Just like tener and estar, several other common verbs use irregular stems in the preterite. They share the same special endings (-e, -iste, -o, -imos, and -ieron), and they never use accent marks.
The "u" stems: poner, poder, and saber
These verbs change their stem vowels to u.
| Pronoun | poner (pus-) | poder (pud-) | saber (sup-) |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | puse | pude | supe |
| tú | pusiste | pudiste | supiste |
| él / ella / usted | puso | pudo | supo |
| nosotros / nosotras | pusimos | pudimos | supimos |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | pusieron | pudieron | supieron |
Tip: In the preterite, saber often means "to find out" or "to learn" (a fact), and poder usually means someone "managed to" or "was able to" do something.
| The king put his gold treasure here. | El rey puso su tesoro de oro aquí. |
| I was able to discover something older than that ruin. | Yo pude descubrir algo más antiguo que esa ruina. |
| We didn't find out anything about the history of the treasure. | Nosotros no supimos nada de la historia del tesoro. |
The "i" stems: venir, querer, and decir
These verbs change their stem vowels to i.
| Pronoun | venir (vin-) | querer (quis-) | decir (dij-) |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | vine | quise | dije |
| tú | viniste | quisiste | dijiste |
| él / ella / usted | vino | quiso | dijo |
| nosotros / nosotras | vinimos | quisimos | dijimos |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | vinieron | quisieron | dijeron |
Notice the spelling of dijeron. Because decir has a stem ending in j (dij-), it drops the i from the normal -ieron ending. You will always use -eron for irregular preterite stems that end in j.
| The researchers came to the ancient tomb. | Los investigadores vinieron a la tumba antigua. |
| They wanted to bury the king under the stone. | Ellos quisieron enterrar al rey debajo de la piedra. |
| Who told you that they buried the gold in the ground? | ¿Quién te dijo que enterraron el oro en la tierra? |
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