The preterite of saltar is used to express when you jumped or leaped at a specific moment in the past. For example, “The cat jumped onto the table this morning” – “El gato saltó a la mesa esta mañana.”

This verb follows the regular -ar conjugation pattern in the preterite tense. It’s a straightforward verb that follows all the standard rules for regular -ar verbs.

Conjugations

Conjugations of Saltar (to jump) in the Preterite (Past) Tense tense (Castilian Spanish):

The Preterite of saltar indicates completed jumping or leaping actions.

To jump (single action): Describes a specific instance of jumping, for example Saltó la valla (He jumped the fence), or Saltaron al agua (They jumped into the water).

To skip/bypass: Used figuratively for omitting or skipping something, for example Se saltó una página (He skipped a page).

Examples

Examples of Saltar in the Preterite (Past) Tense

Salté de alegría cuando recibí la noticia. (I jumped for joy when I received the news.)

El gato saltó sobre la mesa. (The cat jumped onto the table.)

¿Por qué saltaste la cerca? (Why did you jump over the fence?)

Saltamos el charco para no mojarnos. (We jumped over the puddle to avoid getting wet.)

Los niños saltaron la cuerda en el patio. (The children jumped rope in the yard.)

Saltó del trampolín a la piscina. (He jumped from the diving board into the pool.)

Saltaste varios capítulos del libro. (You skipped several chapters of the book.)

El atleta saltó más de dos metros. (The athlete jumped more than two meters.)

Saltamos de emoción al ganar el partido. (We jumped with excitement when we won the game.)

Las lágrimas saltaron de sus ojos. (Tears sprang from his eyes.)

Salté la página por accidente. (I accidentally skipped the page.)

El canguro saltó muy alto. (The kangaroo jumped very high.)

Saltaron la fila del supermercado. (They cut in line at the supermarket.)

Saltamos la clase de matemáticas. (We skipped math class.)

El caballo saltó el obstáculo con elegancia. (The horse jumped over the obstacle elegantly.)

Conjugations with English Translations

Conjugations of Saltar (to jump) 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.