Maintaining mental wellbeing in Spanish

• The imperfect tense is used to talk about repeated or continuous actions that you did in the past in the past.

• Use negative forms to talk about what you should avoid in order to maintain mental wellbeing.

• This guide contains reading practice and listening practice.

Useful nouns to use when talking about mental health include:

Useful adjectives to use when talking about mental health include:

For example:

Mi padre encuentra su trabajo muy cansado y no se siente tranquilo. – My father finds his work very tiring and he doesn’t feel relaxed.

La actividad es muy importante para su salud mental. – Activity is very important for one’s mental health.

El amor y la confianza importan para sentirse feliz en la vida. - Love and trust are important for feeling happy in life.

The imperfect tense is used:

• to describe repeated or continuous actions in the past

• to describe what something or someone was like in the past

• to say what people used to do or what things used to be like

For example:

Iba a pie todos los días. - I walked/used to walk every day.

Cuando era joven, nunca comía verduras. – When I was young, I never ate vegetables.

En el pasado, jugaba al baloncesto. - In the past, I used to play basketball.

Forming the imperfect of regular verbs

Forming the imperfect of regular verbs

The imperfect of hay (there is/there are) is había (there was/there were/there used to be).

Había is used frequently for describing things in the past.

For example:

En mi pueblo había un club de jóvenes. - In my village, there used to be a youth club.

Comparing the imperfect and present tenses

The imperfect tense and present tense can be used together to contrast what used to happen and what happens now.

Find out more about using the imperfect tense in the Imperfect tense in Spanish guide.

Indra has written a blog about how she has changed some aspects of her life to improve her mental health.

Read the blog and answer the questions below.

Cuando tenía doce, trece años mi salud mental era mala. Pasaba demasiado tiempo en las redes sociales mirando fotos que colgaban personas famosas.

Siempre comparaba mi ropa, mi pelo, mi cara a estas personas, y por resultado no me sentía contenta.

Ahora no miro estas aplicaciones porque no vale la pena compararse con otros y sentir triste.

En el pasado si tenía un examen, no podía descansar y me preocupaba mucho. Ahora hablo con mis amigas, mi madre o a veces con mis profesores.

Useful verbs to describe mental health and wellbeing include:

For example:

Si estoy triste, paseo my perro en el bosque. – If I’m sad I walk my dog in the forest.

All Foundation Tier vocabulary listed in this guide can be found on the vocabulary sheet below.

The easiest way to make a sentence negative in Spanish is to put no in front of the verb. For example:

No me gusta preocuparme. - I don’t like worrying.

No es bueno para la salud mental. - It’s not good for mental health.

No es feliz. - He’s not happy.

When answering a question, no is often repeated for emphasis.

For example:

Tienes que relajarse más, ¿no? – You have relax more, don’t you?

There are a number of negative expressions that work with no:

• nada - nothing

• nadie - nobody, no one

• nunca - never

These negative words can be used in two different ways:

1. Place no in front of the verb and the negative word after it. For example:

No hay nada en la cocina. - There’s nothing in the kitchen.

No hay nadie en la fiesta. - There’s no one at the party.

María no trabaja nunca para los exámenes. - María never works for exams.

2. Place the negative word in front of the verb and drop the no. For example:

Nada va a pasar. - Nothing is going to happen.

Nadie fue a la fiesta. - Nobody went to the party.

Nunca hago ejercicio. - I never do exercise.

No must go after the subject and before the verb. For example:

Mi hermano no es nervioso. - My brother is not anxious.

Los jóvenes no están contentos. - The young people are not happy.

Never separate direct or indirect object pronouns from the verb. Place the negative word in front of the pronoun.

For example:

No lo conozco. - I don’t know him.

No lo he visto. - I haven’t seen it.

Find out more about using negatives in the Negative forms in Spanish guide.

Listen to three podcast extracts where young people discuss ways to improve mental health and complete the activity below.

Click or tap on the image below for a list of useful vocabulary to use when talking about maintaining mental wellbeing.

Useful nouns for describing mental wellbeing:

For example:

Se dice que la mente es tan importante que el cuerpo para estar sano. - It is said that the mind is as important as the body to be healthy.

Useful verbs for describing mental wellbeing:

All vocabulary listed in this guide can be found on the vocabulary sheet below.

The full conjugation of verbs in the imperfect is needed at Higher Tier only.

Some useful Higher Tier phrases with no are:

Find out more about using negative forms at Higher Tier in the Negative forms in Spanish guide.

Click or tap on the image below for a list of useful Higher Tier vocabulary to use when talking about maintaining mental wellbeing.

Now you have practised the key vocabulary and grammar needed for talking about maintaining mental wellbeing, why not have a look at the Describing transport options in Spanish guide.