Routines: personal 'a' and contraction 'al'
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I know how to use personal 'a' with the contraction 'al' and a range of adjectives, to understand and describe routine activities.
Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons
Key learning points
- In Spanish we use a personal 'a' between the verb and the direct object if the object is a specific person or pet.
- The article 'el' ('the') refers to a singular masculine noun. If personal 'a' is followed by 'el', it becomes 'al'.
- Some adjectives come before the noun in Spanish, these are called prenominal adjectives, e.g. 'mismo', 'propio'.
- Certain prenominal adjectives, 'bueno', 'primero', 'tercero' and 'malo', lose their -o ending before a masculine noun.
- These adjectives may appear in sentences with personal 'a' or 'al', e.g. 'conoces a un buen doctor'.
Keywords
Personal 'a' - preposition placed before a direct object when that object is a specific person or pet
Al - contraction of the preposition 'a' with the article 'el'
Prenominal adjectives - adjective that goes before the noun
Common misconception
All prenominal adjectives ending in -o drop the -o before masculine nouns.
Not all prenominal adjectives ending in -o drop it before a masculine noun, although there are many common ones that do like 'bueno' and 'malo'. However 'segundo' and 'último' do not, and there are others that hold on to their -o too.
Teacher tip
For some learners 'human sentences' may help to illustrate grammar. You assign keywords to different pupils who come to the front of the class to translate simple sentences. With the 'a' + 'el' = 'al' rule, 'a' and 'el' will have to sit down to be replaced by 'al' for certain sentences.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which word means 'however'?
Q2.Match the Spanish and English.
heat
success
side
reason
sleepiness
luck
Q3.Order the numbers from largest to smallest.
Q4.Order the words to say: 'he posts a photo and you post a comment'.
Q5.Write in English: '¿Por qué tienes miedo?'.
Q6.Write in Spanish: 'we go to the cinema'.
Assessment exit quiz
4 Questions
Q1.Match the sentence to the correct missing word.
a
al
nothing
Q2.Which is not a prenominal adjective?
Q3.'Es un __________ comentario'. Choose the correct missing word.
Q4.Write in Spanish: 'I help the good teacher (m)'.
To help you plan your 8 Spanish lesson on: Routines: personal 'a' and contraction 'al', download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 8 Spanish lesson on: Routines: personal 'a' and contraction 'al', download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 3 Spanish lessons from the Relationships and daily life: personal 'a', pronouns unit, dive into the full secondary Spanish curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.