Past Actions in Spanish (short texts and conversations)

Welcome to a new lesson. This time, we will cover some essential phrases and questions to talk about past actions in Spanish. You will have the chance to read and listen to many examples about weekend activities in Spanish, learn a bit about the preterite tense, and practice with two listening activities and interactive exercises. Let’s start…

The preterite tense and past actions in Spanish

First, the preterite tense in Spanish (el pretérito indefinido) is essential to talk about past actions, including what you did last weekend – “el fin de semana pasado”. You should know that the past tense in Spanish has two forms, one called the preterite tense used for actions that happened and are totally over such as “Fui al cine” (I went to the movies), and one for repeated or simultaneous actions like “Miraba la televisión cuando sentí el terremoto…” (I was watching TV when…). In general, the first is the predominant grammatical tense to form sentences about activities from the past in Spanish.

The following image shows some popular weekend activities in Spanish, which we will later use in short conversations in this lesson.

Making sentences about past actions in Spanish

As we mentioned before, it’s very common to use the preterite tense of verbs to talk about things we did in the past, such as our activities last weekend. Remember that there are rules for conjugating verbs so they agree with the subject of the sentence, whether they are regular or irregular. The image below shows three examples of verbs with their conjugations in the preterite tense in Spanish, including the regular verbs “mirar” and “comer”, as well as the verb “dormir” which undergoes a stem change for some conjugations.

conjugating verbs in the preterite tense in Spanish to talk about last weekend activities

Pay attention to the following examples using some of the weekend activities in Spanish in the image above.

HACER – ¿Qué hiciste tú el fin de semana pasado?

DO – What did you do last weekend?

VISITAR – Mi familia y yo visitamos el zoológico local. Nos encantó ver los animales.

VISIT – My family and I visited the local zoo. We loved seeing the animals.

REUNIRSE – Yo me reuní con mis amigos. Celebramos mi cumpleaños y tomamos muchas fotos.

GETTING TOGETHER – I got together with my friends. We celebrated my birthday and took lots of photos.

IR A UNA EXCURSIÓN – Yo fui a una excursión. Monté mi bicicleta y recorrí el bosque.

GO ON A HIKING – I went on a hiking trip. I rode my bike and rode through the forest.

ORGANIZAR ALGO – Ella organizó una noche de películas con sus amigas.

ORGANIZE SOMETHING – She organized a movie night with her friends./div>

CUIDAR DE LAS PLANTAS – Los niños y yo cuidamos y abonamos las plantas del jardín.

TAKE CARE OF THE PLANTS – The children and I took care of and fertilized the plants in the garden.

JUGAR AJEDREZ – Yo invité a mis primos a casa y jugamos en un torneo de ajedrez.

PLAY CHESS – I invited my cousins over and we played in a chess tournament.

COCINAR – Él organizó una reunión con sus amigos y cocinó un asado de res delicioso.

COOKING – He organized a get-together with his friends and cooked some delicious roast beef.

VISITAR – Ellos manejaron su auto por 8 horas para visitar a sus abuelos.

VISIT – They drove their car for 8 hours to visit their grandparents.

PRACTICAR – Yo practiqué fútbol con mi equipo el sábado y practiqué piano el domingo.

PRACTICE – I practiced soccer with my team on Saturday and practiced piano on Sunday.

Interactive exercise No. 1

Fill in the blanks with the preterite tense of the verbs in parentheses to complete the weekend activities on the test. You can use a conjugation tool to check that you are using each verb correctly.

Talking about last weekend in Spanish (sample conversations)

Below are two short sample conversations using several of the activities we saw in the examples above, and many more. In these types of conversations, it’s always a good idea to add sequence adverbs such as “primero” (first), “luego” (then) and “por último” (last) as they are very useful to tell stories or lay out a sequence of events in Spanish.

Short text in the past tense No. 1: What I did last weekend in Spanish

It’s time to listen to the first example. Pay attention to how this person follows the rules for the past tense to create a nice paragraph about his weekend in Spanish. The verbs in infinitive in this example are: ser, hacer, estar, arreglar, limpiar, lavar, visitar, platicar, ir, bailar, pasar, dormir y leer.

Lo que hice el fin de semana pasado

El fin de semana pasado fue muy entretenido. El sábado por la mañana, estuve en mi casa e hice los quehaceres. Arreglé mi cama, limpié mi cuarto y lavé mi ropa sucia. El sábado por la tarde visité a mis abuelos. Platicamos un rato y luego fui a comprar ropa. Por la noche, mis amigos y yo fuimos a una discoteca. Bailamos toda la noche y la pasamos muy bien. El domingo dormí hasta mediodía. Por la tarde, leí un libro y por la noche fui al cine.

