almorzar Preterite Conjugation
almorzar — to have lunch
Almorzar has a spelling change in the 'yo' form (almorcé) but follows regular -ar endings otherwise.
almorzar Preterite Forms
When to Use the Preterite
Use the preterite for lunch dates or meals that happened at a specific point in time, like 'yesterday' or 'at 2 PM'.
Notes on almorzar in the Preterite
To keep the soft 's' sound of the 'z' before an 'e', the 'z' changes to 'c' in the 'yo' form: almorcé. The rest of the forms are regular.
Example Sentences
Ayer almorcé con mi abuela en el centro.
Yesterday I had lunch with my grandmother downtown.
yo
¿A qué hora almorzaste tú?
What time did you have lunch?
tú
Nosotros almorzamos muy tarde el domingo.
We had lunch very late on Sunday.
nosotros
Common Mistakes
Mistake: Writing 'almorzé' for the yo form.
Correct: almorcé
Why: In Spanish, the letter 'z' almost never appears before 'e' or 'i'; it changes to a 'c' to maintain the same sound.
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Related Tenses
Present
yo: almuerzo
Almorzar is a stem-changing verb where the 'o' becomes 'ue' in all forms except nosotros and vosotros.
Imperfect
yo: almorzaba
Almorzar is regular in the imperfect: almorzaba, almorzabas, almorzaba, etc.
Future
yo: almorzaré
Almorzar is completely regular in the future tense; just add the endings to the full infinitive.
Conditional
yo: almorzaría
The conditional of almorzar is regular: almorzaría, almorzarías, almorzaría.
Present Subjunctive
yo: almuerce
Combines the 'o > ue' stem change with the 'z > c' spelling change (almuerce, almuerces).
Imperfect Subjunctive
yo: almorzara
The imperfect subjunctive of almorzar is regular based on the third-person plural preterite: almorzara, almorzaras.
Affirmative Imperative
yo: almuerza
Use 'almuerza' (tú) or 'almuerce' (usted) to tell someone to eat lunch.
Negative Imperative
yo: no almuerces
Negative commands for almorzar always use the present subjunctive forms: no almuerces, no almuerce.