KS3 · Spanish · Year 8
In class and at home: modal verb 'debemos'
Comparing what people do: -ER and -IR verbs
Learn it. Recall it. Make it stick.
IllumED Slides
IllumED · 1/9
Your learning goal
I can use modal verbs 'deber' and 'poder' to understand and write about what I and others must and can do in class and at home.
1 of 9
In class and at home: modal verb 'debemos': 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 modal verbs 'deber' and 'poder' to understand and write about what I and others must and can do in class and at home.
Key learning points
- Rules about penultimate (syllable) stress tell us if we need to write an accent on the penultimate vowel.
- Applying knowledge about syllable stress helps to remember how to say words that we may have forgotten how to pronounce.
- 'Deber' is a modal verb meaning 'to have to, must'. It is conjugated as a regular -er verb; the 'we' form is 'debemos'.
- The verb deber is always followed by an infinitive, e.g. 'Siempre debemos decir la verdad.'
Words to know
- penultimate (syllable) stress
- pronouncing the second-last syllable more heavily than other syllables in a word
- modal verb
- verb of necessity or possibility used with a 2nd verb in the infinitive, e.g. 'must', 'can', 'want'
- deber
- modal verb that means 'to have to', 'must'
Common mistakes
When there are two verbs together, e.g. 'I must go', we need to conjugate both.
English confuses us here. We say 'I must go' rather than 'I must to go' as English uses an infinitive but without 'to'. In Spanish, after modal verbs 'deber', 'poder' and 'querer' the 2nd verb must always be an infinitive; 'I must go' is 'Debo ir'.
For parents, carers and teachers
- The extended listening activity can be easily differentiated by: i) reducing or increasing the number of questions overall or ii) by removing the ‘story doesn’t say’ column. The audio can be paused to provide additional support.