KS2 · Spanish · Year 6
Luis' trip to Iquique: 'al' and 'a la'
Cities and festivals: to go, to have, present tense
Learn it. Recall it. Make it stick.
IllumED Slides
IllumED · 1/10
Your learning goal
I can understand information about a trip.
1 of 10
Luis' trip to Iquique: 'al' and 'a la': 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 understand information about a trip.
Key learning points
- The sounds [b] and [v] are the same, so practising the spelling of familiar words helps to remember which letter to use.
- The verb 'ir' means 'to go, going'. To say 'I go', use 'voy'. To say 'she, he, it goes', use 'va'.
- The Spanish word 'a' means 'to'. 'To the' with singular masculine nouns is 'al'; with singular feminine nouns, 'a la'.
Words to know
- voy
- I go, am going - part of the verb ‘ir’ meaning ‘to go, going’
- va
- she, he, it goes, is going - part of the verb ‘ir’ meaning to ‘go, going’
- a
- to
- al
- 'to the' before a singular masculine noun
- a la
- 'to the' before a singular feminine noun
Common mistakes
The preposition 'a' stays the same regardless of the gender of the noun it precedes.
In English, the preposition 'to' before 'the' does not change. In Spanish, 'a' + 'el' contracts to 'al' before masculine nouns (e.g., 'al parque' - 'to the park'), but stays as 'a la' before feminine nouns (e.g., 'a la playa' - 'to the beach').
For parents, carers and teachers
- Pupils may benefit from additional practice of 'al' and 'a la'. This could be done in a paired task where one pupil starts the sentence with 'voy' and chooses 'al' or 'a la'. The second pupil completes the sentence with an appropriate noun.