First, you need to know what the questions mean so you can think about how to answer them. 1) ¿A dónde fuiste durante las vacaciones de primavera y por qué? Where did you go during spring break and why? 2) ¿Con quién(es) pasaste las vacaciones? With whom did you go on vacation? 3) ¿Qué hiciste durante las vacaciones? What did you do during the vacation? 4) ¿Qué compraste y por qué? What did you buy and why? Notice that each of the verbs (in bold) in these questions is in the preterite tense. The preterite tense is used when describing something that happened once (I went to school yesterday/Fui a la escuela ayer) or something that happened more than once but has a specific end (I visited my friend three times last week/Visité mi amigo tres veces la semana pasada). You can also use the preterite to describe the beginning or end of something happening (I became hungry/Tuve hambre). For verbs ending in –ar in the preterite tense, use these endings: -é, -aste, -ó, -amos, -asteis, -aron. Use hablar (to talk) as an example: hablé, hablaste, habló, hablamos, hablasteis, hablaron. For verbs ending in –er/-ir in the preterite tense, use these endings: -í, -iste, -ió, -imos, -isteis, -ieron. Use comer (to eat) as an example: comí, comiste, comió, comimos, comisteis, comieron. In some parts of this assignment, you may need to use the imperfect tense to describe something in the past tense. If you are describing a time in the past tense (It was 3 p.m./Era las tres de la tarde) or if you are describing an action without a specific time period (My friends were talking a lot/Mis amigos hablaban mucho), you will want to use the imperfect tense. For verbs ending in –ar in the imperfect tense, use these endings: -aba, -abas, -aba, -ábamos, -abais, aban. Use hablar (to talk) as an example: hablaba, hablabas, hablaba, hablábamos, hablabais, hablaban. For verbs ending in –er/-ir in the imperfect tense, use these endings: -ía, ías, ía, íamos, íais, ían. Use comer (to eat) as an example: comía, comías, comía, comíamos, comíais, comían. Some verbs are irregular in both the preterite or imperfect tenses: Ir/to go--in the preterite: fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fuisteis, fueron; in the imperfect: iba, ibas, iba, íbamos, ibais, iban. Hacer/to do, to make--in the preterite: hice, hiciste, hizo, hicimos, hicisteis, hicieron. Ver/to see--in the preterite: vi, viste, vio, vimos, visteis, vieron; in the imperfect: veía, veías, veía, veíamos, veíais, veían.

Now that you know how to conjugate verbs and which past tense to use, try to think of your answers to each question in English, and translate your answers into Spanish. It may help to brainstorm verbs and nouns in English that have to do with what you did over spring break and then translate those words into Spanish to get some ideas before you conjugate the verbs and form sentences. Here are some common verbs that have to do with vacations to start you off: to travel/viajar, to visit/visitar, to drive/conducir, to see/ver, to explore/explorar, to go/ir.