Regular Preterite Verbs Short Story & Activity: Mi amigo y yo probamos nuevas comidas en San Juan, Puerto Rico (Video & PDF)

This activity is designed for beginning learners to get introduced to regular preterite verb conjugations while practicing with vocabulary for food & drinks. It also invites students to learn more about Puerto Rican food.

The first half of the video introduces regular preterite verb conjugations for -ar & -er/ir verbs. It also explains “spelling change” verbs (-CAR, -GAR, -ZAR –> -QUÉ, GUÉ, CÉ) with the examples llegar – yo llegué and pagar – yo pagué.

Note: This activity does not include any irregular or stem-changing verbs.

The read-along story begins at minute 5:48 of the video. It is narrated by a Spanish-speaker from Zacatecas, México.

The free PDF activity sheet features prompts for pre- and post-viewing discussion, charts & brief questions about regular preterite conjugations based on the video, and a cloze activity with the story.

Any comments or suggestions are welcome!

If you use this with your students, I´d love to hear how it goes!