marcar Preterite Conjugation
marcar — dial
The preterite of marcar has a spelling change in the first person: marqué, marcaste, marcó, marcamos, marcasteis, marcaron.
marcar Preterite Forms
When to Use the Preterite
Use the preterite to talk about a specific time you dialed a number, scored a goal, or marked an item on a list. It's for actions that happened once and finished.
Notes on marcar in the Preterite
The 'yo' form changes from 'c' to 'qu' (marqué) to keep the hard 'k' sound. Without it, 'marce' would sound like 'mar-seh'. Other forms are regular.
Example Sentences
Marqué el número equivocado.
I dialed the wrong number.
yo
Messi marcó un gol increíble ayer.
Messi scored an incredible goal yesterday.
él/ella/usted
Marcamos la fecha en el calendario.
We marked the date on the calendar.
nosotros
Common Mistakes
Mistake: marcé
Correct: marqué
Why: In Spanish, 'ce' makes an 's' or 'th' sound. To keep the hard 'k' sound of 'marcar', you must use 'qu'.
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Related Tenses
Present
yo: marco
The present tense of marcar is completely regular: marco, marcas, marca, marcamos, marcáis, marcan.
Imperfect
yo: marcaba
The imperfect of marcar is regular: marcaba, marcabas, marcaba, marcábamos, marcabais, marcaban.
Future
yo: marcaré
The future tense is formed by adding endings to the full infinitive: marcaré, marcarás, marcará, marcaremos, marcaréis, marcarán.
Conditional
yo: marcaría
The conditional uses the infinitive plus -ía endings: marcaría, marcarías, marcaría, marcaríamos, marcaríais, marcarían.
Present Subjunctive
yo: marque
The present subjunctive uses a 'qu' spelling change: marque, marques, marque, marquemos, marquéis, marquen.
Imperfect Subjunctive
yo: marcara
The imperfect subjunctive is regular: marcara, marcaras, marcara, marcáramos, marcarais, marcaran.
Affirmative Imperative
yo: marca
Give commands with marcar: marca (tú), marque (usted), marcad (vosotros), marquen (ustedes).
Negative Imperative
yo: no marques
Negative commands use the subjunctive with 'no': no marques, no marque, no marquemos, no marquéis, no marquen.