vinieron

Vinieron is the third-person plural preterite indicative form of the Spanish verb venir, meaning “to come.” It corresponds to “they came” or, in countries that use ustedes, “you all came.” The form reflects an irregular preterite stem, vin-, attached to the standard preterite endings (-ieron for the ellos/ellas/ustedes form).

Usage and meaning

Vinieron is used to describe completed past actions involving coming or arriving at a place, or moving toward the speaker or a referenced location. It can appear in narrative, reports, or everyday speech. Examples: “Los invitados vinieron a la fiesta” (The guests came to the party); “¿De dónde vinieron?” (Where did they come from?).

Grammatical notes

- Venir is irregular in the preterite; its forms are vine, viniste, vino, vinimos, vinisteis, vinieron.

- The past action is usually viewed as finished, as opposed to the imperfect tense used for ongoing or habitual past actions.

- Vinieron can take direct or indirect object complements and can be used with time expressions such as ayer, la semana pasada, o hace dos días.

Related forms and etymology

The verb venir itself comes from Latin venīre, meaning to come. Vinieron is a standard inflection, used across Spanish dialects to refer to a plural subject in the past.

See also

- venir

- pretérito indefinido (pretérito simple)

- l origen y uso de venir en distintos dialectos

In summary, vinieron is a core past tense form of venir used to state that a group arrived or came at a specific past moment.