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Year 8 - German

A new home: dative adjective endings with definite and indefinite articles

New home: adjective endings in nominative, accusative and dative

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 understand and use prepositions with dative articles and adjectives to say where specific things are located.

Key Notes

  • After the verb 'sein', adjectives before nouns have nominative endings, because the noun is the subject of the sentence.
  • After most other verbs, prenominal adjectives have accusative endings, because the noun is the object of the sentence.
  • German [v] usually sounds like English and German [f]; to write words correctly their spelling needs to be known.
  • Some prepositions always require dative endings; e.g., aus; others are only ever used with the accusative, e.g., durch.
  • The dative adjective ending is -en for singular and plural, definite and indefinite articles.

Vocabulary To Learn

  • preposition: word that is used before a noun, a noun phrase, or a pronoun, connecting it to another word
  • dative adjective ending: -en ending added to all adjectives before the noun in the dative case

Common Mistakes To Avoid

  • After all prepositions, the case used depends on whether the verb describes 'location in' or 'movement to'.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

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

After the verb 'sein', adjectives before nouns have nominative endings, because the noun is the subject of the sentence. After most other verbs, prenominal adjectives have accusative endings, because the noun is the object of the sentence.

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

word that is used before a noun, a noun phrase, or a pronoun, connecting it to another word. Say or write it in a short sentence so you use the word actively.

3. Correct this common language-learning mistake.

Mistake: After all prepositions, the case used depends on whether the verb describes 'location in' or 'movement to'. Correction: Some prepositions always require dative endings regardless of the verb meaning; e.g., 'aus, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu'; other prepositions are only ever used with the accusative, e.g., 'durch, für'.

More Lessons In This Unit

Browse all guides in the Year 8 German guide library.