Past Tense Verb Endings

The past tense is used to refer to actions that occurred in the past. 

The past tense in Spanish has two predictable verb endings: one for –ar verbs, such as hablar (to speak), and another for –er and –ir verbs, such as comer (to eat) and escribir (to write). 

It is important to point out that many verbs in Spanish have an irregular past tense conjugation. For those irregular cases, the best way to learn their conjugation is with memorization and practice.

Regular –ar verbs are conjugated as follows:

Person	Endings	Examples
I	-é	yo hablé
you (familiar)	-aste	tú hablaste
he, she, it, you (formal)	-ó	él habló, ella habló, usted habló
we	-amos	nosotros hablamos
you (plural Latin America)	-aron	ustedes hablaron
you (plural Spain)	-asteis	vosotros hablasteis
they	-aron	ellos hablaron

Regular –er and –ir verbs are conjugated as follows:

Person	Endings	Examples
I	-í	yo comí, yo escribí
you (familiar)	-iste	tú comiste, tú escribiste
he, she, it, you (formal)	-ió	él comió, ella escribió, usted comió
we	-imos	nosotros comimos, nosotras escribimos
you (plural Latin America)	-ieron	ustedes comieron, ustedes escribieron
you (plural Spain)	-isteis	vosotras comisteis, vosotros escribisteis
they	-ieron	ellos comieron, ellas escribieron