The preterite of cruzar is used to express when someone crossed something at a specific moment in the past. For example, when you want to say “I crossed the street when the light turned green” – “Crucé la calle cuando el semáforo se puso verde.”

This verb follows the -zar spelling-changing pattern in the preterite tense. The ‘z’ changes to ‘c’ before ‘e’ to maintain the same sound, which occurs in the yo form (crucé).

Conjugations

Conjugations of Cruzar (to cross) in the Preterite (Past) Tense tense (Castilian Spanish):

The Preterite of cruzar indicates completed acts of crossing.

To cross/traverse: Used for crossing physical spaces, for example Crucé la calle con cuidado (I crossed the street carefully), or Cruzaron el puente (They crossed the bridge).

To intersect: Refers to paths meeting or crossing, for example Se cruzaron nuestros caminos (Our paths crossed).

Examples

Examples of Cruzar in the Preterite (Past) Tense

Crucé la calle sin mirar. (I crossed the street without looking.)

El barco cruzó el océano en diez días. (The ship crossed the ocean in ten days.)

¿Cruzaste el puente a pie? (Did you cross the bridge on foot?)

Cruzamos la frontera al amanecer. (We crossed the border at dawn.)

Las aves cruzaron el cielo en formación. (The birds crossed the sky in formation.)

Se me cruzó un gato negro. (A black cat crossed my path.)

Cruzaste la línea cuando dijiste eso. (You crossed the line when you said that.)

Crucé el desierto en tres días. (I crossed the desert in three days.)

Los atletas cruzaron la meta juntos. (The athletes crossed the finish line together.)

Cruzamos miradas en la fiesta. (Our eyes met at the party.)

El tren cruzó el país de este a oeste. (The train crossed the country from east to west.)

Cruzaste medio mundo para verme. (You crossed half the world to see me.)

Se nos cruzó un ciervo en la carretera. (A deer crossed our path on the highway.)

Cruzaron el río en una balsa. (They crossed the river on a raft.)

Crucé los dedos para tener suerte. (I crossed my fingers for luck.)

Conjugations with English Translations

Conjugations of Cruzar (to cross) 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.