Teaching Verbs: How to Help Your Pupils Truly Own Their Language Skills

Understanding Verb Mastery

If you teach languages, you will probably recognise this scenario. A pupil has learnt the verb to have. In French, they can chant j’ai, tu as, il/elle a, nous avons, vous avez, ils/elles ont with impressive confidence; in Spanish, tengo, tienes, tiene, tenemos, tenéis, tienen. They might even get every answer right in a verb test.

Then you ask Tu as des frères et sœurs ? or ¿Tienes hermanos? and there is a pause while they desperately search for a form of a verb they appeared to know perfectly well five minutes earlier.

So, when can we actually say that a pupil knows a verb?

Knowing that avoir means to have is clearly not enough. Neither, I would argue, is being able to reproduce its paradigm. Ultimately, pupils learn verbs because verbs allow them to express meaning. They need to recognise them when they hear them, understand them when they read them, manipulate them when the subject or tense changes, and, most importantly, retrieve them when they have something they want to say.

That distinction matters because verbs are the engine room of communication. Give pupils football, brother, Saturday, school, boring, and pizza and they have plenty of useful vocabulary, but not very much they can actually do with it. Add I play, I have, I went, I hate, I think, I want, and I am going to and suddenly those nouns and adjectives can become thoughts, experiences, opinions, and conversations.

Perhaps we need to stop asking whether we have taught a verb and start asking whether pupils own it.

Should Pupils Learn Paradigms by Heart?

I think they should, particularly for the most frequent verbs. I have no problem whatsoever with memorisation when what we are memorising is worth knowing. This same thinking sits behind my Essential Verbs Bundle for être, avoir, and s’appeler, with plenty of opportunities to revisit and practise these core verbs.

A paradigm allows pupils to see the architecture of a verb. It shows them that j’ai, tu as, il a, nous avons, vous avez, and ils ont are not six unrelated items. It reveals a system, including the inconvenient moments when the system becomes distinctly unsystematic with irregular verbs.

The danger comes when successful recitation is mistaken for mastery. A pupil may be able to recite j’ai, tu as, il a, nous avons... perfectly, but if they have to run through that sequence in their head every time they need nous avons, the individual forms are not yet securely available. Ultimately, we want pupils to retrieve nous avons directly because they need to say “we have,” not because they remember that it comes fourth in a sequence.

So let’s not ditch paradigms. Let’s teach them, play with them, practise them, take them apart, and put them back together. Then let pupils do something with them, because the paradigm is not the destination; it is part of the route.

Problem: Language Doesn’t Develop One Tense at a Time

There is something else about verb teaching that has increasingly bothered me.

We tend to organise tenses into a sensible grammatical progression. In broad terms, pupils establish the present, encounter the near future, move into the past, and gradually accumulate more tenses and structures. It is often only by KS4 that we begin to expect pupils to use a wider range of time frames and what we might call ‘more complex’ structures.

I understand entirely why we do it. Nobody is suggesting teaching Year 7 every tense in the language. Grammar needs sequencing, and novice learners cannot deal with everything simultaneously, but human communication doesn't develop in that order.

A twelve-year-old wants to use the past, present, and future just as much as the rest of us. They went somewhere yesterday, something hilarious happened at the weekend, they are going somewhere exciting tomorrow, they would love to meet someone famous, they have never eaten sushi, or they used to play a particular game when they were younger.

Those thoughts do not wait patiently until the relevant tense appears on the scheme of work. This creates a tension that I think we should acknowledge. The logical order in which we teach grammatical systems is not necessarily the logical order in which pupils need language.

Interestingly, the National Curriculum for Languages at KS3 does not prescribe a year-by-year sequence of tenses. Its aims include pupils speaking with increasing confidence, fluency, and spontaneity and “finding ways of communicating what they want to say.” National curriculum in England: languages programmes of study

Perhaps, then, there is a distinction to be made between mastering a grammatical system and being allowed to use some of its language.

