Lesson 60: Past Tense: The dot in the past with the 'We' form of verbs
So we've covered how to say the I/she/he/it/you (formal) versions of verbs when talking about a point (dot) in the past, Now we'll learn the 'we' form - 'We spoke', 'we ate', etc.
Remember we still are talking about that 'dot' in the past - how the past tense looks when we refer to a specific moment in the past (e.g. "I rode my bicycle yesterday") rather than making a general statement about something which happened over a period of time - e.g. "I used to ride my bicycle in the countryside".
'ar' verbs
Now the we form is slightly wierd for 'ar verbs!
 Spanish |  English |
|---|---|
| Hablamos | We speak |
| Hablamos | We spoke |
Yes - they are exactly the same! No typo there. This can cause confusion even amoung native Spanish speakers so naturally they use several tools to repair this very natural flaw.
- Use a time reference - We spoke yesterday
- Use a second verb - When we spoke I understood
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Cuando hablamos comprendo todo | When we speak I understand everything |
| Cuando hablamos comprendí todo | When we spoke I understood everything |
| Hablamos ayer | We spoke yesterday |
| Hablamos mañana | We will speak tomorrow |
So we see here that even to get the future tense we can use 'hablamos' as long as we put some future context in the sentence like "tomorrow".
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Esperamos mucho | We wait a lot |
| Esperamos mucho ayer | We waited a lot yesterday |
'er' verbs
'er' verbs do change slightly for the past tense
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Comemos | We eat |
| Comimos | We ate |
| No comimos | We didn't eat |
| Vemos | We see |
| Vimos | We saw |
| Perdemos | We lose |
| Perdimos | We lost |
| Nos perdimos | We got lost |
| Nos perdemos siempre pero no nos perdimos ayer | We always get lost but we didn't get lost yesterday |
'ir' verbs
... but 'ir' verbs are like 'ar' verbs, on their own you can't tell them apart.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Vivimos | We live |
| Vivimos | We lived |
| Salimos | We're going out / leaving |
| Salimos | We went out / left |
| No salimos a menudo pero salimos ayer | We don't go out often but we went out yesterday |
Recap of the verb forms for a dot in the past
Using 'hablar':
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Hablé | I spoke |
| Habló | He/she/it/you (formal) spoke |
| Hablamos | We spoke |
Using 'comer':
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Comí | I ate |
| Comió | He/she/it/you (formal) ate |
| Comimos | We ate |