The preterite of cenar is used to express when someone had dinner at a specific moment in the past. For example, when you want to say “I had dinner with my family last night” – “Cené con mi familia anoche.”

This verb follows the regular -ar conjugation pattern in the preterite tense. It’s specifically used for the evening meal and is an essential verb for discussing daily routines in the past.

Conjugations

Conjugations of Cenar (to have dinner) in the Preterite (Past) Tense tense (Castilian Spanish):

The Preterite of cenar indicates completed acts of having dinner.

To have dinner: Used for eating the evening meal, for example Cené con mis amigos (I had dinner with my friends).

To dine: Refers to eating dinner, for example Cenaron en un restaurante elegante (They dined at an elegant restaurant).

Examples

Examples of Cenar in the Preterite (Past) Tense

Anoche cené con mis amigos en un restaurante italiano. (Last night I had dinner with my friends at an Italian restaurant.)

Cenamos pescado fresco en la playa. (We had fish for dinner on the beach.)

¿Cenaste algo antes de salir? (Did you eat dinner before going out?)

Los invitados cenaron a las ocho. (The guests had dinner at eight.)

Cenó solo en su oficina. (He had dinner alone in his office.)

¿Dónde cenaron ustedes ayer? (Where did you all have dinner yesterday?)

Cené muy tarde porque tuve mucho trabajo. (I had dinner very late because I had a lot of work.)

Mis padres cenaron temprano esa noche. (My parents had dinner early that night.)

Cenamos juntos por última vez. (We had dinner together for the last time.)

¿A qué hora cenaste ayer? (What time did you have dinner yesterday?)

Cenó rápidamente antes de la reunión. (He had a quick dinner before the meeting.)

Nunca cenaron en ese restaurante. (They never had dinner at that restaurant.)

Cené sopa caliente porque hacía frío. (I had hot soup for dinner because it was cold.)

Cenamos en el jardín bajo las estrellas. (We had dinner in the garden under the stars.)

La familia cenó junta en Navidad. (The family had dinner together on Christmas.)

Conjugations with English Translations

Conjugations of Cenar (to have dinner) 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.