Spanish: Description Activity

Hi everyone, Claudia here,

I like this video because you can adapt it for different activities in any languge. I have used it mainly to have students describe actions and physical appearance using ser and estar in present tense. But I have also used it to make up stories in groups of what is going on in the video, which could be done in the past and progressive. It is a fun video and students like it, I hope you find it useful. Let me know if you can think of other activities we can do with it!

Spanish: DOCTOR Mnemonic - Ser y Estar

Hi everyone, Claudia here,

Doctor is a nice mnemonic for remembering the uses of the Spanish verb 'ser'. You should try sharing it with your students, I'm sure it will help them a lot!


D →Description → Ella es alta

O →Occupation → Eres estudiante

C →Characteristic → Él es gracioso

T →Time / Date → Son las tres; hoy es martes

O →Origin → Soy de Venezuela

R →Relationship → Ella es mi abuela

Spanish: HELP Mnemonic - Ser y Estar

Hello everyone, Claudia here,

As a follow up on Dan's post on mnemonics I would like to share another easy way to help your students remember the uses of the verb 'estar'.

First, for those of you who aren't familiar with the term, a mnemonic device is a word, rhyme, acronym, etc., to help students memorize information. So, by giving your students a mnemonic you can make it easier and fun for them to learn what you want to teach them.

One mnemonic I use for teaching the uses of 'estar' is help and I present it to my class as follows:

H → Health → Estoy enfermo
E → Emotion → Estoy contenta
L → Location → Indiana está en EEUU
P → Progression → Estoy explicando la gramática


I hope you find this useful for your students! And please let me know of any other fun tools you use in your class either to teach the uses of 'ser' and 'estar' or any other topics!

Spanish: Mnemonic Devices

Dan here. I've recently started studying Spanish and I have a useful mnemonic device I got from one of my German students who is also studying Spanish. Spanish has two verbs for "to be" (estar & ser), which causes some confusion for those of us making regular use of only one--i.e. English speakers et al. My fellow Spanish student provided me with this device to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star": Twinkle, twinkle use estar for how you feel and where you are.

I know it's not much, but as with many mnemonics a little goes a long way.