MFL ©CAS 2002

MFL a “doing” word an “action” word A verb can be A mental activity

MFL ©CAS 2002 Have a look at these words. Which ones are verbs ? glueseemorepaper treeeightycallwalk hairflyscreenadd rednumbmusicland

MFL ©CAS 2002 Where are the verbs in this text ? The three students entered the restaurant, selected a table, hung their coats on the backs of their chairs and sat down. They looked at the menu and asked the waitress what she recommended. She advised the daily special, beef stew. It was not expensive. They chose a bottle of red wine and ordered a salad. The service was slow, but the food tasted very good. They ate chocolate cake for dessert and finished the meal with coffee.

MFL ©CAS 2002 When you’re doing your coursework, you’ll need to use your dictionary to find Spanish verbs. The form of the verb that you will find listed in the dictionary is called the INFINITIVE. I wonder what an infinitive looks like……

MFL ©CAS 2002 to sing to make to be to readto know to be able to haveto run to typeto think to differentiate to tellto want to take to tie to record All infinitives in English start with to The infinitive tells you the action of the verb without reference to any specific person or tense / time.

MFL ©CAS 2002 cantar hacer ser estar leersaber poder tenercorrer escribirpensar diferenciar decirquerer tomar atar grabar All infinitives in Spanish end with -ar, -er or -ir Therefore there are three groups of verbs in Spanish: AR verbs, ER verbs and IR verbs. The AR group is the biggest, IR the smallest.

MFL ©CAS 2002 Here are some tips for using the dictionary to find the verb you need. Let’s say you want to find out the Spanish for we played. How will you find it ? 1.Work out what the infinitive is. to ____________ play 2.Look up the infinitive in the dictionary. Look up ‘play’ not ‘to’ ! Remember that ‘play’ can be a noun as well as a verb. You’ll know that you’ve found a verb firstly by looking at the ending and secondly by checking that the abbreviation vti, vtr, vt or vb is there. 3. Once you’ve found the infinitive – jugar if you played a sport, tocar if you played an instrument – look at the other presentations to work out how to put the infinitive in the appropriate part of the past tense.

MFL ©CAS 2002 What is the English infinitive that you would look up for each of these verb forms ? a.She tried b.I see c.They will go d.Nina stamps e.You were f.You went g.José worries h.We used to have to try to see to go to stamp to be to go to worry to have

MFL ©CAS 2002 That’s all the basics of verbs. Have a look at the Subjects of Verbs presentation next. Have a go at the exercises to check your understanding.

MFL ©CAS 2002 FIN