A Year 7 pupil doesn't need to master the whole passé composé before j’ai joué can become useful. Nor do they have to understand the conditional tense before being allowed to say je voudrais. We happily teach je m’appelle without insisting that beginners first master the entire system of reflexive verbs. So, why should time frames be completely different?

So let’s continue to teach grammar systematically, but alongside that progression, let’s give pupils useful forms that allow them to reach beyond it when they need to. Later, those familiar forms can become part of a much deeper grammatical understanding.

What If Progression Also Meant Being Able to Say More?

This makes me question what we sometimes mean by progression. Perhaps alongside asking Which tense comes next?, we should occasionally ask: What will my pupils be able to say at the end of this term that they cannot say now?

That shifts the focus from “Which grammatical content have we covered?” to “What can pupils actually express with it?” The curriculum and its grammatical progression are still there, but they become a means to greater communication rather than the end goal.

And this leads me to what I think is another limitation: Perhaps pupils would say more if we let them talk about better things. We spend a great deal of time preparing pupils to talk about the same subjects: their school, their family, what they do at weekends, what they did on holiday, etc. Of course, those areas have value, and GCSE preparation matters, but surely learning another language should eventually give pupils the possibility of talking about their world, rather than endlessly rehearsing somebody else's questions.

Ask the pupil who has little enthusiasm for a question like Qu’est-ce que tu fais le week-end ? about their favourite video game instead, and they may suddenly have plenty to say. Another may want to talk about football, someone else about drawing, horses, music, baking, films, cars, K-pop, or something so gloriously niche that you know absolutely nothing about it.

When we give pupils opportunities to talk about things that genuinely interest them, something changes. They don't need a verb because it appears in Box 3 of this half-term's knowledge organiser; they need the verb because they want to communicate something. The football supporter needs score, win, lose, sign, play, and watch. The gamer needs build, find, choose, fight, and create. The musician needs listen, practise, write, perform, and play.

That doesn't mean creating thirty individual curricula. It means occasionally allowing a pupil's desire to communicate to pull new language into the curriculum.

The current GCSE MFL Subject Content itself describes an ambition for pupils to communicate for authentic purposes about subjects that are “meaningful and interesting to them.” GCSE modern foreign languages

Perhaps we should make more room for pupils to do exactly that.

7 Practical Ways to Make Verbs Stick

If knowing a verb means more than completing a conjugation exercise, then pupils need a much wider range of experiences with verbs. Here are seven genuinely different things I would do.

1. Memorising Paradigms

There is nothing wrong with learning an important verb paradigm by heart. For high-frequency verbs in particular, we want the forms to become so familiar that pupils can retrieve them without having to reconstruct the entire table every time. The important thing is to vary how pupils memorise and retrieve the paradigm, so that they don't simply learn it as a chant that can only be reproduced in one fixed order.

a. Repeat and Chant

Say the paradigm aloud as a class, gradually removing the teacher's support until pupils can reproduce it independently. Experiment with rhythm, pace, and volume, or divide the paradigm between different groups in the room. Oral repetition can make the sequence and sounds memorable, particularly when pupils encounter an irregular verb whose forms simply have to become familiar.

b. The Vanishing Verb

Display the complete paradigm on the board. Pupils read it aloud, then gradually erase parts of the written paradigm while pupils continue to recite it. Keep removing words, endings, or individual letters until the board is empty and pupils are reproducing the entire verb from memory.

c. Look, Cover, Write, Check

Give pupils a complete paradigm and a few minutes to learn it using Look, Cover, Write, Check. The emphasis is on accurate recall rather than repeated copying. Once they have checked their attempt, they correct any mistakes and try again.

d. Scramble the Order

Once pupils know the paradigm, stop asking for it from top to bottom. Call out pronouns randomly and ask for the corresponding verb form. Move quickly between nous, je, ils, tu, vous, and elle. Mini whiteboards work particularly well here, as every pupil has to retrieve and produce each form rather than relying on the same few hands going up.

