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      Neu in Deutschland: irregular past participles, perfect tense with 'haben'

      Learning outcomes

      I can use the perfect tense with 'haben' and irregular past participles in the context of the experiences of Syrians in Germany.

      I can recognise and pronounce soft and hard [ch] accurately.

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      Lesson 1 of 3
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      • Year 10
      • AQA

      Neu in Deutschland: irregular past participles, perfect tense with 'haben'

      Learning outcomes

      I can use the perfect tense with 'haben' and irregular past participles in the context of the experiences of Syrians in Germany.

      I can recognise and pronounce soft and hard [ch] accurately.

      Lesson details

      Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

      Key learning points

      1. The past participles of some verbs do not follow a pattern.
      2. [ch] can be soft as in 'ich' or hard as in 'Buch'.
      3. Use the perfect tense for actions completed in the past and the present for curret acctions and circumstances.
      4. The German perfect tense has two English translations.
      5. Use simple past for past experiences and present perfect to emphaise ongoing effects of past actions.

      Keywords

      • Irregular past participles - past participles which do not fit the pattern of weak or strong past participles

      • [ch] - pronounced soft as in ‘ich’ or hard as in ‘Buch’

      Common misconception

      All past participles follow either the strong or weak verb rules.

      Some past participles are irregular and need to be learned as vocabulary items. Practise them with the infinitive so that the students learns the sound as well as the spelling.

      Memorising a key word to demonstrate soft and hard [ch] is useful, along with regular reading aloud practice. Translation of the German perfect tense into English - and from English to German - needs plentiful practice.
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      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).

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      Prior knowledge starter quiz

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      6 Questions

      Q1.
      Match the German words below to their English equivalents.

      Correct Answer:der Ausdruck,term, expression
      Correct Answer:der Blick,view, look
      Correct Answer:der Baum,tree
      Correct Answer:der Unterschied,difference
      Correct Answer:die Reihe,row, line
      Correct Answer:der Satz,sentence

      Q2.
      Match the following German verbs to their English equivalents.

      Correct Answer:bilden,to form, educate
      Correct Answer:klingen,to sound
      Correct Answer:merken,to notice
      Correct Answer:unterrichten,to teach
      Correct Answer:lernen,to learn
      Correct Answer:heißen,to be called

      Q3.
      Match the forms of 'haben' below to the correct sentences to construct sentences in the perfect tense.

      Correct Answer:habe,Ich __________ früher in Syrien gewohnt.
      Correct Answer:hast,__________ du die Bedeutung von der Religion verstanden?
      Correct Answer:hat,Er __________über die Bedeutung von der Religion gesprochen.
      Correct Answer:haben,__________ Sie früher etwas über internationale Probleme gelesen?
      Correct Answer:habt,__________ ihr die Information online gefunden?

      Q4.
      Put the words below in the correct order: The past participles of __________ verbs sandwich the verb __________ with 'ge' and '-t'. Verbs beginning with 'er' or __________ do not need __________.

      1 - weak
      2 - stem
      3 - 'be'
      4 - 'ge'

      Q5.
      Put the words below in the correct order: The past participles of strong __________ sandwich the verb stem with 'ge' and __________. Sometimes the verb __________ __________ changes.

      1 - verbs
      2 - '-en'
      3 - stem
      4 - vowel

      Q6.
      Which of the following statements are true?

      All past participles start with 'ge'.
      Correct answer: In a normal sentence in German, the participle comes at the end of the sentence.
      All past participles end with '-en'.
      All past participles follow the rules for either weak or strong past participles
      Correct answer: Some past participles don't follow the rules for strong or weak verbs.

      Assessment exit quiz

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      6 Questions

      Q1.
      Match the English words below to their German equivalents.

      Correct Answer:sense, meaning,der Sinn
      Correct Answer:in my opinion,meiner Meinung nach
      Correct Answer:clear, clearly,deutlich
      Correct Answer:different,verschieden
      Correct Answer:worry,die Sorge
      Correct Answer:field,das Feld

      Q2.
      The [ch] sound is __________ after the vowel sounds [a], [o] [u] and [au] and __________ after 'e' or 'i' or another vowel sound that uses a similar mouth __________.

      1 - hard
      2 - soft
      3 - shape

      Q3.
      Match the sentence starters to the correct endings.

      Correct Answer:'Milch', 'manchmal' and 'Kirche' ,have a soft [ch] sound.
      Correct Answer:'Köchin' and 'Küche',are feminine nouns which have a soft [ch] sound.
      Correct Answer:'Tochter' and 'Buch' ,have plural forms with a soft [ch].
      Correct Answer:Changing a noun from singular to plural,can also change the pronunciation of [ch] if an umlaut is added.

      Q4.
      Match the irregular past participle examples below to their infinitives.

      Correct Answer:nennen,genannt
      Correct Answer:bringen,gebracht
      Correct Answer:denken,gedacht
      Correct Answer:wissen,gewusst
      Correct Answer:tun,getan
      Correct Answer:ziehen,gezogen

      Q5.
      Which of the following statements about translating the German perfect tense into English are correct?

      English has 1 translation for the German perfect tense.
      Correct answer: English has 2 translations for the German perfect tense.
      Correct answer: The present perfect (I have done) shows the ongoing effect of a past action.
      Correct answer: The simple past (I did) emphasises the completion of a past action.
      The present perfect and simple past are used interchangeably in English.

      Q6.
      When using both perfect and present tenses in German, check that the __________ tense includes the correct form of haben and a __________ __________. 'Haben' needs to __________ the subject.

      1 - perfect
      2 - past
      3 - participle
      4 - match

      Lesson appears in

      UnitGerman / People and lifestyle: Identitätsprobleme

      AQAGerman

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      EdexcelGerman

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