Practice some of the vocabulary from this song and its preterite and imperfect tense verbs using these flashcards, games and exercises.
Did you miss the analysis for this song? Find it here!
Activities
Vocabulary Excercises
We have chosen 15 words and phrases out of this song to form our vocabulary list, which can be found below. You can use the following activities to learn and practice this vocabulary.
Vocabulary Flashcards – Learn the vocabulary from this song with our sets of Spanish to English and English to Spanish flashcards, then test yourself with our interactive flashcards.
Vocabulary Games – Practice the vocabulary for this song using our memory and matching games and our word search puzzle.
Vocabulary Exercises – Fill in the missing vocabulary with drag and drop and fill in the blanks exercises.
Grammar Exercises
This song provided a large number of preterite tense verbs to practice. However, it also provided a good number of verbs in the imperfect tense, which has not appeared in the activities of a song yet. So I decided to go ahead and include them both. Information on these verbs as well as their full conjugations can be found below.
You can use the following activities to learn and practice these verbs:
Preterite Flashcards – Practice the preterite tense verbs in this song with our sets of Spanish to English and English to Spanish flashcards, then test yourself with our interactive flashcards.
Preterite Games – Practice the preterite tense verbs in this song using our memory and matching games.
Preterite Exercises – Practice the preterite tense verbs in this song using our drag and drop, fill in, and highlighting exercises.
Imperfect Flashcards – Practice the imperfect tense verbs in this song with our sets of Spanish to English and English to Spanish flashcards, then test yourself with our interactive flashcards.
Imperfect Games – Practice the imperfect tense verbs in this song using our memory and matching games.
Imperfect Exercises – Practice the imperfect tense verbs in this song using our drag and drop, fill in, and highlighting exercises.
Resources
Vocabulary List
Term
Meaning
P of S
Context
a ciegas
blindly
a ciegas
acariciar
to caress, stroke
reg verb
acarició
canción
song
fem noun
canción
despedirse
to say goodbye
stm chg verb
despedirnos
destino
destiny, fate; destination
masc noun
destino
dibujar
to draw, sketch
reg verb
dibujaste
enamorar
to win s.o.’s heart, win s.o.’s love, make s.o. fall in love
to be against, disagree with; object; be the opposite of
irreg verb
opusieran
por sorpresa
by surprise
por sorpresa
recordar
to remember, recall; remind
stm chg verb
recordaba
solución
solution, answer
fem noun
solución
traer
to bring, wear
irreg verb
traigo
virar
to turn, veer, swerve
reg verb
virar
Preterite Tense
The Spanish preterite tense (el pretérito) is one of the two simple past tenses in Spanish. It is used for actions that have been completed at some point in the past.
Regular verbs add the endings from the chart below to the normal stem, found by simply removing the -ar, -er, or -ir from the infinitive.
Several verbs, such as ‘ser’, ‘hacer’, ‘decir’, and ‘querer’ (seen in this song) have irregular conjugations.
Some verbs undergo spelling changes in the preterite tense. We only see one of these in this song. It applies to the first person singular (yo) form and is made in order to retain the correct sound before the ‘é’ ending. This change has been highlighted in blue in the charts below. The change we see is:
For verbs ending in -gar, the ‘g’ changes to ‘gu’.
Subject
-AR Verbs
-ER and -IR Verbs
1st person singular – yo
-é
-í
2nd person singular – tú
-aste
-iste
3rd person singular – él, ella, Ud
-ó
-ió
1st person plural – nosotros
-amos
-imos
2nd person plural – vosotros
-asteis
-isteis
3rd person plural – ellos, ellas, Uds
-aron
-ieron
Imperfect Tense
The Spanish imperfect tense (el imperfecto) is the other simple past tense in Spanish. It is used for ongoing or recurrent actions in the past, descriptions, states of being, for providing background information about the past and for actions that continued for an unspecified period of time.
Regular verbs add the endings from the chart below to the normal stem, found by simply removing the -ar, -er, or -ir from the infinitive.
There are only three irregular verb in the imperfect: ‘ir’, ‘ser’ and ‘ver’. Only ‘ser’ is seen in this song.
