It expresses past activities already completed in time that has already passed.
Conjugation I (hablar):
| singular | plural | |
| 1 | hablé | hablamos |
| 2 | hablaste | hablasteis |
| 3 | habló | hablaron |
Conjugation II (vender):
| singular | plural | |
| 1 | vendí | vendimos |
| 2 | vendiste | vendisteis |
| 3 | vendió | vendieron |
Conjugation III (vivir):
| singular | plural | |
| 1 | viví | vivimos |
| 2 | viviste | vivisteis |
| 3 | vivió | vivieron |
The forms above are for regular verbs.
Spelling peculiarities in conjugation I: in the 1st person singular (only) the spelling of the verbs changes in verbs ending in -car, -gar, -guar, -zar: these endings change to -qué, -gué, -güé, -cé: marcar - marqué, marcaste, marcó, entregar - entregué, entregaste, entregó, empezar - empecé, empezaste, empezó.
In conjugation II and III, in turn, if in the 1st person the final -í is placed after the vowel (because the ending of infinitivo -er or -ir is also after the vowel): - in forms of the 3rd person singular, we change -í into -yó, and in the 3rd person plural, the ending is -yeron, - in other forms the accent is kept over í. The exceptions are verbs in -uir, such as atribuir and destruir, which lose this accent.An example of this: caer.
| singular | plural | |
| 1 | caí | caímos |
| 2 | caíste | caísteis |
| 3 | cayó | cayeron |
Verbi na -uir:
| singular | plural | |
| 1 | destruí | destruimos |
| 2 | destruiste | destruisteis |
| 3 | destruyó | destruyeron |
There are many irregular forms.
Verbs ser and ir have identical forms :
| singular | plural | |
| 1 | fui | fuimos |
| 2 | fuiste | fuisteis |
| 3 | fue | fueron |
A number of irregular verbs have the -e ending in 1 person, like the form estuve from estar. The conjugation then looks like this : -e, -iste, -o, -imos, -isteis, -ieron.
| singular | plural | |
| 1 | estuve | estuvimos |
| 2 | estuviste | estuvisteis |
| 3 | estuvo | estuvieron |
Similarly, other verbs in pretérito indefinido: haber - hube, tener - tuve, poder - pude, poner - puse, saber - supe, venir - vine, querer - quise, andar - anduve, caber - cupe. The verb hacer has a spelling peculiarity in the 3rd person (hice, hiciste, hizo, hicimos, hicisteis, hicieron).
Similar are the verbs with the singular -je in the 1st person. The conjugation looks then: -e, -iste, -o, -imos, -isteis, -eron. These include decir (dije), traer (traje) and the verbs ending in -ducir like producir (produje) and conducir (conduje).
| singular | plural | |
| 1 | dije | dijimos |
| 2 | dijiste | dijisteis |
| 3 | dijo | dijeron |
Verbs dar and ver have specific forms.
| singular | plural | |
| 1 | di | dimos |
| 2 | diste | disteis |
| 3 | dio | dieron |
| singular | plural | |
| 1 | vi | vimos |
| 2 | viste | visteis |
| 3 | vio | vieron |
The verbs of the type dormir, sentir and pedir change the vowel in the 3rd person singular and plural. The groups of these verbs are discussed here:
Partially irregular verbs .
These include, inter alia:
dormir, morir (change from o to u)
sentir, mentir, digerir, advertir (change from e to i)
pedir, elegir, medir, gemir, rendir, vestir (same).
| singular | plural | |
| 1 | dormí | dormimos |
| 2 | dormiste | dormisteis |
| 3 | durmió | durmieron |
| singular | plural | |
| 1 | pedi | pedimos |
| 2 | pediste | pedisteis |
| 3 | pidió | pidieron |