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Conjugation Chart of “Recaer” (to relapse/fall back) in the Preterite (Past) Tense

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Understanding the Preterite (Past) Tense of “Recaer”

The preterite of recaer is used to express when someone relapsed or fell back into a condition at a specific moment in the past. For example, when you want to say “He relapsed into his old habits last month” – “Él recayó en sus viejos hábitos el mes pasado.”

This is an irregular verb in the preterite tense. It has an irregular stem change to ‘recay-‘ in the third person singular and plural forms.

How to Use Recaer in the Preterite (Past) Tense

The Preterite of recaer expresses specific instances of relapsing or falling back.

To relapse: Used for specific instances of falling ill again, for example Recayó en su enfermedad (They relapsed into their illness), or El paciente recayó después del tratamiento (The patient relapsed after the treatment).

To fall back into: Describes returning to a previous negative state, for example Recayó en sus viejos hábitos (They fell back into their old habits).

Real Life Examples of Recaer in the Preterite (Past) Tense

Recaí en mis viejos hábitos durante las vacaciones. (I fell back into my old habits during vacation.)

El paciente recayó después de un mes de mejoría. (The patient relapsed after a month of improvement.)

Lamentablemente, recaíste en el mismo error. (Unfortunately, you fell into the same mistake again.)

Todos recayeron en la tentación del buffet. (Everyone fell back into the temptation of the buffet.)

Recaímos en nuestras viejas costumbres. (We fell back into our old ways.)

La responsabilidad recayó sobre el equipo directivo. (The responsibility fell upon the management team.)

¿Por qué recaíste en ese comportamiento? (Why did you fall back into that behavior?)

La sospecha recayó inmediatamente sobre él. (Suspicion immediately fell upon him.)

Recaí en la misma situación del año pasado. (I fell back into the same situation as last year.)

El peso del proyecto recayó sobre nosotros. (The weight of the project fell upon us.)

Después del accidente, recayó en una depresión. (After the accident, they relapsed into depression.)

Recaímos en el mismo problema técnico. (We encountered the same technical problem again.)

La decisión final recayó en el juez. (The final decision fell to the judge.)

Recayeron en sus antiguos errores. (They fell back into their old mistakes.)

El honor recayó sobre nuestra familia. (The honor fell upon our family.)

Conjugation Chart with English Translations

Conjugations of Recaer (to relapse/fall back) in the Preterite (Past) 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.