The preterite of distribuir is used to express when you distributed something at a specific moment in the past. For example, when you want to say “The company distributed the new products last month” – “La empresa distribuyó los productos nuevos el mes pasado.”

This verb follows the -uir spelling-changing pattern in the preterite tense. The ‘i’ changes to ‘y’ in the third person singular and plural forms (distribuyó, distribuyeron) to maintain proper pronunciation.

Conjugations

Conjugations of Distribuir (to distribute) in the Preterite (Past) Tense tense (Castilian Spanish):

The Preterite of distribuir indicates completed acts of distribution.

To distribute/hand out: Used for completing the distribution of items, for example Distribuí los folletos en la conferencia (I distributed the brochures at the conference), or Distribuyeron los premios al final del evento (They distributed the prizes at the end of the event).

To allocate/assign: Describes dividing or assigning resources, for example Distribuyeron el presupuesto entre los departamentos (They allocated the budget among the departments).

Examples

Examples of Distribuir in the Preterite (Past) Tense

Distribuí los folletos por toda la ciudad. (I distributed the flyers throughout the city.)

Distribuiste bien el trabajo entre todos. (You distributed the work well among everyone.)

La empresa distribuyó los beneficios. (The company distributed the profits.)

Distribuimos los regalos en Navidad. (We distributed the gifts at Christmas.)

Distribuyeron agua durante la emergencia. (They distributed water during the emergency.)

Distribuí el peso uniformemente en las cajas. (I distributed the weight evenly in the boxes.)

¿Cómo distribuiste los muebles? (How did you distribute the furniture?)

El profesor distribuyó los exámenes. (The teacher distributed the exams.)

Distribuimos las tareas del proyecto. (We distributed the project tasks.)

Distribuyeron comida a los necesitados. (They distributed food to those in need.)

Distribuí los documentos entre los participantes. (I distributed the documents among the participants.)

Distribuiste mal el tiempo. (You distributed the time poorly.)

El gobierno distribuyó ayuda humanitaria. (The government distributed humanitarian aid.)

Distribuimos volantes en el evento. (We distributed flyers at the event.)

Distribuyeron las invitaciones ayer. (They distributed the invitations yesterday.)

Conjugations with English Translations

Conjugations of Distribuir (to distribute) 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.