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Conjugation Chart

“Preguntar” (to ask) in the Preterite (Past) Tense

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Understanding the Preterite (Past) Tense of “Preguntar”

The preterite of preguntar is used to express when someone asked a question at a specific moment in the past. For example, when you want to say “I asked the teacher about the homework” – “Pregunté al profesor sobre la tarea.”

This verb follows the regular -ar conjugation pattern in the preterite tense. It’s typically followed by ‘a’ when specifying who was asked, and ‘sobre’ or ‘por’ when specifying what was asked about.

How to Use Preguntar in the Preterite (Past) Tense

The Preterite of preguntar expresses specific instances of asking questions.

To ask: Used for specific questions or inquiries, for example Pregunté por el precio (I asked about the price), or Me preguntaron la dirección (They asked me for directions).

To inquire formally: Describes official or formal inquiries, for example Preguntaron por su experiencia en la entrevista (They asked about their experience in the interview).

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

Le pregunté la hora. (I asked him/her for the time.)

¿Le preguntaste su nombre? (Did you ask for their name?)

Preguntó por ti esta mañana. (He/she asked about you this morning.)

Preguntamos direcciones al policía. (We asked the police officer for directions.)

Los estudiantes preguntaron muchas dudas. (The students asked many questions.)

Le pregunté sobre su viaje. (I asked him/her about their trip.)

¿Por qué no preguntaste antes? (Why didn’t you ask before?)

Preguntó el precio del boleto. (He/she asked for the ticket price.)

Preguntamos por el camino al museo. (We asked for directions to the museum.)

Me preguntaron mi opinión. (They asked me for my opinion.)

Le pregunté si quería venir. (I asked if he/she wanted to come.)

Preguntaste la respuesta correcta. (You asked the right question.)

Nadie preguntó por el documento. (Nobody asked about the document.)

Preguntamos sobre los horarios. (We asked about the schedules.)

Preguntaron por los detalles del evento. (They asked about the event details.)

Conjugation Chart with English Translations

Conjugations of Preguntar (to ask) 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.