Preterite Third-Person Changes & y-Insertion
Practice the e→i / o→u stem shifts and y-insertion that hide in the él and ellos preterite forms.
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Questions Covered in This Set
10 cards to master
Which verbs take an e→i or o→u stem change in the preterite?
Only -ir verbs that also stem-change in the present; -ar and -er stem-changers reset (pensó, volvió).
In which slots does the -ir preterite stem change occur?
Only the third person: él/ella/usted and ellos/ellas/ustedes.
Conjugate pedir fully in the preterite.
pedí, pediste, pidió, pedimos, pedisteis, pidieron
Preterite él/ellos of dormir and morir
durmió / durmieron; murió / murieron
Shortcut: present ie → preterite ?, present ue → preterite ?
ie → i (siento → sintió); ue → u (duermo → durmió)
Why does leer become leyó and leyeron?
Spanish avoids an unstressed i between two vowels, so -ió/-ieron become -yó/-yeron.
Full preterite of leer
leí, leíste, leyó, leímos, leísteis, leyeron (accents keep the i a separate syllable)
Why is it construí, construiste (no accents)?
-uir verbs skip the written accents because the u already breaks up the vowels; still construyó, construyeron.
Why trajeron and dijeron, not trajieron?
Traer and decir are strong j-stem preterites, and j-stems take -eron instead of -ieron.
Bonus payoff of learning the i/u preterite stem
It also gives the present participle (durmiendo, pidiendo) and the imperfect subjunctive (durmiera, pidiera).
