Year 9 - German
Childhood experiences: nouns, past tense, conjunctions
Past lives: perfect and imperfect tenses
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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 past tenses. The perfect tense is consolidated as variations on past participle formation are practised. The imperfect tense (war, hatte, es gab) is revisited, with question formation and word order 3 conjunctions. Pupils learn how to say calendar years in German.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to recognise correspondences between German and English nouns and can use a range of familiar vocabulary with the past tense, to understand Germany's past and discuss your childhood.
Key Notes
- German nouns ending '-heit' often correspond to English nouns ending '-ity', '-ness', e.g., 'die Sicherheit' (security).
- After WW2, Germany was split into West and East Germany. Life was very different in each country.
- Use the perfect tense and shorter imperfect tense forms 'war', 'waren', 'es gab', 'hatte' to narrate past events.
- The conjunctions 'als' or 'bevor' trigger word order three and can be used at the start of a sentence.
- If 'als' or 'bevor' begin a clause, the following clause uses word order two, creating a verb-comma-verb pattern.
Vocabulary To Learn
- war: imperfect tense form meaning 'was'
- waren: imperfect tense form meaning 'were'
- es gab: imperfect tense form meaning 'there was | there were'
- hatte: imperfect tense form meaning 'had'
- word order three: after certain conjunctions, the verb is sent to the end of the sentence or clause
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- There aren't any patterns in German nouns that help you identify their grammatical gender.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain what you can now say or understand in this lesson.
German nouns ending '-heit' often correspond to English nouns ending '-ity', '-ness', e.g., 'die Sicherheit' (security). After WW2, Germany was split into West and East Germany. Life was very different in each country.
2. Define this key language word and use it in context. 'war'
imperfect tense form meaning 'was'. Say or write it in a short sentence so you use the word actively.
3. Correct this common language-learning mistake.
Mistake: There aren't any patterns in German nouns that help you identify their grammatical gender. Correction: There are some suffixes in German nouns that signal the noun is feminine, for example '-heit', '-ung', '-in'. There may be some exceptions!
More Lessons In This Unit
- Famous German speakers: 'bevor' and 'nachdem', word order Study Guide
- Famous lives: 'als' as 'when' with the past tense Study Guide
- What did they do then? Perfect, imperfect 'war', 'hatte', 'gab', compound nouns Study Guide
- What you used to do: perfect tense with 'ihr' (you, familiar pl.) and 'früher' Study Guide
Browse all guides in the Year 9 German guide library.