There are various ways in Spanish to express an action in the past. This exercise treats the simple past, i.e. a verb that is a one-word verb, is already completed, and took place only once. For example, "I speak" is the present tense. "I spoke" is the past tense. Frequently the past tense is also called the preterit. Again, the action is complete and happened only once. Please refer to earlier sections in order to review regular AR,ER,IR and stem change preterits. Irregular preterits are irregular because of the way they evolved from Latin. This being said, the best way to learn them is pure memorization, starting with their irregular stem. You have already gotten in the habit of dropping the last two letters and adding a news set of endings. For irregular preterits you must memorize a new stem such as those listed here: The "UV" category: Estar:estuv Tener:Tuv Andar: Anduv, for example, Estuve, estuviste, estuvo, estuvimos, estuvisteis, estuvieron The "J" category includes all verbs that end in CIR, such as Decir: Dic Traducir:Traduj Conducir: Conduj and also Traer-Traj, for example: Dije, dijiste, dijo, dijimos, dijisteis, dijeron Other irregular preterites are less easily grouped, such as Poder:pud Poner:pus Venir: vin Saber: sup Querer: quis, for example: Pude, pudiste, pudo, pudimos, pudisteis, pudieron and Hice, hiciste, hizo, (notice the Z) hicimos, hicisteis, hicieron. SER and IR have identical irregular preterits. Fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fuisteis and fueron Finally, there are two that are easily remembered for their rhyme to one another: Dar and VER: Di, diste, dio. dimos, disteis, dieron Vi, viste, vio, vimos, visteis, vieron In the exercise that follows, match the subject and verb with the irregular preterit.