I have been asked time and time again: How do you teach affirmative and negative words in Spanish? It comes up as a small unit in every traditional textbook curriculum (for me it was chapter 9) and it is so hard to teach!
The following activities that I will discuss use these Spanish affirmative and negative words:
Algo (something) Nada (nothing)
Alguien (someone) Nadie (noone)
Algunos (some) Ningunos (none)
Siempre (always) Nunca (never)
También (also, too) Tampoco (either, neither)
o (or) ni (nor)
Introducing vocabulary
Context and comprehensible input are the best way to teach any subject, and that applies to affirmative and negative words in Spanish. I start off by assigning a Quizlet: Afirmativo y negativo for homework the night before I’m going to introduce the topic. I like to do this to help students familiarize themselves with the words and already get some repetitions of the vocabulary before we dive in!
The next day in class, students go through this presentation that just focuses on the affirmative and negative words in Spanish alguien vs. nadie and algo vs. nada. They take turns reading the question and verbally providing the answer to their partner. The slides are animated so the answer appears when they advance to the next slide. This gives students time to think about their answer and go at their own pace.
Next we play Quizlet live to review all the affirmative and negative words in Spanish and then we do some practice with mini-white boards. I show the affirmative word and the students need to write the negative word in Spanish or vice versa. We do this individually first but then turn it into a team competition to see which table can provide the answer quickest!
Affirmative and Negative Spanish Word Puzzles
For this activity, I provide students with three different puzzles that increase in difficulty. The first puzzle shows affirmative and negative words with their definitions and students need to match their opposites.
The second puzzle shows just the vocabulary for affirmative and negative words in Spanish, and students must match opposites.
Lastly, the final and most challenging puzzle provides a sentence and students need to find the missing affirmative or negative word to complete it.
I photocopy these puzzles on 3 different pieces of colored paper and give them all to students at once. They work in puzzles to solve them in order of complexity. However, they must call me over in between each one to check their work before they can begin the next one. I make it a race between groups to motivate students to participate even more. While students work on these puzzles, they are reading and re-reading the vocabulary, thus receiving lots of repetition!
It’s a really fun tool to practice vocabulary in a hands-on way.
Authentic text using affirmative and negative words in Spanish
What student doesn’t love a good meme? And what teacher doesn’t love a good motivational quote or corny joke? Put them together and you create this authentic reading activity using affirmative and negative words in Spanish! More repetitions! I print the memes and motivational sayings and put them around the room. Students walk around and try to match the image to its definition on their paper. This can also be done digitally by sharing the slide show with students.
Lastly, my students read a story using affirmative and negative words in context. The story is highly comprehensible and includes follow up activities for students to show their understanding. For a more advanced activity, students can write their own ad for an ideal roommate.
