Childhood experiences: imperfect modal verbs 'konnte', 'musste', 'wollte'
I can form the imperfect tense of ‘können’, ‘müssen’ and ‘wollen’, and I am aware of aspects of childhood in Germany.
- Year 9
Childhood experiences: imperfect modal verbs 'konnte', 'musste', 'wollte'
I can form the imperfect tense of ‘können’, ‘müssen’ and ‘wollen’, and I am aware of aspects of childhood in Germany.
Lesson details
Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons
Key learning points
- Months of the year are masculine and borrowed from English, but the stressed syllables are not the same.
- Modal verbs are used with a 2nd verb in the infinitive, which comes at the end of the sentence.
- The imperfect tense of modal verbs is commonly used when speaking, as well as when writing.
- Add -te to the verb stem of a modal verb for the 1st and 3rd person singular imperfect tense, e.g., 'er musste'.
- Add -test to the verb stem of a modal verb for the 2nd person singular imperfect tense, e.g., 'du wolltest'.
Keywords
Modal verb - verb of necessity or possibility ('must', 'can', 'want') used with a 2nd verb in infinitive, which goes to the end
Imperfect tense - German single-word past tense used mainly to narrate past events in writing, e.g., 'war', 'hatte', 'gab'
Common misconception
Modal verbs don't require a 2nd verb in the infinitive unless they are in the present tense.
Modal verbs require a 2nd verb in the infinitive in other tenses, including the imperfect tense, e.g., 'ich konnte schwimmen'. They do not require a preceding 'zu' before the infinitive. Other verbs do.
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which word means 'somebody'?
Q2.Match the German and English.
Q3.Match the German and English.
