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Past holidays: singular -ar verbs in the preterite, intonation questions

Lesson details

Learning outcome

I can use the preterite tense to describe and ask about past holidays.

Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

Key learning points

  1. In Spanish, syllables often contain consonant-vowel pairs, or a vowel with a consonant either side.
  2. The preterite tense is used to express completed actions in the past.
  3. To conjugate singular forms of the preterite tense for regular -ar verbs, remove the -ar and add -é, -aste, -ó.
  4. Raise your voice at the end of a statement to form an intonation question.

Keywords

  • Syllable - single unit of pronunciation, part of a word you can say in one beat

  • Preterite - verb tense used for completed actions in the past, e.g. 'I listened', 'I bought'

  • Intonation question - question that is formed by raising the tone of voice at the end of a statement

Common misconception

When asking questions like 'Did you travel by plane?' in Spanish, I need to start by translating the word 'did'.

To ask a 'did'-style question in Spanish, you can form an intonation question by simply raising your voice at the end of a past-tense sentence. It is not necessary to translate the word 'did'.

Teacher tip

The chunked nature of task C2 lends itself to mini-whiteboard use to assess for whole-class learning.

Licence

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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Prior knowledge starter quiz

6 Questions

Q1.
Which question means 'really?'?

¿cómo es?
Correct answer: ¿de verdad?
¿de acuerdo?
¿por qué?
¿qué tal?

Q2.
Match the Spanish and English.

Correct Answer:aprovechar,to make the most of, take advantage of

to make the most of, take advantage of

Correct Answer:bailar,to dance, dancing

to dance, dancing

Correct Answer:caminar,to walk, walking

to walk, walking

Correct Answer:celebrar,to celebrate, celebrating

to celebrate, celebrating

Correct Answer:descansar,to rest, resting

to rest, resting

Correct Answer:llegar,to arrive, arriving

to arrive, arriving

Q3.
Match the Spanish and English.

Correct Answer:cámara (f),camera

camera

Correct Answer:canción (f),song

song

Correct Answer:fiesta (f),party

party

Correct Answer:lugar (m),place

place

Correct Answer:mar (m),sea

sea

Correct Answer:museo (m),museum

museum

Q4.
Order the words to say: 'a long journey and a pretty view'.

1 - un
2 - viaje
3 - largo
4 - y
5 - una
6 - vista
7 - preciosa

Q5.
Write in English: 'visito un país interesante'.

Correct Answer: I visit an interesting country

Q6.
Write in Spanish: 'tengo un bicicleta nueva'.

Correct Answer: I have a new bike, I have a new bicycle

4 Questions

Q1.
Match the words to the number of syllables.

Correct Answer:1,

Correct Answer:2,pasar

pasar

Correct Answer:3,verano

verano

Correct Answer:5,vacaciones

vacaciones

Q2.
Match the Spanish and English.

Correct Answer:canto,I sing

I sing

Correct Answer:cantó,she, he, it sang

she, he, it sang

Correct Answer:canté,I sang

I sang

Correct Answer:canta,she, he, it sings

she, he, it sings

Correct Answer:cantas,you sing

you sing

Correct Answer:cantaste,you sang

you sang

Q3.
Write in Spanish: 'I prepared the food'.

Correct Answer: preparé la comida, yo preparé la comida

Q4.
Write in Spanish: 'Did you travel to the coast?'.

Correct Answer: viajaste a la costa, tú viajaste a la costa

To help you plan your 9 Spanish lesson on: Past holidays: singular -ar verbs in the preterite, intonation questions, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...