Key learning points

1. [ei] and [ie] are tricky German sounds and need to be read, written and pronounced correctly.
2. To understand what you did in the past, use the present tense of ‘haben’ and a past participle.
3. The perfect tense in German can be translated in two ways in English: 'have done' and 'did'.
4. The English meaning we use often depends on time adverbs.

Keywords

• [ei] - sound-symbol correspondence pronounced as in 'frei'

• [ie] - sound-symbol correspondence pronounced as in 'Liebe'

• Past participle - the form of a verb used in the perfect tense; for example gespielt (played)

• Perfect tense - the German past tense which translates 2 English past tenses; for example, I did and I have done.

Common misconception