The preterite of recaer is used to express a specific instance of relapsing or falling back in the past, for example El paciente recayó después del tratamiento (The patient relapsed after the treatment). This tense emphasizes the completed action of relapsing at a particular moment.

This is an irregular verb that changes its stem to ‘recay-‘ in the third person singular and plural forms of the preterite. It also requires written accents on the ‘i’ in most other forms to maintain proper pronunciation.

Conjugations

Conjugations of Recaer (to relapse/fall back) in the Preterite (Past) Tense tense (Latin American Spanish):

The preterite of recaer indicates a completed action of relapsing or falling back in the past.

To relapse: Describes returning to a previous negative state, for example Recayó en su enfermedad (He/she relapsed into their illness) or Recayeron en los mismos errores (They fell back into the same mistakes).

To fall upon: Used when responsibility or blame falls on someone, for example La responsabilidad recayó sobre mí (The responsibility fell upon me).

Examples

Examples of Recaer in the Preterite (Past) Tense

Recaí en la enfermedad después de un mes. (I relapsed into the illness after a month.)

Recaíste en los viejos hábitos. (You fell back into old habits.)

El paciente recayó después del tratamiento. (The patient relapsed after the treatment.)

Recaímos en los mismos errores. (We fell back into the same mistakes.)

Los síntomas recayeron con más fuerza. (The symptoms came back stronger.)

Recaí en la depresión el año pasado. (I relapsed into depression last year.)

Recaíste en el problema de ansiedad. (You relapsed into the anxiety problem.)

La economía recayó en la crisis. (The economy fell back into crisis.)

Recaímos en las deudas. (We fell back into debt.)

Los precios recayeron a niveles bajos. (The prices fell back to low levels.)

Recaí en el insomnio. (I fell back into insomnia.)

Recaíste en la adicción. (You relapsed into addiction.)

El equipo recayó en su mal rendimiento. (The team fell back into poor performance.)

Recaímos en la mala comunicación. (We fell back into poor communication.)

Las ventas recayeron en el último trimestre. (Sales fell back in the last quarter.)

Conjugations with English Translations

Conjugations of Recaer (to relapse/fall back) in the Preterite (Past) Tense tense (Latin American Spanish) with English Translations:

This post covers Latin American Spanish. For Castilian 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.