KS3 · Spanish · Year 9
Friendships: personal 'a'
Friends: 'ser', 'estar' and demonstrative adjectives
Learn it. Recall it. Make it stick.
IllumED Slides
IllumED · 1/9
Your learning goal
I can use the personal 'a' to describe relationships and actions involving friends.
1 of 9
Friendships: personal 'a': 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 the personal 'a' to describe relationships and actions involving friends.
Key learning points
- 'Z' is added before the 'co' to keep the soft 'c' sound in verbs ending in '-cer' or '-cir', e.g. 'conocer' - 'conozco'.
- To mean ‘you’, -er/-ir verbs end in -es. To mean ‘you all’, -er verbs end in -éis and -ir verbs end in -ís.
- IOPs indicate the person or thing affected by the verb. Use 'le' to mean 'to, for him, her, it', and 'les' for 'them'.
- Two structures are possible: subject + verb + indirect object or indirect object + verb + subject.
- We use the personal ‘a’ before the object when it’s a person or a thing.
Words to know
- indirect object pronoun
- replaces the person, people or thing(s) that the verb action is done to, when the action is to me, for you, to them
- personal 'a'
- preposition placed before a direct object when that object is a specific person or animal we have a name for
Common mistakes
Spanish always uses English word order when using indirect objects (subject + verb + object).
In Spanish, the indirect object can go before or after the verb. Both 'le doy un regalo a mi hermano' and 'a mi hermano le doy un regalo' are correct - the second just adds emphasis to who receives the gift.
For parents, carers and teachers
- If there is time, the teacher can give students a list of characters to choose from. Students pick two and write four sentences showing actions between them, e.g. 'la niña le ofrece un dulce al niño', 'a la niña le vende una revista el niño'.