Changing habits and routines in Spanish

• Use comparative adjectives to compare two things.

• Use superlative adjectives to compare more than one thing.

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

• This guide contains listening and reading practice.

Useful sentences in the present tense to describe changing habits and routines include:

Useful past tense sentences to describe changing habits and routines include:

Comparative adjectives are used to compare two things and say one thing is more, less, better, etc than the other, eg faster, slower, happy.

For example:

Mi vida es más sana ahora. – My life is healthier now.

Mi hermana come menos verduras que yo. – My sister eats less vegetables than me.

To form the comparative meaning ‘more than’, use más followed by the adjective and que.

To form the comparative meaning less than’, use menos followed by the adjective and que.

Remember

Don’t forget that the adjectives still have to agree. For example:

Mi casa es más pequeña que tu piso - my house is smaller than your flat.

Using más and menos with nouns

You can use más (more) and menos (less) with nouns, for example to compare how much more or less you eat or do.

For example:

Hago más ejercicio que tú. – I do more exercise than you.

Mi amiga come más verduras que yo. – My friend eats more vegetables than me.

The adjectives good, bad, old and young have the following irregular forms in the comparative:

When using these adjectives in the comparative, it is not necessary to include más or menos.

For example:

El azúcar es peor para ti que las verduras. - Sugar is worse for you than vegetables.

Es mejor para tu salud. – It’s better for your health.

Find out more about comparative adjectives in the Comparative and superlative adjectives guide.

During a Spanish podcast, two guests are talking about their lifestyle.

Listen to each audio clip and decide:

• Which part of each speaker’s lifestyle is good?

• Which part needs to improve?

Here is some vocabulary to describe frequency and routines:

For example:

Juego al tenis regularmente con mis amigos. – I play tennis regularly with my friends.

Voy al gimnasio tres veces a la semana. – I go to the gym three times a week.

Me gusta correr diariamente. – I like running daily.

Monto en bicicleta cada fin de semana. – I go cycling every weekend.

Como pescado una vez a la semana porque es bueno para la salud. – I eat fish once a week because it’s good for your health.

Tomo cinco raciones de fruta y verduras cada día. – I have five portions of fruit and vegetables every day.

Voy a la piscina para nadar de vez en cuando. – I go the pool to swim from time to time.

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

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.

The imperfect tense is frequently used with phrases that describe how often something used to happen. For example

• regularmente - regularly

• a veces - sometimes

• cada día/todos los días - every day

• generalmente - usually

The majority of verbs are regular in the imperfect tense.

The imperfect is formed by removing the ar, ir and er endings from the infinitive to form the stem and adding the imperfect endings:

Note that the endings for er and ir verbs are the same.

Examples of verbs in the imperfect tense:

Cuando era joven, jugaba al fútbol cada día con sus amigos. – When he was young, he played football every day with his friends.

De niño, siempre comía demasiado azúcar. - As a child, I always used to eat too much sugar.

There are only three irregular verbs in the imperfect tense in Spanish:

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

Read the article giving health advice for parents and complete the activity.

Una buena nutrición* es esencial para la salud de los niños y niñas, y tiene beneficios en el futuro. Pídele a tu hijo que te ayude a preparar las comidas. Disfrutará cocinando contigo comidas sanas para toda la familia.

Si tu hijo no quiere comer sus verduras, intenta comerlas en su presencia y para mostrarle que te gustan.

Comer demasiado puede llevar a un aumento de peso. Por lo tanto, es importante enseñar a tu hijo el tamaño correcto de las porciones* para su edad.

*nutrición = nutrition

*porciones = portions

Complete the following sentences. Write the letter for the correct option in each box.

Click or tap on the image below for a list of useful vocabulary to use when describing changing habits and routines.

Useful past tense sentences to describe changing habits and routines include:

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.

Click or tap on the image below for a list of Higher Tier useful vocabulary to use when describing changing habits and routines.

Now you have practised the key vocabulary and grammar needed for talking about changing habits and routines, why not have a look at the Discussing illnesses in Spanish guide?