Description
Empresas y mercados en marcha is an illustrated 13-page Spanish lesson designed for adult learners, lawyers and business professionals who want to develop their Spanish through corporate transactions and financial markets.
The lesson focuses on estar, seguir and ir + gerundio, allowing students to describe actions in progress, ongoing negotiations and processes developing gradually.
Through fictional business cases, stock market charts, professional conversations and practical communication activities, students learn to distinguish between what a company is doing, what it intends to do and what it has already completed.
What does the lesson include?
1. Professional vocabulary and illustrated activities
Students learn vocabulary related to corporate transactions and financial markets, including acción, accionista, cotización, participación, borrador and mercado de valores.
An illustrated six-panel activity introduces professional actions such as reviewing contracts, comparing reports, calculating costs and buying shares.
2. Reading comprehension: Two companies and a share purchase
A fictional case involving Albor TecnologÃa and Nexo Datos introduces a proposed acquisition of additional shares.
Students identify the buyer, seller, existing shareholding and intended acquisition, distinguishing between a partial share purchase and the acquisition of an entire company.
3. Understanding stock market charts
Two illustrated share-price charts provide opportunities to practise describing price movements with expressions such as está subiendo and está bajando.
Students learn to describe what the graphs show without making unsupported assumptions about the causes of market movements.
4. Grammar: Present tense and the gerund
The lesson develops the difference between habitual activities and actions in progress, including:
- Estar + gerundio for actions in progress.
- Seguir + gerundio for continuing actions.
- Ir + gerundio for gradual developments.
- Regular and irregular gerunds.
- Present simple versus actions in progress.
- Direct and indirect object pronouns with gerund constructions.
Students practise structures such as Estamos revisando el borrador, Seguimos negociando el precio and Vamos comprobando los datos.
5. Illustrated professional dialogues
A four-panel comic presents a lawyer, a financial director and an analyst discussing a contract, a missing annex and a changing share price.
Students complete the dialogues, practise the grammar and perform guided professional role plays.
6. Two listening comprehension activities
The first listening activity follows a meeting between a lawyer and a financial director discussing a proposed share acquisition.
The second presents negotiations between Brisa EnergÃa and Senda Redes, focusing on shareholdings, prices, outstanding information and the progress of negotiations.
Exercises include information tables, multiple-choice questions, true or false statements and identification of irregular gerunds.
7. Reading critically and reporting accurately
Students compare an unverified internal message with a more cautious professional update.
They practise distinguishing confirmed information from speculation and explaining why a rising share price does not establish that a transaction has been completed.
8. Professional writing and negotiation
A guided writing activity asks students to prepare a client update of 90 to 110 words describing an ongoing share purchase, outstanding issues and the next steps.
Students also perform a structured lawyer-client role play involving price limits, incomplete documentation and reporting deadlines.
9. Two-page grammar appendix
The grammar appendix provides explanations, conjugation tables and examples covering seven grammatical topics, including irregular gerunds, pronoun placement, continuity, gradual development and the distinction between process, intention and result.
10. Additional exercises
Twelve supplementary exercise sets reinforce grammar, vocabulary, sentence construction, pronouns, shareholding calculations and professional writing.
11. Complete answers and transcripts
The final page includes answer keys, model responses and the complete transcripts of both listening activities.
Resource details
- Suggested level: A2
- Format: Downloadable PDF
- Length: 13 pages
- Audience: Lawyers, business professionals and adult Spanish learners
- Grammar: Estar, seguir and ir + gerundio, irregular gerunds and object pronouns
- Skills: Vocabulary, reading, listening, grammar, speaking and writing
- Includes: Illustrated activities, stock market charts, two listening exercises, grammar appendix, additional practice, answers and transcripts
Internet access and external links
Internet access is required to access the two listening recordings through the external links included in the PDF.
Complete transcripts of both recordings are provided.
All companies, transactions and market prices used in the lesson are fictional. This resource is intended exclusively for Spanish language learning and does not constitute legal or financial advice.
