yesterday i started my homework in spanish duolingo

For Inquiries, Call:

#255 – what did you do yesterday – preterit in spanish part 8.

• Learn Spanish

What did you do yesterday? – Preterit in Spanish Part 8

More ‘must have’ irregular verbs.

Post 255/365

Me alegro de verte de nuevo. Gracias por estar aquí.

Estamos trabajando mucho en el pretérito en español. Aprendemos los verbos y las conjugaciones. Es difícil y muy seco, ¿no? Tendremos que aplicar todo esto muy pronto y verlo en acción. Este proceso de aprender los verbos es muy necesario y luego podremos tener conversaciones más profundas y detalladas.

Parte 8 … ¿Listos? Sí, profesora, estoy lista, estoy listo, estamos listos,… 😉

1. Remember we said that the word ‘ do ‘ doesn’t exist in Spanish?

¿Hablas español? – Do you speak Spanish?

Then we said that ‘ did ‘ doesn’t exist either.

¿Hablaron Uds. con Juan? – Did you guy talk to Juan?

These words don’t exist as separate words in Spanish. They are built right into the verb tense. Do= present, Did= preterit.

However, the verb ‘ hacer ‘ is to ‘do’ or to ‘make’. It’s an action. Hacer will give us ‘do/did’, but keep in mind that it is very different from the English question words of ‘Do you…?/Did you…?

¿ Haces la tarea? – Do you do the homework? – The 1st ‘do’ in built into the present tense, the 2nd is the verb ‘hacer’.

¿ Hiciste la tarea? – Did you do the homework? – The ‘did’ in built into the preterit tense, the 2nd is the verb ‘hacer’.

Hacer is a very high frequency verb. Today we’ll learn ‘ hacer ‘ in the preterit and other verbs in the same group.

2. The new roots/stems

Irregular verbs in the preterit tense that follow the same pattern as hacer .

to do/to make  – hace r hic- / (hizo)

to walk  – andar anduv-

to be – estar estuv-

to have   – tener tuv-

There was/were(hay)  – haber Also, to have (auxilary verb) hub-

to be able to  – poder pud-

to put – poner pus-

to want – querer quis-

to know – saber sup-

to come   – venir vin- 

3.  The new endings – In the present tense, irregular verbs use the same endings as regular verbs. Here see a new set of endings for just this group of irregular verbs. Notice that none of the forms have a written accent mark.

-e -iste -o -imos -ieron

tú tuv iste

él ella tuv o Uds.

Nosotros tuv imos

ellos ellas tuv ieron Uds.

A. The 3rd person singular of hacer uses a ‘z’ instead of ‘c’ like the other forms.

Yo hi c e, pero  él hi z o Not – él hi c o

B . The word ‘ hay ‘ is ‘ hubo ‘ in the preterit.

Hay muchas personas. – There are a lot of people. Hubo muchas personas. – There were a lot of people.

C. Notice the 3rd person singular of the verb ‘venir’

El/Ella/Ud. vin o…it looks like a drink. The pronunciation is the same, too.

Ella no vino a la clase. – She didn’t come to the class.

Ellos toman vino tinto. – They drink red wine.

You just have to get it out of context.

D . Remember that ‘hacer’ also gets used in weather expressions (3rd person singular):

Hace frío . – It’s cold. Hizo frío. – It was cold.

5. Práctica

A. Conesta las preguntas

1. ¿Qué hiciste ayer? Ayer yo trabajé hasta las 6:00pm y luego yo hice una ensalada. ¿y tú?

2. ¿Hizo calor ayer? No hizo calor. Hizo frío y nevó un poco.

3. ¿Dónde pusiste el libro? Lo puse en la mesa.

B. Ejercicio de reemplazo

Yo hice guacamole. (tú, ella, ellos, nosotros)

El no estuvo allí. (yo, ellos, Ud)

Ellos tuvieron que ir al banco. (nosotros, yo, tú, él)

Nosotros anduvimos en canoa. (yo, ellos, ella, tú)

We went canoeing

Pablo vino a las 7:30pm. (Juana, mis amigos, Pila y yo)

Action steps: Aprende de memoria las raíces de estos verbos irregulares Aprende las conjugaciones Haz la Práctica de arriba

Déjame un comentario. Si tienes preguntas, yo te las contestaré.

Gracias y hasta mañana, Carolina

• Food and drink
• Level 2A & 2B
• Level 2C & 2D
• Other verb tenses
• Ser and estar
• Spanish Grammar
• The Present tense
• Travel Spanish
• Workplace Spanish

Related Posts:

Double Your Vocabulary in Spanish

Aug 14, 2023

10 Words in Spanish about History

Aug 13, 2023

Spanish Lessons on the go!

subscribe for updates via email!

