sucedí

Sucedí is the first-person singular form of the Spanish verb suceder in the preterite (indicative) tense. It denotes a completed past action related to following, happening, or succeeding in a sequence, depending on the sense of the verb. In everyday use, suceder most often means “to happen” or “to occur,” as in events or situations, but it can also express that one thing followed another in time or that someone took over a position.

Etymology and relation to related forms: Suceder comes from Latin succedere, formed with sub- meaning “under, after” and cedere meaning “to go or yield.” The form sucedí follows regular -er verb conjugation in the preterite. Other key preterite forms are tú sucediste, él/ella/usted sucedió, nosotros sucedimos, vosotros sucedisteis, ellos/ellas/ustedes sucedieron. The imperfect is sucedía, and the present tense is sucede, among other forms.

Usage notes: In modern Spanish, suceder is common in impersonal constructions or with subjects that denote events (“Pasó algo” would be more natural than “Yo sucedí algo” for difficult-to-parse ideas). When describing someone taking over a role, the typical construction is “suceder a alguien” (to succeed someone), as in “El nuevo director sucedió al anterior”; the active form “yo sucedí” is used to indicate that the speaker personally took over a position. The sense “to occur to someone” is usually expressed with reflexive or indirect-object pronouns (me sucedió).

Examples: “Ayer sucedió un incendio” (an event happened yesterday). “Yo sucedí al director en el cargo” (I succeeded the director). “El siglo X sucedió al IX” (the X century followed the IX).