Oíste

Oíste is the second-person singular preterite form of the Spanish verb oír, meaning to hear or to listen. It translates as you heard and is used with the informal pronoun tú. The form is part of the irregular oír conjugation in the preterite, with the pattern yo oí, tú oíste, él oyó, nosotros oímos, vosotros oísteis, ellos oyeron. The accent on the í marks the stressed syllable.

In usage, oíste describes a completed act of hearing in the past. It is commonly found in questions such as ¿Oíste eso? “Did you hear that?” and in statements like Oíste lo que dijo. It contrasts with oyó (he/she/you formal heard) and with oía (imperfect: was hearing or used to hear). Regional variation may affect frequency, but oíste remains a standard form in informal conversation across many Spanish-speaking communities.

Phonology and spelling are straightforward: the word is written with an accent on í to indicate the correct stress. Pronunciation is typically rendered roughly as o-EE-ste in many dialects. As a common past-tense form of oír, oíste frequently appears not only in everyday speech but also in written dialogue, lyrics, and other media that reflect natural conversational Spanish.

See also: oír, Spanish verb conjugation, tú forms.