Spanish with Stephanie

Ideas from one Spanish teacher to another

How to use Duolingo in your world language classroom

Today’s post is about this fantastic free app called Duolingo. It is a wonderful tool for differentiation, especially for your high-achievers who always finish early!  

What is Duolingo?

Duolingo is a free online tool to learn language. It teaches students through a series of mini-lessons and tracks their progress. Mini-lessons include skills across all 4 domains of language.  Students can learn more than one language at a time!

When a student completes a lesson, the level turns gold.  As time goes on, the gold bars fade to encourage students to go back to review and strengthen old lessons. They get a bar graph that shows their weekly Experience Points (XP) and they get points for both completing new levels and strengthening old ones.

The other incentive is called Lingots.  These are tokens that they can accumulate to “buy” items such as outfits for their Duolingo Owl or other special lessons such as idioms or flirting!

How I use it in my classroom

• Students create an account and join my class:
• Teacher Tutorial Video – Setting up your dashboard
• Teacher Tutorial Video – Student set-up

Daily:  This is their bellringer. (No prep!!) I set a timer that covers the passing period and the first 5 minutes of class. Students are motivated to get to my class on time (or even early) so they have extra Duolingo time!  When the buzzer goes off, they know to put away their device so we can begin class.  

Fridays:  Students begin a drumroll and I project the teacher dashboard to announce the winner each week. We select the winner by the amount of XP points, because this totals how many minutes they spent practicing, including review.  They are encouraged to play outside of class too!

Extra Credit:   Duolingo is the only way to earn extra credit in my class now.  Students can play outside of class on their home computer or on their smartphone. For every 100 XP points earned, they receive 1 point of extra credit. They max out at 10 points a quarter.

Competition

I have a bulletin board in my room entitled “Duolingüista” (This is the Spanish word I came up with for “duolingo-er”) and each class has a scoreboard where we write the winner’s name and their XP total. (Download here)  My weekly winner also gets a prize, and I have included the prize board poster in the download as well.  (Update: My students gave the feedback that they started losing interest when the same kids kept winning and thought the top 3 winners should get prizes, so that is what we do now.)

Helpful Tools for Classroom Management

• Students in my school have their own Chromebooks, but I also let them bring their phone to class because we have found that the speaking activities work better on their phone.  If I see their phone at any other point during class, I take it directly to the office with no warning, so I have not had any problems yet!
• I let students use Duolingo when they finish other work early.  This must be done on their computer though, not their phone.  Phones can only be used during the first few minutes of class when I can monitor everyone.
• Encourage students to use headphones to cut down on the noise. The program speaks to them and has other sounds throughout.
• Homework pass
• Sitting in the teacher chair or another “cool” chair
• Dollar store prizes

​The best part about this app is that the Duolingo staff is so receptive and supportive of feedback.  They have made some great updates within the past year alone that make it even easier to track your student’s progress using their Dashboard feature. This tool has become a hugely effective and motivating force within my classroom!

March 3, 2018 at 2:37 pm

Love Duolingo and my students love it as one of their options for homework! One thing to be careful of with purely XP winnings – students can just repeat the same lesson over and over again, as I have found. I look at both the XP and the “Course progress” columns. Tons of XP and no course progress is suspicious!

March 3, 2018 at 2:51 pm

Thanks Sra. Kennedy! Yes, I have had some students try this. When I catch the first student dong it, I will show the whole class how clever s/he was and then tell them that from this day forward, you can no longer be the weekly winner by just doing the same lesson all week. =)

March 7, 2018 at 7:26 pm

This is a great share of ideas! I use Duolingo and give points using ClassDojo. Students earn points when I receive the Monday Monthly Report from Duolingo listning the students who logged in throughout the week, and the lessons they’d completed. Students earn points based on lessons. But, if they do lesson one (Basic) multiple times, they only get one point. It’s a great resource. Thanks again!

Latest on Pinterest

Latest on Instagram

Latest on youtube.

How to study English on your own

There are lots of ways to personalize your learning and study plan without signing up for expensive classes and committing to inconvenient schedules. Here's how you can learn English on your own, from home!

Develop good study habits

The biggest challenge for people learning English on their own is developing a study plan that they can stick to. It takes a long time to build proficiency in a new language, so staying motivated is really important!

