Irregular Preterite Verbs: what these are and how to remember these

Answer 1

Think about all the jingles/songs you remember so well from early childhood or from television commercials. Words set to a catchy tune certainly do stick with us!!

With that in mind, there is a Spanish song about Pancho Villa aka La Cucaracha, and its title is LA CUCARACHA. It just so happens that a Spanish teacher has matched irregular preterite verbs to the tune of that song! It's really easy to find it:

Just search YouTube using these words "Senor Jordan la cucaracha."

Yes, the guy in the plaid shirt playing the guitar is Señor Jordan!

After you listen to it and/or sing along with it a few times, you will quickly begin remembering the irregular stems (with the YO ending only). The entire set of endings (WITHOUT any accents) is:

E, ISTE, O, IMOS, ISTEIS, IERON*

Tener es tuve

Estar estuve

Ir es fui y también ser

Poner es puse

Poder es pude

Traje es para traer

Hacer hice

Haber hube

Saber supe

Querer quise

Decir dije* NOTE: drop the I of IERON after preterite stems that end in "J"

Venir vine

Ver vi

Dar di ¡NO ACENTOS!

Answer 2

The information above is correct. I just like to put the irregular preterite into families and learn them like an army chant so they are easier to remember.

fui, di, vi. YO

quise, hice vine. YO

puse, pude, supe YO

dije, traje, conduje YO

tuve, estuve, anduve YO

Answer 3

There is a large group or "family" of irregular verbs in the Preterite tense. Each of these "family" members have a few things in common:

1. They will each get a new "stem"
2. They will each share one, brand-new conjugation chart
3. They will never have a written accent

Here is the list of the irregular verbs with their new stems:

Hacer--hic Querer-quis

Estar--estuv Poner--pus

Tener--tuv Poder--pud

Andar--anduv Venir--vin

Saber-sup Haber--hub

Decir--dij Traer--traj

Traducir--traduj Producir--produj

You will take each of these new "stems" and attach them to each subject spot using only ONE chart:

e imos

iste isteis

o ieron

***And remember: NO WRITTEN ACCENTS with the Preterite irregular verbs!