New
New
Year 9

What is important in life: infinitive uses, verbs capitalised as nouns

I can use infinitives as nouns and know when to use 'zu' with infinitives in the context of important relationships with others.

New
New
Year 9

What is important in life: infinitive uses, verbs capitalised as nouns

I can use infinitives as nouns and know when to use 'zu' with infinitives in the context of important relationships with others.

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Lesson details

Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

Key learning points

  1. Using a range of strategies, e.g., synonym spotting, can help deepen vocabulary knowledge.
  2. Using surrounding words to help infer meaning of unfamiliar words is a key strategy in reading comprehension.
  3. Infinitive verbs can be changed into nouns by capitalising the first letter of the infinitive.
  4. Infinitive nouns are always neuter; English equivalents end in -ing, e.g., 'das Schwimmen' - 'swimming'.
  5. In addition to modal verbs and 'werden', a few other verbs don’t need 'zu' before the infinitive in two-verb sentences.

Keywords

  • Infer - use of knowledge of the surrounding words in a sentence to work out the meaning of an unfamiliar word

Common misconception

Infinitives are always verbs.

Many infinitives can be used as nouns. In German, infinitive nouns start with a capital letter, are always neuter, can be used with or without 'das' & are typically translated into English with the gerund -ing, e.g., '(das) Schwimmen' - 'swimmming'.


To help you plan your year 9 German lesson on: What is important in life: infinitive uses, verbs capitalised as nouns, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Teachers may wish to give students opportunities to explore synonyms more widely in the first cycle of the lesson, as a means of supporting vocabulary recall.
Teacher tip

Equipment

A mini whiteboard and pen, together with pen and paper for making notes, would be useful, if available.

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), 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

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6 Questions

Q1.
Which verb is not a modal verb?

dürfen
Correct answer: haben
müssen
sollen
wollen

Q2.
Match the German and English.

Correct Answer:helfen,to help, helping

to help, helping

Correct Answer:putzen,to clean, cleaning

to clean, cleaning

Correct Answer:schützen,to protect, protecting

to protect, protecting

Correct Answer:sprechen,to speak, speaking

to speak, speaking

Correct Answer:springen,to jump, jumping

to jump, jumping

Correct Answer:arbeiten,to work, working

to work, working

Q3.
Match the German and English.

Correct Answer:Fleisch (m),meat

meat

Correct Answer:Gemüse (nt),vegetable(s)

vegetable(s)

Correct Answer:Jahreszeit (f),season

season

Correct Answer:Obst (nt),fruit

fruit

Correct Answer:Platz (m),place, room

place, room

Correct Answer:Welt (f),world

world

Q4.
Order the words to say: 'The project was necessary but very difficult.'

1 - das
2 - Projekt
3 - war
4 - notwendig
5 - aber
6 - sehr
7 - schwierig

Q5.
Write in English: 'Sport ist mir wichtig'.

Correct Answer: Sport is important to me, Sport's important to me

Q6.
Write in German: 'we are quite healthy'.

Correct Answer: wir sind ziemlich gesund

Assessment exit quiz

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4 Questions

Q1.
Which word is a synonym for 'toll'?

alt
Correct answer: fantastisch
schlecht
schnell
traurig

Q2.
'Mein Bruder spielt Klavier. Es ist sehr laut aber schön.'. What does 'Klavier' mean?

chess
juice
Correct answer: piano
rice
cake

Q3.
Write the German noun meaning 'dancing'.

Correct Answer: das Tanzen, Tanzen

Q4.
Order the words to say: 'I let the children play in the garden.'

1 - ich
2 - lasse
3 - die
4 - Kinder
5 - im
6 - Garten
7 - spielen

Additional material

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