Here are tips for getting into the habit of studying English on your own:

• Make a study plan that works for your schedule. Ideally, your study plan will allow you to do some lessons or practice English most days of the week, by doing a little at a time. That's much better for learning than binging for a couple of hours on Sunday!
• Set realistic expectations. Language learning is hard, and it takes a long time! Think about the proficiency level you'll need to achieve, and remember that you don't need to be "fluent" to be comfortable and conversational! For adults it can be uncomfortable and discouraging to feel "bad" at something, after we've spent so long sounding "grown up" in our first language. Go easy on yourself!
• Decide on personal goals to help you stay motivated. Setting smart goals will help you notice your progress. Consider what you want to do with English after a month, instead of looking a year ahead or to "fluency." Think about why you're studying English and what's important to you: Is it speaking with family? Studying in another country? Getting ahead in your career? Then set related goals, like: "After a month, I want to be able to recognize words on a menu" or "By the end of the summer, I want to ask my little cousins about their school."

Make Duolingo your personal tutor

You're motivated, you've set personal goals—now it's time to learn English! With Duolingo, you can study English for free with a course made especially for speakers of your language. The Duolingo English course was designed by English teachers and learning scientists, and we use AI to tailor our English content just for you. You'll get instant feedback on your responses and mistakes, and your practice sessions adapt to your strengths and weaknesses to keep you making progress.

Our English course is aligned to the Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR), so you can be sure that you're learning the most important vocabulary and grammar to get you communicating. The current course includes B2 material—that's the upper intermediate level you'll need to get a job in English. You'll also find Duolingo's most sophisticated learning features, including pronunciation practice , advanced Stories , and Duolingo Podcasts for intermediate and advanced learners.

Build practice into your regular routine

You'll learn English best when you are interacting with it, so at-home learners should take advantage of their hobbies and daily routines for extra English practice. Incorporating English into your interests will make it easier to stay motivated and get practice throughout the day (instead of cramming lessons or classes just once a week)—and you'll be learning the English words and phrases most important to you!

To keep your learning fresh, engaging, and effective, mix up the ways you practice English. Doing the same things over and over again makes learning feel like a chore, so instead incorporate a variety of activities and balance the 4 skills you'll need in English: reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

Here are easy ways to get English practice throughout the day:

• Turn your favorite TV, movies, and music into English practice. Turn on subtitles the next time you're watching TV! You'll learn new words from context and will get a lot of practice reading fast. Naturally, TV and movies are a fun way to get listening practice, too. There are several different combinations of English audio and subtitles to test out, so you can find the right combination for your level and priorities! Advanced learners might be ready to try English audio *and* English subtitles. 👀
• Follow social media accounts that post in English. Adding English accounts to your usual scrolling helps you read (and learn!) a little English at a time. For extra practice, challenge yourself to write comments in English! You might start with a simple Great! or Cool , and as you get more comfortable, you can write more and even ask questions. Maybe you'll make posts of your own in English, too!
• Re-read books that you already know and love. Even familiar kids' books can make for good language practice, and being familiar with the characters and story makes it easier to pick up new vocabulary and grammar.
• Daydream about destinations in English-speaking countries. Even if you're not really planning a trip right now, you can have a lot of fun with English by exploring city streets on Google Maps, reading articles about top restaurants at the destination, and checking out websites (and menus!) in English.
• Build personalized English-language playlists. Music is a great way to get used to the sounds of English ! It's also helpful for early learners to get used to the rhythm of the language, even if they don't understand what they're humming along to yet. The catchiness and repetition of music also means you'll be practicing in your head long after you've closed Spotify.
• Change your phone's language for authentic practice. Intermediate and advanced learners will find that setting your phone to English makes vocabulary learning easy because you already know the apps, buttons, and menus so well!
• Take notes in English. Part of the challenge of writing is just knowing what words go together, so there are a lot of benefits to writing to yourself. For example, start writing your shopping list in English—it'll really help you remember the English words for your favorite foods! Anything you put in your Notes app can be written in English, whether it's personal reminders, to-do lists, or even your own personal reviews of restaurants. Best of all, if you're an intermediate learner who has changed your phone's language, you'll automatically get English corrections and autocompletes.

Make your home your personal classroom!

All the tools you need to study English on your own are right at your fingertips! Find the combination of study habits and fun practice activities that work best for your schedule and learning goals. Start learning English today!

Related Posts All Posts

Dear duolingo: how can i learn to think in a new language, what will german be like 100 years from now.

I was doing homework

• Pronunciation

THE BEST SPANISH-ENGLISH DICTIONARY

Get more than a translation, written by experts, translate with confidence, spanish and english example sentences, examples for everything, regional translations, say it like a local.

Making educational experiences better for everyone.

Immersive learning for 25 languages

Marketplace for millions of educator-created resources

Fast, easy, reliable language certification

Fun educational games for kids

Comprehensive K-12 personalized learning

Trusted tutors for 300+ subjects

35,000+ worksheets, games, and lesson plans

Adaptive learning for English vocabulary