The preterite of entender is used to express when you understood something at a specific moment in the past. For example, “I finally understood the concept yesterday” – “Por fin entendí el concepto ayer.”

This verb follows the regular -er conjugation pattern in the preterite tense. Despite being a stem-changing verb in the present tense, it follows regular patterns in the preterite.

Conjugations

Conjugations of Entender (to understand) in the Preterite (Past) Tense tense (Castilian Spanish):

The Preterite of entender expresses the moment of understanding or comprehending something.

To understand: Indicates when comprehension occurred, for example Entendí el problema (I understood the problem), or Entendieron la explicación (They understood the explanation).

To grasp a concept: Refers to the moment of realization, for example Por fin entendí las matemáticas (I finally understood mathematics).

Examples

Examples of Entender in the Preterite (Past) Tense

Por fin entendí el concepto. (I finally understood the concept.)

¿Entendiste las instrucciones? (Did you understand the instructions?)

Ella no entendió el chiste. (She didn’t understand the joke.)

Entendimos la situación inmediatamente. (We understood the situation immediately.)

Los estudiantes entendieron la lección perfectamente. (The students understood the lesson perfectly.)

¿Cuándo entendiste el problema? (When did you understand the problem?)

Entendí tu punto de vista después de tu explicación. (I understood your point of view after your explanation.)

Finalmente entendieron el mensaje. (They finally understood the message.)

Entendimos la gravedad del asunto. (We understood the gravity of the matter.)

¿Entendiste por qué lo hizo? (Did you understand why they did it?)

Nadie entendió la razón de su decisión. (Nobody understood the reason for their decision.)

Entendí la película después de verla dos veces. (I understood the movie after watching it twice.)

Los expertos entendieron el fenómeno rápidamente. (The experts understood the phenomenon quickly.)

Entendimos las consecuencias demasiado tarde. (We understood the consequences too late.)

Por fin entendió el significado de sus palabras. (Finally, he understood the meaning of their words.)

Conjugations with English Translations

Conjugations of Entender (to understand) 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.