- 1). Write "I doubt that he ________." on the chalkboard or overhead projector. Ask students to generate a variety of ways the sentence could be finished in English. Write these down as students volunteer them.
- 2). Read each sentence that students have generated. For each one, point out that the meaning of the sentence is that the action probably does not take place. Tell students that Spanish has a special set of verb conjugations, called the subjunctive mood, for such situations. Explain that when there is doubt that an action is really happening, or when it is considered to be improbable or impossible, the subjunctive mood is used.
- 3). Pass out five index cards to each student. Direct them to write the following sentences, putting one on each card:
I know that he is here.
It's important that she believe me.
It's certain that they heard us.
We doubt the news tells the truth.
I deny that my brother was ever there. - 4). Direct students to sort their cards into two piles: one to represent certainty and one to represent doubt. Mention several times that the key to evaluating doubt is to look at the speaker's state of mind, not to our own knowledge of what may be true or not. When all students have finished, tell them that they should have two cards in the "certainty" pile and three in the "doubt" pile.
- 5). Call on students to volunteer which two cards should have been classed as representing "certainty." The correct answers are:
I know that he is here.
It's certain that they heard us.
Explain that the other three sentences express the speaker's doubt on some level:
"It's important that she believe me" reveals the speaker's hope that she will believe him, but does not express certainty that this will actually happen.
"We doubt the news tells the truth" expresses direct doubt that this is happening.
"I deny that my brother was ever there" also expresses direct doubt.
Inform students that in cases like these, where the speaker is expressing some level of doubt about the action discussed, the subjunctive mood must be used. - 6). Teach the conjugation of the subjunctive by explaining the following procedure to students:
Start with the "yo" form in the present tense. For the verb tener, for example, that would be "tengo." Take off the "o" ending, leaving the stem "teng." Add the subjunctive set of endings. For a verb that ends in -er or -ir, the opposite endings are a, as, a, amos, an. For a verb that ends in -ar, the opposite endings are e, es, e, emos, en.
Thus, the subjunctive forms of tener are as follows:
yo tenga (I might have)
tú tengas (you might have)
él / ella / Ud. tenga (he, she, or you might have)
nosotros tengamos (we might have)
ellos / ellas / Uds. tengan (they or all of you might have)
SHARE
