gastar means: to spend, to use up, to wear out
Click to see all conjugation charts of gastar in every tense

In this Spanish conjugation lesson we will see how to inflect the verb gastar in the Pretérito tense of the Indicativo mood. It means we will see step by step how to create and translate forms of each grammatical person.

This lesson is specifically about the gastar conjugation. For a general overview of all the Simple Tenses conjugation check the Simple Tenses Conjugation Chart.

You may also see this Video Presentation on how to conjugate verbs in Pretérito. It’s embedded below, but using the above link you will get more detailed information on conjugation in this tense as well as explanation of special cases and exceptions.

How to translate Pretérito to English

Note that the phrases in English provided below next to each conjugation are not direct translations from Spanish to English. They are usually the closest general equivalents. The example differences are:

• In Spanish conjugation, there is the form usted in the third person singular. But this person does not translate to the English third person singular. It translates to the so called formal you and uses the inflected form which is most often represented as he/she/it in English conjugation charts.
• Similar situation happens in the third person plural, where ustedes translates to the English plural formal you but uses the form which corresponds to the they form in English.
• Tenses are used differently in Spanish and English, so the actual translation should always take into account the context and focus on translating the meaning, not just words.
• In both languages each verb may have multiple meanings and not every meaning translates directly to the other language. Here also, the context and focusing on the particular meaning helps to create the most accurate translation.

Note the timeline

The ability to properly locate the desired position on the timeline is a crucial skill for the right use of tenses. So pay attention to the timeline in our lessons and visualize it while speaking, listening, writing and reading. After a bit practice you’ll be able to select the right tense to use much easier.

Step by step instructions

Pretérito belongs to the simple tenses group, which means that all of its inflected forms are one word long. There are also compound (compuesto) tenses in Spanish language, where each inflected form consists of two words.The verb gastar has an entirely regular conjugation in the Pretérito tense of the Indicativo mood. It means this verb just follows the basic rules for its group (-ar) without any exceptions or spelling corrections. The basis for the conjugation in this tense is the stem of the verb, so we have to begin by splitting the infinitive into a stem and an ending. It’s very easy to do. Just remove two letters from the end of the infinitive and you have the ending — one of -ar, -er or -ir. What’s left is the stem. So in case of our verb:

• the stem is: gast-
• and the ending is: -ar

Use the stem gast- in each person as the basis for the conjugation, the common prefix that each of the forms begins with. Next, add to this regular stem the endings specific to each person. Check out the image showing all the endings. Notice both the colors and shapes of the letters. It should help you find patterns and make it easier to remember these endings.Each grammatical person has a specific ending in each of the three conjugation groups -ar, -er, -ir. Add the regular ending -é for the first person singular to create gasté:

• yo gasté – I spent

Similarly add the regular ending -aste for the second person singular to create gastaste:

• tú gastaste – you spent

And add the regular ending -ó for the third person singular to create gastó:

• él gastó – he spent
• ella gastó – she spent
• usted gastó – (formal) you spent

And again add the regular ending -amos for the first person plural to create gastamos:

• nosotros gastamos – we spent
• nosotras gastamos – (feminine) we spent

Also as in the previous case add the regular ending -asteis for the second person plural to create gastasteis:

• vosotros gastasteis – (plural) you spent
• vosotras gastasteis – (feminine, plural) you spent

Like previously add the regular ending -aron for the third person plural to create gastaron:

• ellos gastaron – they spent
• ellas gastaron – (feminine) they spent
• ustedes gastaron – (formal, plural) you spent

This is it! The conjugation is now complete. Put together, the conjugation chart looks like this:

yo	gasté	I spent
tú	gastaste	you spent
él/ella/usted	gastó	he/she/it spent
nosotros/nosotras	gastamos	we spent
vosotros/vosotras	gastasteis	you spent
ellos/ellas/ustedes	gastaron	they spent

Click to see all conjugation charts of gastar in every tense
But do not end your session yet – it’s important to repeat and practice the material in order to remember it. Check below for suggestions.

Next Steps to Perfection To practice this conjugation and test your skills try this Conjugation Exercise or the Memory Game To see other conjugation lessons for this verb choose another tense: PresenteImperfectoCondicionalFuturoPretérito Perfecto CompuestoPretérito PluscuamperfectoFuturo PerfectoCondicional PerfectoPretérito Perfecto Compuesto (subjuntivo)Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto A (subjuntivo)Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto B (subjuntivo)Futuro Perfecto (subjuntivo)  For exercises and examples related to gastar visit our Exercise section To see conjugation charts in all tenses for gastar visit the Conjugator To explore other learning materials visit the Study section

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