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Year 7 - Spanish

Lifestyle: -er and -ir verbs 3rd person singular

What people do: -ER and -IR verbs

Unit Summary

This unit introduces -er and -ir verbs using a subset of the top 25 verbs. Pupils learn singular forms and the third person plural to talk about what people do. They ask yes/no questions with -er and -ir verbs using raised intonation. Key sounds revisited are ga, go, gu, ge, gi, j.

Lesson Summary

You will learn to understand -er and -ir infinitives and 3rd person singular verbs describing what someone else does.

Key Notes

  • The SSCs [ga], [go], [gu] are pronounced as in 'ganar', 'domingo', 'preguntar'.
  • Some Spanish infinitives end in -er and -ir rather than -ar.
  • The 3rd person singular ending for -er and -ir verbs is -e.
  • The 3rd person singular form of the verb refers to she, he or it.

Vocabulary To Learn

  • transcribe: write what you hear
  • -er verb: a verb whose infinitive form ends in -er
  • -ir verb: a verb whose infinitive form ends in -ir
  • infinitive: form of the verb giving its general meaning, with no subject or tense
  • 3rd person: form of pronouns and verbs used to refer to another person

Common Mistakes To Avoid

  • [ge] and [gi] are a soft 'g' sound as in English. Spanish [j] is different so you can always hear the difference when you transcribe words with these sounds.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

1. Explain what you can now say or understand in this lesson.

The SSCs [ga], [go], [gu] are pronounced as in 'ganar', 'domingo', 'preguntar'. Some Spanish infinitives end in -er and -ir rather than -ar.

2. Define this key language word and use it in context. 'transcribe'

write what you hear. Say or write it in a short sentence so you use the word actively.

3. Correct this common language-learning mistake.

Mistake: [ge] and [gi] are a soft 'g' sound as in English. Spanish [j] is different so you can always hear the difference when you transcribe words with these sounds. Correction: Spanish [ge] and [gi] sounds like Spanish [j] + e and [j] + i, so you cannot hear the difference when you transcribe. However, there is often a clue from English, e.g., 'religión' in Spanish is spelled with [gi] as in English.

More Lessons In This Unit

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