State Facts in Spanish Using the Indicative Mood

State Facts in Spanish Using the Indicative Mood In addition to traditional verb tenses, such as present and past tense, there are three moods that are also used in Spanish. These verb tenses reflect the way a sentence is constructed. The most common mood in Spanish is the indicative mood, which is used in ordinary, typical speech when making statements. In Spanish and English, the three moods are indicative, subjunctive, and imperative.  The mood of a verb is a property that relates to how the person using the verb feels about its factuality or likelihood. The distinction is made much more often in Spanish than it is in English. In Spanish, the indicative is referred to as the ​el indicativo. More About the Indicative Mood The indicative mood is used to talk about  actions, events, or true statements. It is typically used for making factual statements or describing obvious qualities of a person or situation.   In a sentence such as I  see  the dog, which translates to veo  el perro, the verb veo is in the indicative mood. Other examples of the indicative mood include  Irà ©Ã‚  a casa, which means, I  will go  home, or compramos  dos manzanas, which translates to we  bought  two apples. These are both statements of fact. The verbs in the sentences are conjugated, or changed into forms that reflect the indicative mood. Difference Between Subjunctive and Indicative Mood The indicative mood contrasts with the subjunctive mood, which is often used in making subjective or contrary-to-fact statements. The subjunctive mood is used to talk about  desires, doubts, wishes, conjectures, and possibilities, and there are many instances of its use in Spanish. For example, If I  were  young, I would be a soccer player, translates to,  Si  fuera  joven, serà ­a  futbolista.  The verb fuera uses the subjunctive form of the verb,  ser, to be. The subjunctive mood is rarely used in English. For a rare example of the subjunctive mood in English, the phrase if I  were a rich man refers to a contrary-to-fact condition. Note, the verb were does not agree with the subject or object, but here, it is used correctly in the sentence - since in this case, it is being used in the subjunctive mood. The  Spanish language seems to have no problem using the  verb in the subjunctive mood when the corresponding English sentence (in almost all cases) will use the indicative mood.   Use of the Imperative Mood In English, the indicative mood is used nearly all the time, except when giving  direct commands. Then, the imperative  mood  comes into play.   In Spanish, the imperative mood is used mostly in informal speech and  is one of the more unusual verb forms in Spanish.  Since direct commands sometimes can sound rude or impolite, the imperative form may be avoided in favor of other verb constructions. An example of the imperative mood would be eat, as in a mother directing her child to eat. In English, the word can stand alone as a sentence when used in this way. The verb comer means, to eat in Spanish. This sentence would be stated simply as  come or  come  tà º.

Newspaper Headlines Lesson for Students of English

Newspaper Headlines Lesson for Students of English Take a look at any newspaper or magazine headline and you are likely to find incomplete sentences full of action-packed verbs. Headlines live in a linguistic bubble all by themselves because they ignore grammar conventions such as the use of helping verbs and so on. Of course, this means that newspaper headlines can be confusing to English language students. This is because newspaper headlines are often incomplete. For example: Difficult Times AheadUnder Pressure from BossMustang Referral Customer Complaint This lesson focuses on helping make sense of the strange forms used in newspaper headlines. You may want to review some of the most common grammar exceptions found in newspaper headlines before you take this lesson into class. Lesson Breakdown and Outline Aim: Understanding newspaper headlinesActivity: Translating newspaper headlines into more understandable EnglishLevel: Intermediate to higher levels Outline: Find some headlines in old newspapers or on the internet and cut them out. There should be at least two headlines per student.Pass out one of the headlines to each student. Give them a few minutes to think about the meaning of each headline.Ask students to read their headlines aloud and give an explanation of what they think the article in question concerns.As a class, brainstorm on possible structural meanings behind the strange grammar found in headlines (refer to grammar exceptions found in newspaper headlines).Ask students to fit the following headlines into the correct categories on the worksheet. You may want to have students pair up to do this.Correct the exercise as a class.Pass out the headlines you have left to the students. Ask each student to translate each headline into proper English and give an explanation of what they think the article in question concerns.As a homework option, you may want to ask students to find some headlines on their own and repeat this exercise. A further challenge might be to ask students to find headlines, read the articles, and then ask other students to interpret their headlines in small groups. Newspaper Headlines Exercises for Students of English 1. Match these newspaper headlines with the following categories (some headlines fit two categories): Newspaper Headlines Difficult Times AheadForgotten Brother AppearsJames Wood to Visit PortlandLandscaping Company Disturbance RegulationsMan Killed in AccidentMayor to Open Shopping MallMustang Referral Customer ComplaintOverwhelming Response of VotersPasserby Sees Woman JumpPresident Declares CelebrationProfessors Protest Pay CutsTommy the Dog Named HeroUnder Pressure from BossUnexpected VisitWidow Pension Pay Committee Categories Noun PhrasesNoun StringsSimple Tenses instead of Continuous or PerfectAuxiliary Verbs Dropped in Passive FormArticles DroppedInfinitive to Indicate Future 2. Try to translate the meaning of each of the headlines.