The preterite of suponer is used to express when someone supposed or assumed something at a specific moment in the past. For example, when you want to say “I supposed you were at home” – “Supuse que estabas en casa.”

This is an irregular verb in the preterite tense. It follows the pattern of ‘poner’ with the stem ‘sup-‘ instead of ‘pon-‘, using the endings -use, -usiste, -uso, -usimos, -usieron.

Conjugations

Conjugations of Suponer (to suppose) in the Preterite (Past) Tense tense (Castilian Spanish):

The Preterite of suponer indicates specific instances of supposing or assuming.

To suppose/assume: Used for making specific assumptions in the past, for example Supuse que vendría temprano (I supposed they would come early), or Supusimos que era la mejor opción (We assumed it was the best option).

To imply/entail: Describes what something meant or required, for example El cambio supuso muchos gastos (The change entailed many expenses).

Examples

Examples of Suponer in the Preterite (Past) Tense

Supuse que llegarías tarde. (I assumed you would arrive late.)

¿Supusiste que algo malo había pasado? (Did you suppose something bad had happened?)

Supuso correctamente el final de la historia. (He correctly guessed the end of the story.)

Supusimos que no vendrías a la fiesta. (We supposed you wouldn’t come to the party.)

Supusieron mal las intenciones del grupo. (They wrongly assumed the group’s intentions.)

¿Qué supusiste cuando viste el mensaje? (What did you assume when you saw the message?)

Supuse que era la mejor decisión. (I supposed it was the best decision.)

Nadie supuso que terminaría así. (Nobody supposed it would end like this.)

Supusimos que había un error en los cálculos. (We supposed there was an error in the calculations.)

Supusieron que el tren llegaría a tiempo. (They supposed the train would arrive on time.)

Supuse que necesitarías ayuda. (I supposed you would need help.)

¿Por qué supusiste eso de mí? (Why did you assume that about me?)

Supuso que era el momento adecuado. (He supposed it was the right moment.)

Supusimos que era una buena oportunidad. (We supposed it was a good opportunity.)

Supusieron la respuesta correcta. (They guessed the correct answer.)

Conjugations with English Translations

Conjugations of Suponer (to suppose) 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.