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Fuimos al resturante y comimos pasta.

I was doing some exercise on past tense on Spanish language and this very first question made me confused that how this is a past tense.

The application on my mobile said the right answer was

We went to the resturant and ate pasta.

But why cannot this be

We go the resturant and eat pasta.

I don't know the way it has been constructed so that it has become a past tense.

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3 Answers 3

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Fuimos is the past tense form of ir (to go). Present tense would be vamos. Likewise, the present tense form of comer (to eat) is comemos.

"Vamos al restaurante y comemos pasta" would be present tense, first person, plural.

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  • Is there a certain trick to know the past tense of any verb like Vamos and comemos ? Or we have to memorize the past tense of verb as well?
    – Four Seasons
    Commented Mar 1, 2015 at 3:16
  • There is a pattern that is followed, though ir is one of the exceptions to the rule. A book such as 501 Spanish Verbs shows all of the conjugations of the most commonly used verbs.
    – Kent A.
    Commented Mar 1, 2015 at 4:48
  • conjugation.org also shows the patterns.
    – Kent A.
    Commented Mar 1, 2015 at 4:54
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    @idiosincrasia23 las conjugaciones verbales en español se rigen por una tabla de "desinencias", que así se le llama a las terminaciones verbales, que en su 80% son aplicables a todos los verbos, y si cambian, también cambian siguiendo unas reglas, bien por la deformación de una letra en diptongo, o bien por el cambio de una desinencia a otra irregular, pero siempre, como he dicho, siguiendo una regla. Lo que no puedes preguntar, amigo, es que porqué un tiempo verbal está en pasado, eso como si yo te digo en inglés que por qué 'ate' es pasado. Porque esa es su forma en pasado y debes conocerla.
    – JuanRocamonde
    Commented Mar 31, 2015 at 8:38
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Spanish is a bit like Latin in that verbs have fairly complex conjugations and there are several basic conjugations that follow standard rules which, as you fear, have to be memorized. There are three basic conjugations for regular verbs. And then there are oodles of irregular verbs.

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Both "comimos" and "fuimos" are past tense. There is a pattern you can follow to form the conjugations, but keep in mind that some verbs (many common ones) are irregular and will vary. This is the model for regular -ar, -er, -ir verbs in the pretérito perfecto simple:

                    AR       ER/IR
yo                  -é       -í
tú                  -aste    -iste
él/ella/usted       -ó       -ió
nosotros            -amos    -imos
vosotros            -asteis  -isteis
ellos/ellas/ustedes -aron    -ieron
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