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Year 10 - German

Digital Detox: perfect tense, imperfect tense, 'gerade'

Media and technology: Mein Leben online

Unit Summary

This unit revisits verbs and prepositions and teaches new da-/wo-compounds dabei, darin, davon and dazu. Relative pronouns in subject relative clauses are also used in 2-verb structures. Pupils consolidate the perfect tense and am/beim with the nominationson of the infinitive is introduced.

Lesson Summary

You will learn to use strong verbs in the perfect and imperfect tenses, including with 'gerade', in the context of technology and digital detox.

Key Notes

  • Strong verbs form past participles with 'ge-' and '-en'. Some have a vowel change, such as 'ei' to 'ie' or 'ie' to 'o'.
  • The imperfect tense is usually used in written texts for narration. The perfect tense is much more common in speaking.
  • The imperfect tense forms 'hatte', 'war', and 'es gab' are often used in spoken as well as written German.
  • Use 'gerade' with the perfect tense to mean 'just (now)'.
  • Use 'gerade' with the imperfect tense to express that the action was taking place when something else happened.

Vocabulary To Learn

  • perfect tense: past tense formed with the present tense of 'sein' or 'haben' and a past participle
  • imperfect tense: single-word past tense used mainly to narrate past events in writing
  • strong verb (perfect tense): verb whose past participle adds 'en' and often changes the stem vowel, e.g., 'geflogen'.
  • strong verb (imperfect tense): verb which changes the stem vowel in the imperfect tense, e.g., 'blieb'
  • gerade: adverb meaning 'just (now)'

Common Mistakes To Avoid

  • Always use the imperfect tense to translate the English simple past, e.g., 'I chatted online.'.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

1. Explain what you can now say or understand in this lesson.

Strong verbs form past participles with 'ge-' and '-en'. Some have a vowel change, such as 'ei' to 'ie' or 'ie' to 'o'. The imperfect tense is usually used in written texts for narration. The perfect tense is much more common in speaking.

2. Define this key language word and use it in context. 'perfect tense'

past tense formed with the present tense of 'sein' or 'haben' and a past participle. Say or write it in a short sentence so you use the word actively.

3. Correct this common language-learning mistake.

Mistake: Always use the imperfect tense to translate the English simple past, e.g., 'I chatted online.'. Correction: The perfect tense is far more common in German and is used for both the English simple past and perfect tense in speaking. The imperfect is used mainly to narrate past events in writing. However, 'hatte', 'war' and 'es gab' are used in speaking too.

More Lessons In This Unit

Browse all guides in the Year 10 German guide library.