Show translation: What I did last weekend in Spanish

Last weekend was very entertaining. On Saturday morning, I stayed at home and did the chores. I made my bed, cleaned my room, and washed my dirty clothes. On Saturday afternoon, I visited my grandparents. We talked for a while, and then I went to buy clothes. At night, my friends and I went to a disco. We danced all night and had a good time. On Sunday, I slept until noon. In the afternoon, I read a book and at night I went to the movies.

Short text in the past tense No. 2: Talking about my weekend in Spanish

Read the following short text in the past tense in Spanish about this girl’s weekend and answer the questions in the interactive quiz about it.

Interactive exercise No. 2

What did you do last weekend in Spanish?

The following example is a short conversation in the Spanish past tense about someone’s weekend activities. The key questions in this short conversation are:

“¿Qué hiciste el fin de semana?” (what did you do last weekend?).
“¿Qué hiciste el sábado?” (What did you do on Saturday?)
“¿Qué tal tu domingo?” (What about your Sunday?).

The verbs you will see in the dialogue are: estar, tener, hacer, mirar, organizar, invitar, reventar, bailar, jugar, comer, salir, limpiar, poder and pasar.

¿Qué hiciste el fin de semana pasado?

Listening Activity No. 1: How I spent my weekend in Spanish

Listen to someone discussing the activities they did last weekend in Spanish, including several in the examples above. Then, solve the interactive quiz about it. ¡Buena suerte!

Last weekend in Spanish and the preterite tense / El fin de semana pasado y el pretérito indefinido en español

Audio script: How I spent my weekend in Spanish

¡Hola! Soy Gary. Te voy a contar un poco sobre mi fin de semana. El sábado por la mañana trabajé hasta las 12 del mediodía. Luego, almorcé con unos amigos en un restaurante cubano. La comida estuvo deliciosa. Por la tarde fui a una exposición de arte en el museo local. Me gustó mucho. En la noche, cociné comida vegetariana en mi casa y luego miré una película. El domingo, fui a una montaña al norte de la ciudad. El lugar es perfecto para descansar y para disfrutar de la naturaleza. Las actividades que hice el fin de semana pasado me ayudaron mucho a reducir el estrés.

Listening Activity No. 2: Talking about your weekend in Spanish

Listen to a short conversation between two friends discussing their weekend in Spanish. Take notes and use this information to complete the interactive quiz for this listening activity.

Key expressions in the conversation:

“Se pasó volando“, means “It flew by”
“No fue tan entretenido“, means “It was not that fun”
“Tengo una idea… ¿qué te parece?”, means “I have an idea… what if we…”

Conversation script: Talking about last weekend in Spanish

Alex: ¡Qué rápido que pasó el fin de semana! ¿Verdad?
Juan: Si, se pasó volando. ¿Qué hiciste tú el fin de semana pasado?
Alex: Tuve un fin de semana ocupado. El sábado, trabajé toda la mañana en un nuevo proyecto. Fue difícil terminar, pero terminé a tiempo para el almuerzo. Almorcé con mi familia y luego regresé a trabajar en una presentación ¿Qué tal estuvo tu sábado?
Juan: Pues mira, mi sábado no estuvo tan ocupado. Yo no tengo que trabajar los sábados, así que me desperté a las 10 de la mañana. Jugué futbol con mis amigos y por la tarde fui a la fiesta de cumpleaños de la hija de Carlos. Había muchos niños en esa fiesta… ese fue mi sábado. ¿Qué hiciste el domingo?
Alex: El domingo hice algunos de los quehaceres de la casa, tú sabes, limpiar, lavar la ropa y esas cosas. Después de terminar decidí ir a un lago muy hermoso llamado el Lago del Sol y la Luna. El agua es cristalina y de color turquesa. Hay muchas cosas que hacer ahí. ¡Tienes que ir!
Juan: He escuchado que ese lago es muy hermoso. Mi domingo no fue tan entretenido. Simplemente jugué juegos de video y comí todo el día. Nada interesante.
Alex: Oye… tengo una idea… que te parece si vamos a Pingxi el próximo fin de semana. Esa villa es famosa por el festival de las linternas de Taiwán.
Juan: Excelente idea. Vamos entonces.

You made it to the end of this lesson. We hope you now have a better idea on how to talk about your weekend in Spanish. Remember that “la práctica hace al maestro” (practice makes perfect). ¡Hasta la próxima lección!