KS3 · Spanish · Year 7
What people are like: 'ser' and 'estar' in 3rd person plural
People and places: 'estar' and 'ser'
Learn it. Recall it. Make it stick.
IllumED Slides
IllumED · 1/9
Your learning goal
I can use the 3rd person plural of 'ser' and 'estar' to talk about what people are like and how they are feeling today.
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What people are like: 'ser' and 'estar' in 3rd person plural: 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 3rd person plural of 'ser' and 'estar' to talk about what people are like and how they are feeling today.
Key learning points
- The sound symbol correspondence [ce] is pronounced as in 'cerca'.
- The sound symbol correspondence [ci] is pronounced as in 'cierto'.
- The verb 'ser' means 'to be, being' and is used for permanent traits. 'Son' means 'they are'.
- The verb 'estar' means 'to be, being' and is used for temporary states. 'Están' means 'they are'.
- In Spanish, adjectives must always agree in gender and number with the nouns they refer to.
Words to know
- son
- part of the verb 'ser' meaning they are and used to talk about permanent traits
- están
- part of the verb 'estar' meaning they are and used to talk about temporary states
Common mistakes
To say 'they are' it does not matter which verb 'to be' we use.
In Spanish there are two verbs 'to be'; we say 'son' (they are) to describe permanent traits, and 'están' (they are) to describe temporary states.
For parents, carers and teachers
- The teacher might choose to do the speaking task B4 as a written activity to conolidate spelling of the new vocabulary and both verbs 'to be'.