How to teach children to write a, ha and ah

A is a preposition, Ha is the verb conjugated and ah is an interjection . They are homophones, that is, they sound the same but they are written differently and their meaning is not the same. Prepositions are words that relate the elements of a sentence. Verbs are the words we use to express actions

A is a preposition, Ha is the verb conjugated and ah is an interjection. They are homophones, that is, they sound the same but they are written differently and their meaning is not the same.

Prepositions are words that relate the elements of a sentence. Verbs are the words we use to express actions. And interjections are words that express emotions such as admiration, surprise, joy, pain, disgust, greeting, etc. How to teach children to use a, ha and ah correctly?

How to explain to children when 'a' is written

The a is the first vowel letter and the first letter of the Spanish alphabet, in addition, is a preposition that indicates the direction, situation or mode of an action. Whenever you go before a verb it must be in infinitive. For example:

- Pablo is going to play at the park.

- Jaime goes to eat at 3:00 p.m. - I like to play bowling.

The preposition 'a' can also go before a question

. For example: - What time is Carlos out of class?A particular case and that

leads to many mistakes

is that of the expression you will see (of looking) and there will be (of the verb to have). For example: - Carlos is going to see the Cathedral of Segovia (he is going to look, to visit). - Today there will be a big party in the town square (from the verb to have).

Grammar rule of the 'ha' for children

Ha is a form of the verb to have and is written with hache

whenever it is followed by a participle

. For example: - Pablo has gone to the park.- Jaime has eaten very well.

- Carlos has left at 2:00 p.m.

In case of doubt we can resort to this simple trick

: If we can substitute ha by he or have without altering the meaning of the sentence, it is written with a hache. For example:

- He has gone to the cinema / I have gone to the cinema / They have gone to the cinema. In this example the correct thing is to write it with hache because it is a verb and goes before a participle, also, with our trick the sentence continues to have meaning. The opposite happens with this one:- I'm going to eat at the restaurant / I'll have lunch at the restaurant / I'll have lunch at the restaurant.

In this case the correct thing is to write it without an ax because it is a preposition and it goes before the infinitive, in addition, it can not be substituted without altering the meaning of the sentence.

How to explain to children in which cases 'ah' is written

Ah is an interjection

that conveys admiration, surprise or sorrow. For example:

- Ah, what a sadness.

- Ah, I know who you say. - Ah! how nice.

Exercises for children to practice the use of a, ha and ah

I leave

some exercises

so that the children fill in the blanks and clarify ideas.

1. ... what time does the plane arrive? 2. Carlos ... come late to the party. 3. Today we go ... climb the mountain. Va 4. Go ... ... a storm.

5. Tonight we're going ... ... a movie to the movies.

6 ... what a pretty doll.

7. When I go ... I'll call you.

8. Did you ... call Jaime on the phone?

9. Pablo ... written a beautiful story.

10. I'm leaving ... studying that I have an exam.

11. Come on ... the hairdresser walking.

12 ... what a pity it was broken.

13. I'm going ... an exhibition at the Esteban Vicente museum.

14. They announce that it's going ... an earthquake.

To finish I leave you a sentence of Voltaire (1694-1778): 'Writing is the painting of the voice'.