New
New
Year 8

Films and cinema: present continuous and modal verbs

Learning outcomes

I can use the present continuous to describe what we or they are doing now, and 'querer' + infinitive to say what we or they want to do, in the context of describing film scenes.

I can accurately pronounce words with antepenultimate syllable stress.

New
New
Year 8

Films and cinema: present continuous and modal verbs

Learning outcomes

I can use the present continuous to describe what we or they are doing now, and 'querer' + infinitive to say what we or they want to do, in the context of describing film scenes.

I can accurately pronounce words with antepenultimate syllable stress.

These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.

These resources were created for remote use during the pandemic and are not designed for classroom teaching.

Lesson details

Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

Key learning points

  1. When a word has a stress on the antepenultimate syllable, it always has a written accent to show where the stress falls.
  2. To say what is happening right now, Spanish uses the present continuous which is a form of 'estar' + present participle.
  3. To form -er/-ir verb present participles, remove -er/-ir from the infinitive and add -iendo, e.g. 'están traduciendo'.
  4. The verb 'querer' is a modal verb and means 'to want' or 'to love'. To say 'they want', we use 'quieren'.
  5. 'Querer' is commonly used before an infinitive, to mean 'to want to', e.g. 'quieren conducir' ('they want to drive').

Keywords

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

  • Querer - Spanish modal verb meaning 'to want' or 'to love'

  • Present continuous - describes events happening right now, e.g. 'I am doing'

  • Estar - Spanish verb meaning 'to be', also the auxiliary verb for the present continuous

Common misconception

To form the present continuous I just use 'está' + present participle.

To form the present continuous you first conjugate 'estar'; e.g. for 'they are' use 'están'. Then add the present participle; which is the verb stem + -ando for -ar verbs and -iendo for -er/-ir verbs, e.g. 'están hablando' - 'they are talking'.


To help you plan your year 8 Spanish lesson on: Films and cinema: present continuous and modal verbs, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Watching Spanish films can really bring the language to life for students, for example running a weekly Spanish film club to show some of the titles featured in this lesson. These Spanish films can all be found online.
Teacher tip

Equipment

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

Loading...

Some of our videos, including non-English language videos, do not have captions.

Prior knowledge starter quiz

Download quiz pdf

6 Questions

Q1.
Which verb means 'she, he, it did; made'?
hacer
hago
Correct answer: hizo
hace
hice
Q2.
Order the numbers from smallest to largest.
1 - veinticuatro
2 - veinticinco
3 - veintiséis
4 - veintisiete
5 - veintiocho
6 - veintinueve
7 - treinta
Q3.
Match the Spanish and English.
Correct Answer:abogado (m),lawyer

lawyer

Correct Answer:científico (m),scientist

scientist

Correct Answer:daño (m),damage, harm

damage, harm

Correct Answer:fuego (m,fire

fire

Correct Answer:jardín (m),garden

garden

Correct Answer:película (f),film

film

Q4.
Match the Spanish and English.
Correct Answer:cámara (f),camera

camera

Correct Answer:clase (f),class

class

Correct Answer:escena (f),scene

scene

Correct Answer:personaje (m),character

character

Correct Answer:tarde (f),afternoon

afternoon

Correct Answer:ventana (f),window

window

Q5.
Write in Spanish: 'I am twenty-three years old'. Write the number in full.
Correct Answer: tengo veintitrés años, yo tengo veintitrés años
Q6.
Write in Spanish: 'there are twenty-two cars'. Write the number in full.
Correct Answer: hay veintidós coches

Assessment exit quiz

Download quiz pdf

4 Questions

Q1.
Which words need an accent?
biblioteca
responsabilidad
mariposa
Correct answer: pelicula
Correct answer: pajaro
Q2.
Which phrase means 'I am arguing'?
estar discuto
estoy discuto
estar discutiendo
está discutiendo
Correct answer: estoy discutiendo
Q3.
Write in Spanish: 'they are driving'.
Correct Answer: están conduciendo, ellos están conduciendo, ellas están conduciendo
Q4.
Write in Spanish: 'they want to translate'.
Correct Answer: quieren traducir, ellos quieren traducir, ellas quieren traducir

Additional material

Download additional material