Year 9 - German
Fairy tales: diminutives, singular imperfect tense
Storytelling: imperfect tense
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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 introduces the imperfect (simple past) tense of regular and highly frequent irregular verbs in singular persons.Da- compounds are revisited along with the perfect tense and the historic present in the narration of a story.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to use strong and weak verbs in the imperfect tense for storytelling.
Key Notes
- Add suffix -chen or -lein to create diminutive nouns with the English equivalent meaning 'little'.
- Use the imperfect tense in German to narrate past events, mainly in writing.
- Singular weak imperfect verbs add -te to the stem for 'ich' and 'er, sie, es' and an additional -st for the 'du' form.
- Strong verbs have an irregular stem including a vowel change, and don't add -te; 'du' forms add -st to the stem.
Vocabulary To Learn
- diminutive: word form for a smaller, cuter version of something, made by adding to or modifying the original word
- -chen, -lein: noun suffix creating diminutive nouns with the English equivalent meaning 'little', e.g., 'Haus' → 'Häuschen', 'Tisch' → 'Tischlein'
- imperfect: German single-word past tense used mainly to narrate past events in writing; e.g., 'war', 'hatte', 'gab', 'fand'
- strong verb (imperfect): forms the imperfect by changing the stem vowel, without the -te ending ('ich', 'er', 'sie', 'es'), but with -st ending ('du')
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Make the imperfect stem of strong verbs just by removing -en and changing the stem vowel.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain what you can now say or understand in this lesson.
Add suffix -chen or -lein to create diminutive nouns with the English equivalent meaning 'little'. Use the imperfect tense in German to narrate past events, mainly in writing.
2. Define this key language word and use it in context. 'diminutive'
word form for a smaller, cuter version of something, made by adding to or modifying the original word. Say or write it in a short sentence so you use the word actively.
3. Correct this common language-learning mistake.
Mistake: Make the imperfect stem of strong verbs just by removing -en and changing the stem vowel. Correction: Many strong verbs form their imperfect stem in this way: 'lesen' - 'las', 'geben', 'gab'. Other verbs have other small changes too: 'kommen' - 'kam', 'essen' - 'aß'. Others are more irregular: 'gehen' - 'ging', 'sein' - 'war', 'haben' - 'hatte'.
More Lessons In This Unit
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