Subject
-AR Verbs
-ER and -IR Verbs
1st person singular – yo
-aba
-ía
2nd person singular – tú
-abas
-ías
3rd person singular – él, ella, Ud
-aba
-ía
1st person plural – nosotros
-ábamos
-íamos
2nd person plural – vosotros
-abais
-íais
3rd person plural – ellos, ellas, Uds
-aban
-ían
Imperfect vs Preterite
It is not uncommon to see the preterite and the imperfect tenses appear together. This is seen when discussing something that was happening when something else occurred. The past action in progress that was interrupted will be in the imperfect, while the interrupting action will be in the preterite. We see an example in this song, with reías in the imperfect and acarició in the preterite:
Mientras reías, el sol acarició mi corazón, While you were laughing, the sun caressed my heart
Conjugations
Following are the full conjugations of the verbs that appear in the preterite and imperfect tenses in this song.
Preterite
hacer: to do, make
Singular
Plural
1st Person
(yo) hice
(nosotros) hicimos
2nd Person
(tú) hiciste
(vosotros) hicisteis
3rd Person
él/ella/usted hizo
ellos/ellas/ustedes hicieron
ser: to be
Singular
Plural
1st Person
(yo) fui
(nosotros) fuimos
2nd Person
(tú) fuiste
(vosotros) fuisteis
3rd Person
él/ella/usted fue
ellos/ellas/ustedes fueron
decir: to say, tell
Singular
Plural
1st Person
(yo) dije
(nosotros) dijimos
2nd Person
(tú) dijiste
(vosotros) dijisteis
3rd Person
él/ella/usted dijo
ellos/ellas/ustedes dijeron
querer: to want, wish; like, love
Singular
Plural
1st Person
(yo) quise
(nosotros) quisimos
2nd Person
(tú) quisiste
(vosotros) quisisteis
3rd Person
él/ella/usted quiso
ellos/ellas/ustedes quisieron
llegar: to arrive, reach
Singular
Plural
1st Person
(yo) llegué
(nosotros) llegamos
2nd Person
(tú) llegaste
(vosotros) llegasteis
éis3rd Person
él/ella/usted llegó
ellos/ellas/ustedes llegaron
descubrir: to discover, find; find out, realize
Singular
Plural
1st Person
(yo) descubrí
(nosotros) descubrimos
2nd Person
(tú) descubriste
(vosotros) descubristeis
3rd Person
él/ella/usted descubrió
ellos/ellas/ustedes descubrieron
prometer: to promise, pledge, assure
Singular
Plural
1st Person
(yo) prometí
(nosotros) prometimos
2nd Person
(tú) prometiste
(vosotros) prometisteis
3rd Person
él/ella/usted prometió
ellos/ellas/ustedes prometieron
acariciar: to caress, stroke
Singular
Plural
1st Person
(yo) acaricié
(nosotros) acariciamos
2nd Person
(tú) acariciaste
(vosotros) acariciasteis
3rd Person
él/ella/usted acarició
ellos/ellas/ustedes acariciaron
llevarse: make off with, take, steal; get along, hit it off; be in style/fashion
Singular
Plural
1st Person
(yo) me llevé
(nosotros) llevamos
2nd Person
(tú) te llevaste
(vosotros) llevasteis
3rd Person
él/ella/usted se llevó
ellos/ellas/ustedes llevaron
crecer: to grow
Singular
Plural
1st Person
(yo) crecí
(nosotros) crecimos
2nd Person
(tú) creciste
(vosotros) crecisteis
3rd Person
él/ella/usted creció
ellos/ellas/ustedes crecieron
entregarse: to turn oneself in, surrender; devote oneself to, dedicate oneself to; have sex with
Practice some of the vocabulary from this song and its preterite tense verbs using these flashcards, games and exercises. Did you miss the analysis for this song? Find it here! Activities Vocabulary Excercises We have Read more…
These exercises are all about practicing the preterite verbs found in this song. The full conjugations can be found on our Activities page. In the lyrics exercises, the preterite verbs have been removed from the Read more…
Test your knowledge of the preterite tense verbs in this song with our memory or matching games. A refresher of the conjugations can be found on our Activities page.
