The past tense of the verbs SER and IR has the exact same form. Students may find this challenging. That is why we created this infographic for Spanish teachers to print as a poster in three different sizes for the classroom: Letter, Legal and Tabloid sizes.
The infographic includes the following information for your students to review the preterite of SER and IR.
The Preterite of SER and IR: Describing Past Actions
In the preterite tense, the verbs SER and IR are irregular. Note that they have the same forms.
| SER | IR | |
| YO | fui | fui |
| TÚ | fuiste | fuiste |
| USTED ÉL/ELLA |
fue | fue |
| NOSOTROS NOSOTRAS |
fuimos | fuimos |
| VOSOTROS VOSOTRAS |
fuisteis | fuisteis |
| USTEDES ELLOS/ELLAS |
fueron | fueron |
The context in which the verb is used in the sentence will tell you if it is SER or IR.
You can also try to change the verb tense of the sentence and see if the sentence makes sense.
José fue a México.
José irá a México.
José fue policía.
José será policía
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