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KS4 · Spanish · Year 11

¿Cómo fue?: preterite 'ir' and 'ser'

Travel and tourism: lugares y personas famosos

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Your learning goal

I can use singular plural forms of 'ser' and 'ir' in the preterite tense in the context of a trip to a book fair.

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¿Cómo fue?: preterite 'ir' and 'ser': 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.

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What you’ll learn

I can use singular plural forms of 'ser' and 'ir' in the preterite tense in the context of a trip to a book fair.

Key learning points

  • The verbs 'ser' and 'ir' have the same preterite tense conjugations.
  • The preterite tense forms of 'ser' and 'ir' are 'fui', 'fuiste', 'fue', 'fuimos', 'fuisteis' and 'fueron'.
  • The preterite tense of 'ser' can be used to describe completed events or situations in the past.
  • World Book Day (April 23rd) marks Cervantes' and Shakespeare's deaths. Many Spanish cities celebrate with book fairs.
  • In Catalonia, Sant Jordi coincides with World Book Day. People give a book and a flower as a symbol of love and culture.

Words to know

ser
verb meaning 'to be, being' for general traits
ir
verb meaning 'to go, going'
preterite
verb tense used to talk about completed actions in the past

Common mistakes

The only translation of 'fue' is 'she, he, it was'.

'Fue' can mean 'she, he, it was' or 'she, he, it went' depending on the context. The verbs 'ser' and 'ir' are identical in the preterite tense.

For parents, carers and teachers
  • Further consolidation of the misconception can be addressed in the lesson by asking students to translate the text in Task B2 during the final learning cycle.
IllumED Slides adapts “¿Cómo fue?: preterite 'ir' and 'ser'”, Spanish, by Oak National Academy ↗. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Slides and recall practice adapted by IlluminatED; no publisher endorsement. Restricted lessons have listing information only.