Spanish Object Placement with Infinitives and Participles

Activity Overview

At this point, students have learned how to correctly identify and use indirect and direct objects. They have learned the basic steps of replacing direct and indirect objects with their appropriate pronouns, and now they are ready to advance the concept further. Next, students can be taught that with infinitives and participles there are two options for the word order of these pronouns. Especially with both pronouns present in the sentence, mastery can be tricky, and students should practice until they are comfortable.

Have students create a T-Chart storyboard in which column A is for direct and indirect object pronouns placed before the conjugated verb, and column B is for placing these same pronouns attached to the end of the secondary verb. While there are many situations in which direct and indirect object pronouns can be attached to the secondary verb, especially involving infinitives, the model storyboard illustrates three of the most common—near future tense, present progressive, and tener que + infinitive. For each example, students will craft original questions that include both a direct object and an indirect object. In their responses, students will use pronouns to replace the direct and indirect objects. They must pay careful attention to word order and placement of these pronouns in their responses. Across a row, students will have the same response to a question, but demonstrating the two options for word order.