New
New
Greetings and location: 'wo' and singular definite articles
Learning outcomes
I can greet a teacher or friend, ask and answer about where someone is, and recognise the definite article 'the'.
I can recognise the short and long [a] sound.
Lesson 1 of 9
New
New
- Year 7
Greetings and location: 'wo' and singular definite articles
Learning outcomes
I can greet a teacher or friend, ask and answer about where someone is, and recognise the definite article 'the'.
I can recognise the short and long [a] sound.
Lesson details
Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons
Key learning points
- 'Hallo' is an informal greeting meaning 'hello' or 'hi' and 'Guten Tag' is a more formal version of 'hello'.
- 'Wo ist?' asks 'where is?' in simple location questions.
- [a] can be either short (followed by 2 consonants) or long (followed by a single consonant, double vowel or 'h').
- German has three words for 'the': der (masculine), die (feminine) and das (neuter).
- Every noun in German has a grammatical gender, which is not the same as biological gender.
Keywords
Wo - where
Ist - is
[a] - pronounced short [a] as in kalt and long [a] as in sagen
Definite article - different forms of the singular ‘the’: ‘der’, ‘die’, ‘das’
Common misconception
Grammatical gender is the same as biological gender. If a word is feminine we think of it as a girl if it is masculine we think of it as a boy.
Grammatical gender is not the same as biological gender.
Focus on the importance of learning noun gender. Native speakers of languages with gender begin to predict what is going to be talked about as soon as the gender word is said i.e. if there are two objects in view and just the word for ‘the’ is said, it is clear what is being talked about.
Teacher tip
Equipment
Licence
This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2026), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Where is German spoken?
Where is German spoken?
Spain
Q2.Which of these words is a noun?
Which of these words is a noun?
and
make
Q3.Which of these words is an adjective?
Which of these words is an adjective?
hello
Berlin
Q4.Which word is the verb in the following sentence? 'I play football.'
Which word is the verb in the following sentence? 'I play football.'
Q5.Match each of these German words to the correct English translations.
Match each of these German words to the correct English translations.
Q6.Which of these words is a definite article?
Which of these words is a definite article?
a
there
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which of these words is needed to fill the gap in the following sentence in order to correctly translate the sentence 'Where is Lucas?' into German? '__________ ist Lucas?'
Which of these words is needed to fill the gap in the following sentence in order to correctly translate the sentence 'Where is Lucas?' into German? '__________ ist Lucas?'
Was
Wie
Q2.Would you greet a teacher with 'Hallo' or 'Guten Tag'?
Would you greet a teacher with 'Hallo' or 'Guten Tag'?
Q3.Which of these words contain the short [a] sound?
Which of these words contain the short [a] sound?
sagen
da
fahren
Q4.Which of these words contain the long [a] sound?
Which of these words contain the long [a] sound?
kalt
Mann
Gast
Q5.Match up the German forms of 'the' with their grammatical gender.
Match up the German forms of 'the' with their grammatical gender.
Q6.Which of these is correct?
Which of these is correct?
die Tisch
das Tisch
