hola," not "ola."
(¡Hola!)
:
Should not the statement: "The 1st and 2nd person singular have tildes (written accents) to differentiate them from present tense conjugations." say 1st and 3rd person singular?
Yes, but the so-called rule makes no sense to me anyway. The endings for the first person are different with or without accent.
:
Also should not the statement "The 3rd person plural endings for -ar and -ir verbs are the same for preterit and present tenses." say 1st person plural?
Yes, but the rule works with the regular verbs, and certain irregular ones, but not with all verbs:
queremos - quisimos
ponemos - pusimos
conducimos - condujimos
reducimos - redujimos
venimos - vinimos
decimos - dijimos
