Christmas: 'Es gibt' with plurals, the song 'O Tannenbaum'
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can apply masculine and neuter plural rules 1 and 2 to build sentences with ‘es gibt’ and ‘viele’.
Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons
Key learning points
- 'Es gibt' means 'there is' or 'there are' and 'viele' means 'lots of' or 'many'.
- [ü] can be either short (followed by 2 or more consonants) or long (followed by a single consonant or 'h').
- For noun plural rule 1, most masculine and neuter nouns add -e to the end and an umlaut on the vowel (ä,ö, ü).
- For noun plural rule 2, words ending in -el, -en or -er are often the same in the plural.
- ‘O Tannenbaum’ is a popular German Christmas song and translates as ‘O fir tree’.
Keywords
[ü] - pronounced short [ü] as in 'fünf' and long [ü] as in 'Tür'
Es gibt - 'there is' or 'there are'
Viele - lots of, many
Common misconception
All nouns change in their plural form.
Different nouns have different rules for forming plurals. It is important to learn these and acknowledge that there will always be exceptions to any rule.
Teacher tip
'O Tannenbaum' doesn't translate directly as 'O Christmas tree', but instead as 'O fir tree'. It is based on a 16th-century folk song by Melchior Franck.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which of these nouns are plural?
Q2.Which of these words contain a 'u' with an umlaut?
Q3.Match the German words below to the correct English translations.
doctor
place, room
train
game
piece
Q4.Match the German words below to the correct English translations.
also
there is, there are
green
how many
to wish, wishing
Q5.Which noun endings do not tend to change in the plural form?
Q6.Which of these is a traditional German fruit bread?
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which of these nouns are plural?
Q2.What is 'never' in German?
Q3.Which letter(s) do you add to the end of most masculine and neuter nouns to make them plural?
Q4.Which of these nouns are in their plural form?
Q5.Which statements about 'O Tannenbaum' are true?
Q6.Translate the following sentence into German: 'There are lots of angels.'
To help you plan your 7 German lesson on: Christmas: 'Es gibt' with plurals, the song 'O Tannenbaum', download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 7 German lesson on: Christmas: 'Es gibt' with plurals, the song 'O Tannenbaum', download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 3 German lessons from the Christmas: singular and plural nouns unit, dive into the full secondary German curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.