vestir means: to dress
Click to see all conjugation charts of vestir in every tense

In this Spanish conjugation lesson we will see how to inflect the verb vestir 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 vestir verb conjugation. For a general overview of all the Simple Tenses conjugation check our Simple Tenses Conjugation Chart.

We also have a Video Presentation on how to conjugate verbs in Pretérito. It’s embedded below, but using the above link you will get additional information on conjugation in this tense and 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 correctly locate the intended position on the timeline is an important skill for proper 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 the inflected forms are one word long. There are also compound (compuesto) tenses in the Spanish language, where each conjugated verb form consists of two words. The verb vestir has an irregular conjugation in the Pretérito tense of the Indicativo mood. The first person singular has a regular stem. So we need to use vest- as the basis for this person’s form. Add the regular ending -í for this person to get vestí:

• yo vestí – I dressed

And similarly the second person singular has a regular stem. So we need to use vest- as the basis for this form. And again add the regular ending -iste for this person to get vestiste:

• tú vestiste – you dressed

The third person singular has an irregular stem in this tense.

This verb belongs to the group which gets a change of the last e in the stem into an i.

It’s convenient to think about this change as happening only in:

• persons 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd singular and 3^rd plural of Presente Indicativo
  
• 3^rd person singular & plural of Pretérito Perfecto Simple
  
• Gerundio

but influencing all the grammatical persons of all the Imperative and simple Subjunctive tenses. That’s because their forms are created based on either the 3^rd person singular of Presente de Indicativo or the 3^rd person plural of Pretérito Perfecto Simple de Indicativo.

Note: the above is true when the 1^st person singular of Presente is not completely irregular. If it is, tenses which normally use the 3^rd person’s form as the basis of their conjugation, use the 1^st person’s form of Presente instead.

So in the regular stem vest change e to i to get vist. But at least the ending is regular for this person. It is -ió as normally in the -ir verb group. Add it to the stem to get:

• él vistió – he dressed
• ella vistió – she dressed
• usted vistió – (formal) you dressed

And once more the first person plural has a regular stem. So simply use vest- as the basis for this person’s form. As before add the regular ending -imos for this person to get vestimos:

• nosotros vestimos – we dressed
• nosotras vestimos – (feminine) we dressed

And similarly the second person plural has a regular stem. So simply use vest- as the basis for this person’s form. And add the regular ending -isteis for this person to get vestisteis:

• vosotros vestisteis – (plural) you dressed
• vosotras vestisteis – (feminine, plural) you dressed

The third person plural also has an irregular stem in this tense.

So as explained before we need to change e to i in the regular stem vest to get vist. Similarly the ending is regular for this person. It is -ieron as normally in the -ir verb group. Add it to the stem to get:

• ellos vistieron – they dressed
• ellas vistieron – (feminine) they dressed
• ustedes vistieron – (formal, plural) you dressed

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

yo	vestí	I dressed
tú	vestiste	you dressed
él/ella/usted	vistió	he/she/it dressed
nosotros/nosotras	vestimos	we dressed
vosotros/vosotras	vestisteis	you dressed
ellos/ellas/ustedes	vistieron	they dressed

Click to see all conjugation charts of vestir in every tense
But do not end your session yet – it is very important to repeat and practice the material in order to retain it. Check below for some links.

Next Steps to Perfection To practice this conjugation and test yourself 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 vestir visit our Exercise section To see conjugation charts in all tenses for vestir visit the Conjugator To explore other learning materials visit the Study section

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