KS3 · Spanish · Year 7

All about me: 'ser' and 'estar' singular persons

Activities: information questions

Learn it. Recall it. Make it stick.

IllumED Slides

Download lesson + answers ↓

IllumED · 1/11

Your learning goal

I can use singular ‘estar’ and ‘ser’ to say what I am and you are like at the moment and in general.

1 of 11

All about me: 'ser' and 'estar' singular persons: slides adapted from the imported teaching text; recall questions created from its keywords, learning points and common mistakes. Self-check practice, with no automatic grading or XP. Answers stay on this page and are cleared when you leave.

Original teaching resources

The original illustrated PowerPoint is available as well as the IllumED text slides. It retains the publisher’s design and credits.

Download original PowerPoint ↓

What you’ll learn

I can use singular ‘estar’ and ‘ser’ to say what I am and you are like at the moment and in general.

Key learning points

[ge, gi] are pronounced as in 'gente' and ‘imaginar’.
'Estar' means ‘to be’ or ‘being’ and is used for moods or temporary states and location.
'Ser' means ‘to be’ or ‘being’ and is used for general traits.
Adjective agreement is achieved often by masculine adjectives ending in -o and feminine adjectives ending in -a.

Words to know

[ge, gi]: pronounced as in 'gente' and ‘imaginar’
[j]: pronounced as in 'ojo'
adjective agreement: when the ending of an adjective matches the noun it describes in gender and number
ser: verb 'to be, being' for general traits
estar: verb 'to be, being' for location and state

Common mistakes

[g] and [j] always have the same sound in Spanish, like [b] and [v] do.

[g] sounds different when followed by a, o, u, when it sounds just like g + a, o, u in English.

For parents, carers and teachers

In final writing task B4, teachers can introduce additional challenge by prompting some pupils to invent their own sentences, using reference resources as appropriate.