The preterite tense. Completely finished actions are expressed with the preterite tense, which is remarkably regular in Spanish for most -ar, -er and -ir verbs. Whether or not those verbs had irregularities in the present tense. Take notice of the accented final vowels for the first and third person singular forms. That's how Spanish speakers signal that the action has already taken place. Listen for these stressed final vowels. Occasionally, the first person needs to be written with minor spelling changes in order to maintain the original pronunciation of the verb. For instance, the verb organizar, which is written with a z, z-a-r. In the first person is organice, written with a c. The verb recargar in the first person is recargue, written with a g-u-e. The verb identificar, in the first person is identifique but written with q-u-e. This only affects the writing, clearly the pronunciation is totally regular. Now let's take a look at the first chart which gives us the ar preterite verb endings with the verb hablar. First person, second person, third person, singular and plural. Habl-e, Habl-aste, habl-o. Habl-amos, habl-asteis, habl-aron. Notice, first of all, that in the first and the third person, you have an accent mark put on that final vowel. So hable, hablo. And also notice that hablamos is exactly the same form as the present. How do you know the difference? Context. Now let's go and look at the -er and the -ir verbs. For the verb comer and the verb abrir. Com-i, com-iste, com-io. Com-imos, com-isteis, com-ieron. For abrir: abr-i, abr-iste, abr-io. Abr-imos, abr-isteis, abr-ieron. Again notice with the nosotros form for the -ir verb abrimos is exactly the same as the present tense. Context will tell you. Now let's look at some examples. Reserve una habitacion en el hotel. I reserved a room in the hotel. Again, notice that the stress and the written accent mark is going on that last, final vowel a reserve. Recorri las ciudades de Europa el verano pasado. I went all around the cities of Europe last summer. Nos emitieron los billetes por email. They sent us the tickets via email. Manejaste un coche en inglaterra? Did you drive a car in England? Visitamos los monumentos historicos. We visited all of the historical monuments. How do you know that visitamos is the preterite? The context.