What you and others have and what it is like: subject pronoun 'sie' for 'they'
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can describe what I and others have, using the correct subject pronouns for 'it' and 'they', and I can understand a longer text on Christmas in Berlin.
Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons
Key learning points
- [o] and [ö] need practice to distinguish between singular and plural forms of some nouns, e.g., 'Vogel' and 'Vögel'.
- Masculine and neuter nouns ending in -el, -en and -er don’t usually change in the plural form.
- A few -el, -en and -er plurals do add an umlaut to ‘a’, ‘o’, and ‘u’, e.g., 'Vögel'.
- To say 'they' in German, use 'sie' for all genders.
- The subject pronoun 'sie' means both 'it' (feminine) and 'they'. The verb form tells us what is being talked about.
Keywords
[o] - pronounced short [o] as in ‘Schottland’ and long [o] as in ‘Vogel’
[ö] - pronounced short [ö] as in 'zwölf' and long [ö] as in ‘Vögel’
Subject pronoun - represents the person, people or thing(s) doing the verb, e.g., I, we, they
Sie - the subject pronoun plural ‘they’
Common misconception
'Sie' always refer to feminine 'it' when used as a subject pronoun.
'Sie' means 'it' in the feminine form and 'they' in the plural form. 'Sie' is used for all plural forms.
Teacher tip
For Task C3, elicit answers from pupils in the third person by asking, e.g., ‘Was hat Mark? Was denkt Mark?’.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What is the capital city of Germany?
Q2.What gender is the subject pronoun in the following sentence? 'Ich habe ein Buch. Es ist toll.'
Q3.Which of these nouns are plural?
Q4.Match the German vocabulary below to the correct English translations.
water
world
pet
teacher
Q5.Translate the following sentence into English: 'Das Auto ist rot. Es ist klein.'
Q6.Match the adjectives below to the correct English translations.
great
okay
ugly
dark
good
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which of the following words contains a short [o] sound?
Q2.Place the following words in order of their vowel length, from shortest to longest.
Q3.How can you determine whether 'sie' means 'they' or 'it' in a sentence?
Q4.What happens to most masculine and neuter nouns ending in -el, -er, or -en in the plural form?
Q5.What happens to vowels when German nouns are made plural?
Q6.Which of the following pairs of singular and plural forms are correct?
To help you plan your 7 German lesson on: What you and others have and what it is like: subject pronoun 'sie' for 'they', download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 7 German lesson on: What you and others have and what it is like: subject pronoun 'sie' for 'they', 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.