El Imperfecto del Subjuntivo

There are some really great things about teaching Spanish 4.  One of them is that, by the time students have come that far, they have a very good working knowledge of the underlying structure of the language.  I only have to tell them what the endings are for the verbs, and they are off and running  - making creative sentences and astounding me with their cleverness.

So it is with the imperfect subjunctive.  We review the preterite irregulars quickly - usually in game form, then I give them the rules for creating the imperfect subjunctive and presto!  What a great group of students I have!  No need to belabor the grammar, just explain it once and let them use it as a tool for communication.

The imperfect subjunctive is especially cool because it allows us to talk about the things that could be, should be, and might be if only things were different.  And these days, memes with the imperfect subjunctive abound.  I thought I'd find a couple to share with them so they could see the language in action and, while I was at it, I figured I'd share them here too.

 

 

It is the perfect lead in to a discussion about the sequence of tenses and, with this many authentic examples, students can probably discover the pattern (imperfect subjunctive + conditional) for themselves.

These make great writing prompts and it's fun to create a chart afterwards to show what ideas people have in common.  For example you could ask, ¿Si tuvieras tres deseos que pedirías?  Then chart how many people chose money, love, altruistic ideas (cure for cancer, world peace, etc.).  It's fun!

Si tuvieras que enseñarles el imperfecto del subjuntivo a tus estudiantes, ¿qué harías?

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK