I can talk about the past with tener, estar, poder, poner, and saber — tuve, estuve, pude, puse, supe.
Five verbs with a -u- stem
tuve, estuve, pude, puse, supe
This is the same past tense of stories as before, the preterite (pretérito indefinido), with the familiar time expressions: ayer, anoche, la semana pasada, el año pasado, en 1990. Only the verb stem changes.
Stems: tener → tuv-, estar → estuv-, poder → pud-, poner → pus-, saber → sup-.
All five take the same endings: -e, -iste, -o, -imos, -isteis, -ieron. The full table is above.
No form has an accent mark: tuve, tuvo, puse, puso. The stress falls on the stem, not on the end of the word: TU-ve. Regular verbs were the opposite: hablé, comí.
Meaning in the past. supe means “found out” at that moment, not “knew” in general (English “knew” covers both): Sé la verdad (I know the truth) — Ayer supe la verdad (yesterday I found out). pude means “managed to”, no pude means “couldn't”.
One more detail: with poner you ask ¿Dónde…?, as in English “Where did you put…?”: ¿Dónde pusisteis las maletas?
Common mistakes:
• NOT “Ayer tení una reunión” — correct: Ayer tuve una reunión.
• NOT “Ellos ponieron la mesa” — correct: Ellos pusieron la mesa.
• NOT “Yo sabí la noticia” — correct: Yo supe la noticia.
• NOT “tuvé”, NOT “tuvó” — no accent mark here, unlike hablé: tuve, tuvo.
• NOT “No podí ir” — correct: No pude ir.
Five verbs with a -u- stem
The stem changes completely, and after that all five behave the same way.
| Infinitive | Stem | yo form |
|---|---|---|
| tener | tuv- | tuve |
| estar | estuv- | estuve |
| poder | pud- | pude |
| poner | pus- | puse |
| saber | sup- | supe |
Endings — the same for all five verbs
No form has an accent mark: the stress falls on the stem.
| Person | Ending | tener | poder |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | -e | tuve | pude |
| tú | -iste | tuviste | pudiste |
| él · ella · usted | -o | tuvo | pudo |
| nosotros · nosotras | -imos | tuvimos | pudimos |
| vosotros · vosotras | -isteis | tuvisteis | pudisteis |
| ellos · ellas · ustedes | -ieron | tuvieron | pudieron |
Lesson notes
tuve, estuve, pude, puse, supe
This is the same past tense of stories as before, the preterite (pretérito indefinido), with the familiar time expressions: ayer, anoche, la semana pasada, el año pasado, en 1990. Only the verb stem changes.
Stems: tener → tuv-, estar → estuv-, poder → pud-, poner → pus-, saber → sup-.
All five take the same endings: -e, -iste, -o, -imos, -isteis, -ieron. The full table is above.
No form has an accent mark: tuve, tuvo, puse, puso. The stress falls on the stem, not on the end of the word: TU-ve. Regular verbs were the opposite: hablé, comí.
Meaning in the past. supe means “found out” at that moment, not “knew” in general (English “knew” covers both): Sé la verdad (I know the truth) — Ayer supe la verdad (yesterday I found out). pude means “managed to”, no pude means “couldn't”.
One more detail: with poner you ask ¿Dónde…?, as in English “Where did you put…?”: ¿Dónde pusisteis las maletas?
Common mistakes:
• NOT “Ayer tení una reunión” — correct: Ayer tuve una reunión.
• NOT “Ellos ponieron la mesa” — correct: Ellos pusieron la mesa.
• NOT “Yo sabí la noticia” — correct: Yo supe la noticia.
• NOT “tuvé”, NOT “tuvó” — no accent mark here, unlike hablé: tuve, tuvo.
• NOT “No podí ir” — correct: No pude ir.