The preterite of seguir is used to express when you followed something or someone at a specific moment in the past, or continued an action for a defined period. For example, “I followed the instructions exactly” – “Seguí las instrucciones exactamente.”

This verb follows the e to i stem-changing pattern in the preterite, but only in the third person singular and plural forms. The ‘e’ changes to ‘i’ in siguió and siguieron, while other forms maintain the ‘e’.

Conjugations

Conjugations of Seguir (to follow) in the Preterite (Past) Tense tense (Castilian Spanish):

The Preterite of seguir indicates completed acts of following or continuation.

To follow (completed action): Used for following something to completion, for example Seguí sus instrucciones exactamente (I followed their instructions exactly), or Siguieron el camino hasta el final (They followed the path to the end).

To continue/proceed: Describes maintained action, for example Siguió trabajando hasta terminar (He continued working until finishing).

Examples

Examples of Seguir in the Preterite (Past) Tense

Seguí el camino hasta la playa. (I followed the path to the beach.)

Seguiste mis consejos al pie de la letra. (You followed my advice to the letter.)

El perro siguió a su dueño hasta casa. (The dog followed its owner home.)

Seguimos la receta exactamente. (We followed the recipe exactly.)

Los turistas siguieron al guía por el museo. (The tourists followed the guide through the museum.)

Seguí trabajando hasta terminar. (I kept working until I finished.)

¿Por qué no seguiste las instrucciones? (Why didn’t you follow the instructions?)

El coche siguió adelante sin parar. (The car kept going without stopping.)

Seguimos el rastro en el bosque. (We followed the trail in the forest.)

Los estudiantes siguieron el ejemplo del profesor. (The students followed the teacher’s example.)

Seguí tus pasos en la red social. (I followed your steps on social media.)

Seguiste adelante a pesar de las dificultades. (You kept going despite the difficulties.)

La tormenta siguió toda la noche. (The storm continued all night.)

Seguimos la señal hasta su origen. (We followed the signal to its source.)

Los pájaros siguieron su ruta migratoria. (The birds followed their migratory route.)

Conjugations with English Translations

Conjugations of Seguir (to follow) in the Preterite (Past) Tense tense (Castilian Spanish) with English Translations:

This post covers Castilian Spanish. For Latin American Spanish, click here

Synonyms

The Preterite tense is also known as the Simple Past, Past Simple, Definite Past, Absolute Past, or Past Tense Indicative in English, and as Pretérito Perfecto Simple, Pretérito Indefinido, Pretérito Simple, Pasado Simple, or Pretérito de Indicativo in Spanish.