New
New
Year 8

In class and at home: modal verb 'podemos'

Learning outcomes

I can use an expanding range of words to talk about everyday activities that I and others can do in class and at home.

I can listen and identify final and penultimate syllable stress.

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New
New
Year 8

In class and at home: modal verb 'podemos'

Learning outcomes

I can use an expanding range of words to talk about everyday activities that I and others can do in class and at home.

I can listen and identify final and penultimate syllable stress.

Link copied to clipboard

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Lesson details

Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

Key learning points

  1. Listening to words with final and penultimate syllable stress helps to develop the ability to identify the stress.
  2. Making vocabulary links using antonyms or words with related meanings can enhance recall.
  3. The verb 'poder' is a modal verb and means 'to be able to', 'can'.
  4. Most present tense forms of 'poder' have a vowel change in the stem, ('puedo'); 'podemos' (we can) has no vowel change.
  5. The verb 'poder' is always followed by an infinitive, e.g. 'Podemos participar en clase.'

Keywords

  • Penultimate (syllable) stress - pronouncing the second-last syllable more heavily than other syllables in a word

  • Antonym - word that has the opposite meaning of another word

  • Modal verb - verb of necessity or possibility used with a 2nd verb in the infinitive, e.g. must, can, want

  • Poder - modal verb that means to be able to/can

Common misconception

All present tense forms of the model verb 'poder' have the same vowel change in the stem, o-> ue.

The 1st, 2nd, 3rd persons singular ('puedo', 'puedes', 'puede') and 3rd person plural ('pueden') forms all have a stem change from 'o' to 'ue' but 1st person plural 'we' form is 'podemos'; it keeps the same vowel as the infinitive 'poder'.


To help you plan your year 8 spanish lesson on: In class and at home: modal verb 'podemos', download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

During the vocabulary focus in the 2nd learning cycle, teachers may want to remind pupils about their own 'vocabulario', or personal word repertoire, and encourage them to add any words that are important to them to the place set aside for this.
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This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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6 Questions

Q1.
Which nouns are feminine?
barrio
día
problema
Correct answer: persona
Correct answer: playa
Q2.
Which verbs are modal verbs?
dar
Correct answer: deber
hacer
ir
Correct answer: querer
Q3.
Match the Spanish and English.
Correct Answer:poder,can, to be able to

can, to be able to

Correct Answer:puedo,I can

I can

Correct Answer:puedes,you can

you can

Correct Answer:puede,she, he, it can

she, he, it can

Correct Answer:pueden,they can

they can

Q4.
Match the Spanish and English.
Correct Answer:ahora,now

now

Correct Answer:así,like that

like that

Correct Answer:igual,same

same

Correct Answer:quizás,perhaps, maybe

perhaps, maybe

Correct Answer:según,according to

according to

Correct Answer:sin,without

without

Q5.
Write in English: 'vas a la fiesta'.
Correct Answer: You go to the party., You are going to the party.
Q6.
Write in Spanish 'he goes to the market'.
Correct Answer: Va al mercado., Él va al mercado.

5 Questions

Q1.
Where does the stress fall in the word 'desayuno'?
des
ay
Correct answer: u
no
Q2.
Which form of the verb 'poder' does not have a vowel change in the stem?
I
you
she, he, it
Correct answer: we
they
Q3.
Match the antonyms.
Correct Answer:limpio,sucio

sucio

Correct Answer:contento,triste

triste

Correct Answer:bueno,malo

malo

Correct Answer:precioso,feo

feo

Correct Answer:empezar,terminar

terminar

Correct Answer:opinión,verdad

verdad

Q4.
Order the words to say 'I can go to Italy in January'.
1 - peudo
2 - ir
3 - a
4 - Italia
5 - en
6 - enero
Q5.
Write in Spanish: 'we can go to the park'.
Correct Answer: Podemos ir al parque., Nosotros podemos ir al parque., Nosotras podemos ir al parque.

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