Year 10 - German
Matthias Maurer: yes/no questions in the perfect and imperfect tenses
My neighbourhood: Vorbilder
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
This unit revisits the perfect tense of '-ieren' verbs, the use and translation of perfect tense with adverbs of time. Pupils learn to add -er to a verb stem to create male agent nouns, extending their ability to manipulate known and new vocabulary when talking about role models.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to form yes/no questions in the perfect and imperfect tenses to ask questions about famous German speakers.
Key Notes
- [er] at the end of a word is unstressed and sounds like the English 'uh'.
- The [r] in female people nouns is consonantal and is rolled at the back of the throat.
- Change verbs to male person nouns by adding –er to a verb stem.
- To form a yes/no question in the perfect tense, swap the subject and the verb and send the past participle to the end.
- To form a yes/no question in the imperfect tense, swap the subject and the verb.
Vocabulary To Learn
- male agent noun: a noun for someone who performs the action of a verb, usually ending in -er; for example, worker - 'Arbeiter'
- imperfect tense: German single-word past tense used mainly to narrate past events in writing; for example, 'war', 'hatte', 'gab', 'fand'
- perfect tense: German two-word past tense using either 'haben' or 'sein' with a past participle
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Asking yes/no questions in the past is much more complicated than the present tense, as the rules are different. You need to translate 'did'.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain what you can now say or understand in this lesson.
[er] at the end of a word is unstressed and sounds like the English 'uh'. The [r] in female people nouns is consonantal and is rolled at the back of the throat.
2. Define this key language word and use it in context. 'male agent noun'
a noun for someone who performs the action of a verb, usually ending in -er; for example, worker - 'Arbeiter'. Say or write it in a short sentence so you use the word actively.
3. Correct this common language-learning mistake.
Mistake: Asking yes/no questions in the past is much more complicated than the present tense, as the rules are different. You need to translate 'did'. Correction: The English 'did' isn't needed. Swap subject and verb for a yes/no question. 'Er sprach' (imperfect) becomes 'Sprach er?'. In the perfect tense, the past participle stays at the end of the sentence: 'Er hat gesprochen' - 'Hat er gesprochen?'.
More Lessons In This Unit
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