The preterite of llegar is used to express when you arrived at a specific moment in the past. For example, “I arrived at the airport on time” – “Llegué al aeropuerto a tiempo.”

This verb follows the -gar spelling-changing pattern in the preterite. The ‘g’ changes to ‘gu’ before ‘e’ to maintain the same sound, which occurs in the yo form (llegué).

Conjugations

Conjugations of Llegar (to arrive) in the Preterite (Past) Tense tense (Castilian Spanish):

The Preterite of llegar expresses completed actions of arriving or reaching.

To arrive: Used for reaching a destination at a specific time or moment, for example Llegué tarde a la reunión (I arrived late to the meeting), or El tren llegó a tiempo (The train arrived on time).

To reach/attain: Indicates achieving or reaching a goal or state, for example Llegaron a un acuerdo (They reached an agreement), or Por fin llegó el momento (The moment finally arrived).

To amount to/come to: Used for reaching quantities or amounts, for example Los gastos llegaron a mil dólares (The expenses came to a thousand dollars).

Examples

Examples of Llegar in the Preterite (Past) Tense

Llegué tarde a la reunión. (I arrived late to the meeting.)

El tren llegó con retraso. (The train arrived late.)

¿A qué hora llegaste ayer? (What time did you arrive yesterday?)

Llegamos justo a tiempo para la película. (We arrived just in time for the movie.)

Los invitados llegaron para la cena. (The guests arrived for dinner.)

Por fin llegó el paquete que esperaba. (The package I was waiting for finally arrived.)

Llegaste cuando ya nos íbamos. (You arrived when we were already leaving.)

El avión llegó antes de lo previsto. (The plane arrived earlier than expected.)

Llegamos al hotel después de medianoche. (We arrived at the hotel after midnight.)

¿Cuándo llegaron las noticias? (When did the news arrive?)

Llegué a casa empapado por la lluvia. (I arrived home soaked from the rain.)

El nuevo empleado llegó esta mañana. (The new employee arrived this morning.)

Llegamos exhaustos del viaje. (We arrived exhausted from the trip.)

La primavera llegó temprano este año. (Spring arrived early this year.)

Mis padres llegaron de sorpresa. (My parents arrived as a surprise.)

Conjugations with English Translations

Conjugations of Llegar (to arrive) 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.