e. Go Backwards

Give pupils the conjugated form instead: avons, ai, ont, avez. They identify the subject and the infinitive. It is particularly useful preparation for reading and listening, where pupils encounter the conjugated form rather than being helpfully given the infinitive first.

f. Spot the Mistakes

Ask pupils to find and correct verb mistakes deliberately placed in individual sentences or a short text. Include errors with endings, agreement, tense, or the choice of verb form. Ask pupils not only to correct the mistake, but to explain why it is wrong. This encourages them to look closely at how the verb works within the sentence rather than simply recalling a conjugation in isolation.

g. Test It Later

Bring the same verb back a few days later, then again several weeks later, without announcing that it is going to be tested. The aim is no longer, “Can you remember the verb we learnt five minutes ago?” but “Is this verb still available when you need it?” This is where spaced retrieval and repetition come in (see Active Recall for Vocabulary Retention).

h. Use Classroom Games

Verb noughts and crosses, verb hangman, and other quick games can make repeated verb retrieval much more engaging. My personal favourite is the Minefield Game. If you’re interested in trying it, take a look here for French and Spanish.

2. Give Pupils a Personal ‘Verbs I Need’ Page

Reserve a page at the back of pupils’ exercise books for verbs they personally need and want to use. Alternatively, give them a Verbs I Need proforma to stick into their books. When a pupil asks, “How do I say to design?” because they want to talk about clothes, or “How do I say to beat?” because they are describing a match, the verb goes onto their page, together with the form they need and a useful example sentence.

Revisit these verbs periodically so that they do not simply become another forgotten vocabulary list. Over the year, each pupil gradually develops a personalised repertoire of verbs alongside the core vocabulary taught to everyone. You can download my Verbs I Need proforma for free. I’ve deliberately left it unprotected so that you can use it as a starting point and adapt it to suit your own pupils and classroom. Download now

3. Have a ‘Say Something Nobody Else Can Say’ Five Minutes

Once pupils have enough language, give them an open prompt every few weeks:

• Tell me something interesting about yourself.

• Explain something you are brilliant at.

• Describe a day you'll never forget.

• Tell me about something you are obsessed with.

• Explain why everybody should watch, play, read, or visit something you love.

  
  

They may use dictionaries or ask for a limited number of new verbs. The end product should not be thirty near-identical paragraphs. If everyone writes something different, the task has succeeded. It doesn’t have to be grammatically perfect (mistakes are part of the learning process), as long as it conveys a message that students feel is their own.

4. Turn Listening into Verb Hunting

Take a short piece of age-appropriate spoken language containing several familiar verbs and make the verbs themselves the listening target. Pupils record every verb form they hear, then work backwards to identify the infinitive, person, and time reference. On another occasion, ask them to tally how many references they hear to past, present, and future. This makes listening part of verb learning and gets pupils used to recognising forms that look comfortably familiar on paper but become much less obliging at natural speaking speed.

5. Hold a Two-Minute Unscripted Conversation, Then Analyse the Verbs

Give pairs a broad subject they genuinely choose, rather than six pre-written GCSE questions. They talk for two minutes with no script. Afterwards, they write down the verbs they actually used and, crucially, identify what they wanted to say but couldn’t. Those missing verbs then become learning material for the next attempt.

Give pupils time to research the language they were missing, address any grammatical gaps, and add useful new verbs to their personal repertoire. They could also add these to their Verbs I Need page. Repeat the conversation later and see what has changed. The first conversation exposes the gaps, pupils learn the language they genuinely needed, and the second gives them an immediate opportunity to put that new learning to use.

