Key Stage 3 languages · Grammar and vocabulary

KS3 languages: voices and moods explained for parents

Voice and mood describe how a verb presents an action. Voice tells us whether the subject does the action (active) or has it done to it (passive). Mood shows the speaker’s attitude: stating a fact, giving a command, making a polite request or talking about a possibility. The National Curriculum asks for these “as appropriate to the language”, so what your child meets depends on the language their school teaches.

Voices and moods, explained

These are grammar terms most adults have not used since school, and they matter less as labels than as tools. Using them lets a child do more than state facts. They can give an instruction, ask politely, imagine what would happen, or say that something has to be done. The curriculum asks for pupils to use and manipulate a variety of key structures “including voices and moods, as appropriate”, and also to express and develop their ideas clearly and with increasing accuracy. The wording is deliberately flexible, so schools decide how much to teach and when. Examples here are in French and Spanish, but the school chooses the language.

Voice is about who or what is the focus of the sentence. In an active sentence the subject does the action: “The teacher marks the homework” (“Le professeur corrige les devoirs”). In a passive sentence the focus moves to the thing affected: “The homework is marked by the teacher” (“Les devoirs sont corrigés par le professeur”). Spanish has a passive too, built from ser and a participle, but speakers often prefer an active sentence or a construction with se instead. Many pupils meet the passive only briefly in Key Stage 3, if at all.

Mood is about the speaker’s attitude. The indicative is the mood for plain statements and questions of fact, and it covers most of what children learn first, including the present, past and future tenses. The imperative gives commands and instructions: “Écoute !” “¡Escucha!” There are separate forms for talking to a friend and to an adult. The conditional expresses “would”, as in “je voudrais” (I would like) or “me gustaría”, and is the basis of polite requests and “if” sentences. Grammar books often class the conditional as a mood, though some treat it as a tense.

The subjunctive is the mood for things that are wished for, doubted, needed or felt rather than simply stated. French has “Il faut que je fasse mes devoirs” (I must do my homework, literally “it is necessary that I do it”), and Spanish has “Es necesario que haga mis deberes”. The verb changes shape after phrases like these. Because it is tricky, many schools teach only a few set phrases in Years 8 or 9, and others leave it for GCSE. Your child having met only some of these moods by the end of Year 9 is not a gap.

As children learn these structures they also learn when to use them. Choosing “je voudrais” over “je veux” in a café is a social skill as well as a grammar skill, since “I want” sounds blunt. Giving a clear instruction to a friend, being polite to a stranger and writing a thoughtful opinion all depend on choosing the right mood. For this reason teachers practise them in conversation and role play, not just on paper.

Words your child will hear

Voice: Whether the subject does the action (active) or has it done to it (passive).
Passive: A sentence where the thing affected comes first: “The homework is marked by the teacher.”
Mood: The attitude a verb shows: fact, command, request or possibility. It is separate from tense, which shows when.
Indicative: The ordinary mood for facts and questions, such as “Tu parles anglais.”
Imperative: The mood for orders and instructions: “Parle !” “¡Habla!” It has its own forms.
Conditional: The “would” form used for polite requests and “if” sentences: “J’aimerais” (I would like).
Subjunctive: A mood used after phrases of necessity, wish or doubt, in which the verb takes a different form.

What the National Curriculum says

In Key Stage 3, pupils should be taught to:

Use and manipulate a variety of key grammatical structures and patterns, including voices and moods, as appropriate
Express and develop ideas clearly and with increasing accuracy, both orally and in writing

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: saying “homework” in four moods

A child wants to say the idea of doing homework in different ways in French: as a statement, a command to a friend, a hypothetical (if only there were time), and a necessity. They then change one sentence from active to passive.

Indicative, a statement of fact: “Je fais mes devoirs.” (I do my homework.) Faire is irregular, so the forms are to be learned: je fais, tu fais.
Imperative, a command to a friend using the tu form: “Fais tes devoirs !” For -er verbs the final s of tu is dropped (tu parles becomes “Parle !”), but faire keeps it. In Spanish, the matching command is “¡Haz tus deberes!”, where hacer has an irregular command form.
Conditional, a hypothetical: “Si j’avais plus de temps, je ferais mes devoirs.” (If I had more time, I would do my homework.) In French the “if” part uses the imperfect tense and the main part the conditional. In Spanish the “if” part uses a form called the imperfect subjunctive (tuviera), with the conditional in the main part: “Si tuviera más tiempo, haría mis deberes.” Many schools teach these as set phrases at first.
Subjunctive, a necessity: “Il faut que je fasse mes devoirs.” The usual je fais changes to je fasse after il faut que. In Spanish: “Es necesario que haga mis deberes.”
Active to passive: “Le professeur corrige les devoirs” becomes “Les devoirs sont corrigés par le professeur.” The thing affected moves to the front, être is added, and the participle agrees with devoirs (masculine plural, so corrigés).

Je fais mes devoirs. / Fais tes devoirs ! / Si j’avais plus de temps, je ferais mes devoirs. / Il faut que je fasse mes devoirs. / Les devoirs sont corrigés par le professeur.

Common mistakes and how to help

Thinking mood and tense are the same thing

Both are shown by changes to the verb, and the words are often used loosely. Tense tells you when something happens, while mood shows the speaker’s attitude to it. The conditional “je ferais” is not simply the future.

What helps: Ask two questions of a verb: when, and what is the speaker doing with it (stating, ordering, wishing)? Give your child a sentence and ask them to answer both.

Copying English passives into French or Spanish

English can say “I was given a book”, but French cannot make a passive from “someone gave me a book”. “Je suis donné un livre” is not French. Passive sentences often sound unnatural when translated directly.

What helps: Show that French and Spanish turn the idea round instead: “On m’a donné un livre” in French, or “Me dieron un libro” in Spanish. Encourage your child to ask whether an active sentence would work first.

Using the present tense form for commands

The command forms look similar to the present tense, so “Tu manges !” seems fine. But French drops the s of -er verbs in the tu command (“Mange !”), and Spanish uses a different form to say “don’t”: “¡Habla!” but “¡No hables!”

What helps: Practise with a handful of everyday commands, such as sit, listen, wait, come here, and learn the positive and negative form together.

Being too direct when asking for something

English “I want” in a shop is blunt in French and Spanish too. Children translate “I want a coffee” as “Je veux un café” or “Quiero un café”, which can sound rude.

What helps: Teach “Je voudrais” or “Quisiera” as the default for requests. Role-play a café or shop scene and swap the roles.

How to help at home

Spot the commands. Look at instructions in the language, such as a short recipe or a set of directions in a school book. Which verbs are commands? Why are they different from the sentence form?
Polite versus blunt. Take turns playing a customer and a café worker. First ask for things bluntly, then politely with the conditional. Let your child say which sounds better and why.
If I were…. Ask your child for dreams: “If I were rich, I would buy a house.” In French that is “Si j’étais riche, j’achèterais une maison.” Making up silly or personal “if” sentences is more memorable than a worksheet.
Active or passive in English first. Use newspaper headlines or school notices to spot passives in English: “The window was broken.” Who did it? Talking about what a passive hides makes the idea much clearer before they meet it in another language.

Builds on

Key Stage 2: Building vocabulary
Key Stage 2: Using a bilingual dictionary
Key Stage 2: Masculine, feminine and neuter nouns
Key Stage 2: High-frequency verbs
Key Stage 2: Patterns and building sentences
Key Stage 2: Comparing a language with English