Which verbs are practiced in this exercise?

The exercise covers the ten most commonly used irregular verbs in the Spanish simple past: hacer (to do/make), tener (to have), poder (to be able to), ir (to go), venir (to come), decir (to say), estar (to be), ponerse (to become), volver (to return) and querer (to want).

What level of Spanish do I need?

This exercise is designed for B1 and B2 levels. It's ideal for intermediate Spanish learners who already know the structure of the simple past and want to reinforce the irregular forms.

Why are these verbs irregular in the Spanish simple past?

Verbs like hacer, ir, tener, and decir have unique simple past forms that cannot be derived from any rule: hice, fui, tuve, dije. These are historical forms that have survived in modern Spanish and must be memorized through repeated practice.

How many sentences does the exercise have?

The exercise has 14 sentences with natural, everyday contexts, covering different grammatical persons: yo (I), tú (you), él/ella (he/she), nosotros (we) and ustedes/ellos (you all/they).

Spanish Irregular Verbs — Simple Past Exercise

Q: When do we use the Spanish simple past (pretérito indefinido)?

The pretérito indefinido is used for completed past actions that happened at a specific moment in time: yesterday, last week, in 2020, during the trip. It's different from the pretérito imperfecto, which is used for habitual past actions or past states.

The most common Spanish verbs in the simple past are irregular — practice them here

When you talk about what you did yesterday, last week, or at a specific moment in the past, you need the Spanish pretérito indefinido (simple past). The challenge is that the most common verbs in this tense are all irregular: ir, hacer, tener, poder, venir, decir, estar… These are words you’ll use constantly in Spanish, but their conjugation follows no simple rule. The only solution: practice until they come to you naturally.

This exercise includes 14 sentences with the most important irregular verbs in the Spanish simple past. You’ll need to conjugate each verb for the indicated grammatical person, in real and everyday contexts: Ayer hice muchas cosas, fuimos a la playa, vinieron muy temprano… This isn’t passive memorization — it’s active practice: you read the sentence, recall the verb form, and type it in.

Repeat the exercise several times. The first run may be a challenge; by the third time you’ll find the forms coming to you without thinking. That moment of automaticity is exactly what we’re aiming for.

Go to the exercise ↓

How does the exercise work?

You’ll see a sentence with the verb in its infinitive form (shown in parentheses, in blue). Your task is to fill in the blank with the correct simple past form. Click on the letters to type your answer, or use your keyboard directly. If you can’t remember the form, press the AYUDA (HELP) button to reveal it letter by letter. After each correct answer, you’ll hear the pronunciation.

✓ Ver las respuestas ▼

HACER (yo) — Ayer hice muchas cosas.
TENER (nosotros) — Durante el viaje no tuvimos ningún problema.
PODER (tú) — ¿Pudiste hablar con Jaime ayer?
IR (nosotros) — Ayer fuimos a la playa.
VENIR (ellos) — Ellos vinieron muy temprano.
DECIR (yo) — Yo no dije nada.
ESTAR (tú) — ¿Estuviste en Guatemala el verano pasado?
PONERSE (él) — Mi hermano se puso muy nervioso durante el examen.
VOLVER (ellos) — Los vecinos volvieron hace una semana.
TENER (yo) — No tuve tiempo de hacer los deberes.
PODER (ustedes) — ¿Ustedes pudieron dormir anoche?
DECIR (ella) — Ella me dijo que no se sentía bien.
HACER (nosotros) — Hicimos todo lo posible.
QUERER (yo) — No quise ir a la fiesta porque estaba cansado.

All conjugations — the verbs in this exercise

Here is the complete conjugation of all ten irregular verbs in this exercise. Study them before repeating, or use this table to check your answers.

Infinitivo	yo	tú	él/ella	nosotros	ellos/ustedes
hacer	hice	hiciste	hizo	hicimos	hicieron
tener	tuve	tuviste	tuvo	tuvimos	tuvieron
poder	pude	pudiste	pudo	pudimos	pudieron
ir	fui	fuiste	fue	fuimos	fueron
venir	vine	viniste	vino	vinimos	vinieron
decir	dije	dijiste	dijo	dijimos	dijeron
estar	estuve	estuviste	estuvo	estuvimos	estuvieron
ponerse	me puse	te pusiste	se puso	nos pusimos	se pusieron
volver	volví	volviste	volvió	volvimos	volvieron
querer	quise	quisiste	quiso	quisimos	quisieron

When do we use the Spanish simple past (pretérito indefinido)?

The pretérito indefinido expresses completed past actions that happened at a specific point in time and have no direct connection to the present. It’s the go-to tense for telling what happened:

Ayer hice muchas cosas. — Yesterday I did a lot of things.
Ellos vinieron muy temprano. — They came very early.
No quise ir a la fiesta porque estaba cansado. — I didn’t want to go to the party because I was tired.

Common time expressions that go with this tense: ayer, anoche, el año pasado, hace tres días, el lunes, en enero, el verano pasado, durante el viaje, una vez, de repente (yesterday, last night, last year, three days ago, on Monday, in January, last summer, during the trip, once, suddenly).

The big challenge of the pretérito indefinido is precisely its irregularity. The most frequently used Spanish verbs have unique forms that must be memorized: fui, hice, dije, tuve, pude, vine… There are no shortcuts — but with consistent practice like this exercise, they’ll become second nature.

📖 To learn more about the differences between the pretérito indefinido and the pretérito imperfecto, read this guide: How to understand different Spanish preterite tenses.

Keep practicing

✏️ You can also practice…
Past tense sentences: tuve, hice, quise, estuve
12 sentences to practice the irregular preterite
How to understand different Spanish preterite tenses