permitiste

Permitiste is the second-person singular form in the pretérito indefinido (simple past) of the Spanish verb permitir. It means “you allowed” or “you permitted,” referring to a completed action in which the subject informal tú granted permission to someone or something.

Usage and meaning: as a transitive verb, permitir requires a direct object or a subordinate clause indicating what was allowed. Common constructions include me permitiste entrar (you allowed me to enter), no me permitiste explicarlo (you didn’t allow me to explain it), and ¿qué te permitiste hacer? (what did you permit yourself to do?). The form is used in narratives, conversations, and reported speech to indicate a past permission by the interlocutor.

Etymology: permitir comes from the Latin permittere, meaning to allow or permit. The word entered the Spanish lexicon with the sense of granting permission and remains closely related to cognate terms in other Romance languages and to the English verb “permit.”

Conjugation note: permitirse is also used pronominally in the sense of “to allow oneself.” The tú form in the simple past is permitiste; the corresponding forms in the full conjugation are:

- yo permití

- tú permitiste

- él/ella/usted permitió

- nosotros/nosotras permitimos

- vosotros/vosotras permitisteis

- ellos/ellas/ustedes permitieron

Usage across dialects: permitiste is widely used in both Spain and Latin America. The formal past forms for usted/ustedes follow the same pattern as él/ella/ellos, with “permitió” for usted and “permitieron” for ustedes.