6. Shift the Subject

Start with one simple question, then keep changing who you are asking about. Pupils have to adapt the verb rather than relying repeatedly on the first-person form. Finally, reverse the roles and ask pupils to question the teacher. This can be done as a whole-class activity, with the teacher directing questions around the room, or in pairs, with pupils taking turns to change the subject and respond.

• Qu’est-ce que tu as fait ?/ ¿Qué hiciste?

• Et ta sœur ou ton frère ?/ ¿Y tu hermana o tu hermano?

• Et tes parents ? /¿Y tus padres?

• Et toi et tes amis ?/ ¿Y tú y tus amigos?

• Maintenant, demandez-moi ce que j’ai fait./ Ahora, preguntadme qué hice.

  
  

The topic remains the same, but the grammatical demands keep changing. Pupils have to move between different persons and retrieve the verb forms that match the meaning, rather than becoming overly reliant on je or yo.

7. Set ‘Verb Makeover’ Homework

When students complete a piece of writing, keep a copy of the marked version. Return to it four or six weeks later and ask them to upgrade the verbs using everything they have learnt since.

• Can j’aime become je préfère or j’adore?

• Can a sentence be moved into another time frame?

• Can the same idea be expressed using a more precise verb?

• Can the pupil add something they genuinely wanted to say but couldn’t express at the time?

  
  

Pupils can then see progression in a particularly powerful way: not as another grammar box ticked, but as greater control over what they are capable of expressing.

Perhaps We Need to Stop Saying ‘We Did That Tense Last Year’

One of the strangest sentences in education must surely be: But we did this last year. Of course we did. And now we need to do something else with it. If pupils really need verbs, those verbs should refuse to stay obediently inside the half-term in which we teach them. Avoir should appear in the hobbies topic, yesterday should occasionally turn up while we are supposedly teaching school, and a future plan can appear in a conversation about food.

So, Year 9 shouldn't signal the disappearance of verbs learnt in Year 7, just as KS4 shouldn't become the point at which pupils suddenly discover that communicating across time is desirable.

When we teach languages, we need two strands running alongside each other:

• One is systematic. We explicitly teach pronouns, conjugations, patterns, irregularities, and tense formation in a carefully considered order.

• The other is communicative. We give pupils useful language when they need it, including selected forms that sit beyond their current formal grammar curriculum, and allow their interests and ideas occasionally to generate new vocabulary.

  
  

The two don't undermine each other. They meet.

A pupil might have been saying je voudrais for a long time before formally understanding the use of the conditional. Later, explicit grammatical knowledge gives structure to something already familiar. Equally, understanding a paradigm allows pupils to produce forms they have never individually memorised. That is what I think genuine verb learning should look like. Memory, pattern, retrieval, recognition, manipulation, and use should continually feed one another.

Final Thoughts: Are We Teaching Verbs, or Giving Pupils More to Say?

I don't think there is anything old-fashioned about learning être or avoir by heart. Nor do I think communication means abandoning accurate grammar and hoping pupils somehow acquire it by talking.

We need to teach verbs properly. Yet “properly” should mean more than accurately filling gaps in a worksheet. It should mean hearing the verb and recognising it, retrieving it independently, moving it between people, manipulating it across time, meeting it again months later, using it in writing, using it without a script, and, perhaps most importantly, reaching for it because there is something worth saying on the other side of it.

A twelve-year-old has a past, a present, and a future. They have enthusiasms, memories, plans, stories, and remarkably strong opinions. They shouldn't have to wait for our scheme of work to catch up with all of them.

So yes, grammar needs thoughtful sequencing, but perhaps we should be wary of allowing that sequence to determine the limits of what pupils can express.

Because one of the most interesting moments in a language lesson is still the pupil who puts their hand up and asks: “Miss, comment on dit… ?” / “Miss, ¿cómo se dice…?” That is not necessarily a hole in our curriculum; it might be evidence that something is working. The pupil has stopped trying to work out what we want them to say and has started thinking about what they want to say.

And surely that is where becoming a language learner really begins.

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