Grammar Crammer – The Preterite in Spanish (English Edition)

One of the most difficult things for Spanish students to master is the preterite tense. Why? Because there are so many different kinds of verbs, and all of these seem to have their own unique procedures. Furthermore, recognizing what family a verb belongs to is sometimes difficult. This manual, written by a native Spanish speaker with 8 years teaching and tutoring experience, makes the preterite as painless as possible by providing tips and tricks for recognizing which family a verb belongs to when it’s not obvious by looking at it. For many verbs, it presents their unique procedures as small modifications of the procedure that is used for regular verbs in order to reduce memory load. Wherever possible, it gives the logical reasons for the changes that must take place for certain verb types. Finally, there are practice exercises provided after each verb type to make sure the reader understands what to do before moving on to the next section. With this combination of logic, mnemonics, and practice, I am confident that you will walk away with complete mastery of this confusing verb tense.