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Year 11 - German

Mein Schultag: nouns and plurals, present tense, picture task (AQA)

People and lifestyle: Wiederholung: mein Leben, meine Zukunft

Unit Summary

This unit begins formal revision of the course, with known grammar and vocabulary reactivated throughout. Pupils apply knowledge on plural nouns, present and perfect tenses, including reflexive and separable verbs, imperfect tense, modals, verbs with prepositions, future tense and 'möcht-'

Lesson Summary

You will learn to use the correct grammatical gender of nouns in singular and plural with the present tense of weak and strong verbs to describe a teenager's normal day.

Key Notes

  • All nouns in German start with a capital letter and have a grammatical gender, either masculine, feminine or neuter.
  • Many German nouns have plural forms, but many are used either only in the singular or the plural.
  • There are nine rules for forming plurals in German. Plural rules should be learnt alongside the noun gender.
  • Weak and strong verbs have the same present tense endings; strong verbs change stem vowel for 'du' and 'er, sie, es'.
  • German has one present tense which conveys both the English simple present and present continuous.

Vocabulary To Learn

  • grammatical gender: way to categorise all nouns as either masculine, feminine or neuter
  • plural rules: rules applied to noun categories to support accurate use of plurals in German - rules 1 - 5 of 9 are covered here
  • weak verb: a verb that follows a regular pattern of changes
  • strong verb: a verb which changes its vowel in the verb stem of the 'du' and 'er, sie, es' forms

Common Mistakes To Avoid

  • There is only one way to form the plural in German.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

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

All nouns in German start with a capital letter and have a grammatical gender, either masculine, feminine or neuter. Many German nouns have plural forms, but many are used either only in the singular or the plural.

2. Define this key language word and use it in context. 'grammatical gender'

way to categorise all nouns as either masculine, feminine or neuter. Say or write it in a short sentence so you use the word actively.

3. Correct this common language-learning mistake.

Mistake: There is only one way to form the plural in German. Correction: German has several rules for forming plurals. The best way to correctly form plurals is to learn the rules, use an example for each rule as a guide, and frequently practise them. As in English, some nouns are used without plurals.

More Lessons In This Unit

Browse all guides in the Year 11 German guide library.