New
New
Year 9

What you did for and with others: perfect tense

I can use the perfect tense to say what happened between people in the past.

New
New
Year 9

What you did for and with others: perfect tense

I can use the perfect tense to say what happened between people in the past.

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Lesson details

Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

Key learning points

  1. Reading is a good way to strengthen word knowledge and can be done in a range of ways.
  2. The perfect tense is formed with a present tense part of 'haben' or 'sein' and a past participle.
  3. Many past participles are formed by adding ge- to the start of the verb stem and -t to the end.
  4. For verbs starting with be-, er- and ver- , the past participle does not have the prefix ge-.
  5. Strong verbs in the perfect tense form the past participle by adding -en; they often have a vowel change too.

Keywords

  • Perfect tense - a verb tense that describes completed actions in the past, e.g., 'I said', 'she played'

  • Strong verb (perfect tense) - a verb whose past participle adds ‘en’ and often changes the stem vowel, e.g., 'gesungen'

Common misconception

All German past participles have the prefix ge-.

German verbs starting with be-, ver- and er- do not have the prefix ge- added for the past participle, e.g., 'besucht' - 'visited' or 'verdient' - 'earnt'.


To help you plan your year 9 German lesson on: What you did for and with others: perfect tense, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Teachers might wish to highlight for students the importance of using a range of strategies for practising vocabulary, as demonstrated in the first cycle of this lesson.
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.
Match the German and English.

Correct Answer:aus,from, out of

from, out of

Correct Answer:bei,at (the house of)

at (the house of)

Correct Answer:durch,through

through

Correct Answer:gegen,against

against

Correct Answer:mit,with

with

Correct Answer:ohne,without

without

Q2.
Match the German and English.

Correct Answer:Gefühl (nt),feeling, emotion

feeling, emotion

Correct Answer:Kino (nt),cinema

cinema

Correct Answer:Paar (nt),couple, pair

couple, pair

Correct Answer:Schwimmbad (nt),swimming pool

swimming pool

Correct Answer:Stadt (f),town, city

town, city

Correct Answer:Tour (f),tour

tour

Q3.
Order the words to say: 'My friend showed me nothing.'

1 - mein
2 - Freund
3 - hat
4 - mir
5 - nichts
6 - gezeigt

Q4.
Order the words to say: 'We found the task too easy.'

1 - wir
2 - haben
3 - die
4 - Aufgabe
5 - zu
6 - einfach
7 - gefunden

Q5.
Write in English: 'Wie war der Ausflug?'.

Correct Answer: how was the trip, how was the outing, how was the excursion

Q6.
Write in German: 'Do you have a question?'.

Correct Answer: hast du eine Frage

Assessment exit quiz

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4 Questions

Q1.
Which verbs do not have past participles starting with ge-?

Correct answer: besuchen
Correct answer: erzählen
lacheln
schreiben
Correct answer: verstehen

Q2.
Order the words to say: 'He sang and she jumped.'

1 - er
2 - hat
3 - gesungen
4 - und
5 - sie
6 - ist
7 - gesprungen

Q3.
Write in German: 'I took a letter'.

Correct Answer: ich habe einen Brief genommen

Q4.
Write in German: 'I flew to Berlin'.

Correct Answer: ich bin nach Berlin geflogen

Additional material

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