Two Games to Learn Spanish Verbs and Their Tenses

Some -ar Verbs

Teach your students as many Spanish verbs as possible before playing these games. The games are designed to jog their memory and

to help them retain how to use the verbs in their various tenses. All verbs are important, but try to introduce your students to the more common everyday verbs at first. After students have learnt the present, past and future tenses of hablar, introduce them to some common-ar verbs which follow the pattern of hablar. Some of these are: contestar, necesitar, trabajar, cantar, llamar and estudiar and esperar.

Some -er,-ir Verbs, Stem Changing Verbs, and Irregular Verbs

Using comer as a key example for –er verbs, and then introduce correr, comprender, aprender, beber and vender. For the –ir verbs, use vivir as your key verb and introduce abrir, escribir, recibir and subir.You can also introduce them to some stem changing verbs using pensar as an example, and add to this verbs like cerrar,comenzar,querer,perder,preferir and sentir. Use volver as a key and add contar, dormir and encontrar.

For the irregular verbs use dar as a key verb, then introduce students to estar, hacer, poner, saber, decir and tener, oír

First Game

Now here are two ways in which you can play these games. Here’s the first:

Make a statement and give the students prompts to substitute the cued word and adjust the form of the verb. Give each student 3 seconds to answer before moving on to the next student.

Example: Ana habla mucho en clase.

Ellos­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ——–Ellos hablan mucho en clase.

1. ¿Quién habla mucho?

Tú­­­­­­­­________________

Yo­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_________________

2. Yo vivo en Barcelona

Luis______________

Ana y Juan___________

3. Ella escribe una carta

Nosotros________________

Ellas_________________

4. No hablo inglés.

Ellas______________________

5.Helena piensa.

Él_______________

Nosotros__________________

6. Tú y Juan entienden.

Yo_________

Él________________

7.Julio encuentra a María.

Yo______________

Nosotros­­­­­­­­­­­­_______________

8. Yo prefiero el español.

Nosotros___________

Ella__________________

9. Ana juega en el parque.

Carlos y Ana_____________________

¿Quién __________con ellos?

10. Yo te doy un beso

Ella te________un beso

Ellos te_________un beso.

Second Game

Here is another game you can play with your students: Substitute the pronoun given with the correct form of the verb. You can substitute different verbs. Remember to mix up the tenses.

Yo

comí

comen

comieron

Tú

hablas

hablaron

hablarás

Nosotros

pensamos

piensan

pensaron

Él

vives

vivió

vivieron

Ellos

duermen

dormimos

duerme

More Games

You can create some more great games to help your students to learn Spanish verbs.Students can also search online and find a variety of games to improve their understanding of Spanish verbs They will enjoy learning verbs this way rather than the old-fashioned way of ranting off a list of verbs. In addition they will have a clearer idea of how to use the verbs in the various tenses. The competition to get the answer first will also motivate them to learn their verbs.