perjudicaste

Perjudicaste is the second-person singular preterite form of the Spanish verb perjudicar, meaning to harm, injure, or damage someone or something. It translates to "you harmed" or "you damaged" in English and is used to refer to a completed action in the past when addressing someone directly as “tú.”

Grammatical notes: Perjudicar is a regular -ar verb. In the preterite tense, the tú form ends with -aste, producing perjudicaste. The stem is perjudic-, and the verb takes a direct object to indicate what is harmed (for example, a person’s interests, a project, or a reputation). A common usage is “Me perjudicaste ayer” (You harmed me yesterday) or “La decisión te perjudicó” (The decision harmed you).

Usage and nuance: The term covers various senses of harm, including physical injury, financial loss, damage to reputation, or hindrance of someone’s interests. It can appear in everyday speech, journalism, and literature. While the emphasis is on past harm, it remains transitive and can pair with direct objects or clausal complements to specify the consequence.

Etymology: Perjudicar comes from Latin prejudicare, from per- (completely, wrongly) + judicare (to judge), historically implying to injure or cause undue harm.

Related forms: The base verb is perjudicar; related forms include perjudicion (rare) or the past participle perjudicado, and reflexive perjudicarse (to harm oneself or one’s own interests). The infinitive, gerund, and other conjugations follow standard -ar verb patterns.

See also: perjudicar, perjudicado, perjudicar a alguien, perjudicarse.