Several more of the verbs that you have already learned are also irregular in the preterite. In addition to having irregular conjugations, these verbs have a slightly different shade of meaning than their infinitive when they are used in the preterite. Below, you will see these verbs.
Conocer or “to know” means “to meet for the first time” in the preterite.
conocer – to meet for the first time (pretérito) | ||||||||||||
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For example:
tiempo presente: | pretérito: |
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Saber or “to know” means “to realize/find out for the first time” in the preterite.
saber – to realize/find out for the first time (pretérito) | ||||||||||||
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For example:
tiempo presente: | pretérito: |
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Tener or “to have” means “to get” in the preterite.
tener – to get (pretérito) | ||||||||||||
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For example:
tiempo presente: | pretérito: |
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![]() Foto: Adam Jones CC BY-SA 2.0
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Querer or “to wish/want” means “to want (and try)” in the preterite. No querer means “to refuse” in the preterite.
querer – to want (and try) (pretérito) | ||||||||||||
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For example:
tiempo presente: | pretérito: |
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![]() Foto: elisasizzle CC BY 2.0 |
Poder or “to be able to” means “to be able to (and to do/carry out)” in the preterite. No poder means “to try (but not be able to)” in the preterite.
poder -to be able to (and to do/carry out) (pretérito) | ||||||||||||
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tiempo presente: | pretérito: |
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![]() Foto: Art Today |
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One thing that you might notice about the different shades of meaning between the present and preterite tense for the verbs querer and poder is that in the preterite, there is action implied in the verb. While in the present, querer indicates a desire to do something, in the preterite, you are indicating that you not only wanted to do something, but that you have either tried to carry out the action or have actively refused to do so (no querer). Likewise with poder. In the affirmative, you are indicating that you were not only able to do something, but that you did it, or, (no poder) that you tried, but were unsuccessful.
Candela Citations
- Lesson 11: Estructuras gramaticales . Authored by: Open Learning Initiative. Provided by: Carnegie Mellon. Located at: https://oli.cmu.edu/jcourse/lms/students/syllabus.do?section=037856eb80020ca6007833f93f06cd13. Project: Spanish1. License: CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives