Year 8 - German
A house move: adjective endings with definite articles (accusative)
New home: adjective endings in nominative, accusative and dative
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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 and extends knowledge of adjective endings with definite and indefinite articles. As pupils describe their new house and neighbours, they revisit word order, manipulating sentence starts with time, manner or place in order to emphasise ideas.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to describe the features and contents of a house using definite articles and nominative and accusative adjective endings.
Key Notes
- The sound-symbol correspondences [eu] and [äu] have the same sound, which is different from [au].
- Cognates help you understand new words more quickly, since they look or sound similar to words in your own language.
- It's important to be aware of false friends - words that are similar in two languages but have different meanings.
- German adjectives take endings before a noun — you need to know the noun's gender and case to get them right.
- The accusative case is used for the direct object, after most verbs and some prepositions.
Vocabulary To Learn
- false friend: word that looks or sounds similar in two languages but has a different meaning
- definite article: words 'der', 'die', 'das' meaning 'the'
- accusative: case used for the direct object in a sentence, after most verbs and some prepositions
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- All German words that look or sound similar to words in English are cognates.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain what you can now say or understand in this lesson.
The sound-symbol correspondences [eu] and [äu] have the same sound, which is different from [au]. Cognates help you understand new words more quickly, since they look or sound similar to words in your own language.
2. Define this key language word and use it in context. 'false friend'
word that looks or sounds similar in two languages but has a different meaning. Say or write it in a short sentence so you use the word actively.
3. Correct this common language-learning mistake.
Mistake: All German words that look or sound similar to words in English are cognates. Correction: Similar looking and sounding words are only cognates if they share the same meaning in both languages. When the meaning is different, similar words are called false friends.
More Lessons In This Unit
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