New
New
Year 9

A murder mystery party: relative clauses

I can create adjectives from nouns adding the suffix -los, and I can use relative clauses to give further information about suspects and clues in the context of a murder mystery party.

New
New
Year 9

A murder mystery party: relative clauses

I can create adjectives from nouns adding the suffix -los, and I can use relative clauses to give further information about suspects and clues in the context of a murder mystery party.

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Lesson details

Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

Key learning points

  1. Adding the suffix -los to German nouns creates adjectives with the English equivalent -less or the meaning 'without'.
  2. Relative clauses add information about the noun in a main clause without starting another sentence.
  3. German subject relative clauses start with a relative pronoun, 'der', 'die', 'das', 'die' and end with a verb.
  4. Relative clauses can be embedded in main clauses, with commas before and after the clause.

Keywords

  • Suffix -los - letter string added to the end of many German nouns to create adjectives with the English meaning '-less' or 'without'

  • Relative clause - adds information about the noun in the main clause

Common misconception

You can add the suffix -los to any German noun to make an adjective.

You can't just add -los to any noun to form an adjective. It only works if the result makes real sense - usually where there’s a natural English -less equivalent (like 'hairless', 'hopeless', 'windowless').


To help you plan your year 9 German lesson on: A murder mystery party: relative clauses, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Following this lesson, teachers may consider making periodic use of register routines to revisit relative clauses, prompting pupils to create clues to enable a partner to identify specific items from a selection of same-item types, e.g., 'das ist der Hund, der einen Ball hat'.
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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 adjective refers to a colour?

billig
hässlich
lang
spannend
Correct answer: weiß

Q2.
Match the German and English.

Correct Answer:beschreiben,to describe, describing

to describe, describing

Correct Answer:fassen,to grab, grasp

to grab, grasp

Correct Answer:hören,to listen, listening

to listen, listening

Correct Answer:setzen,to put, place (horizontally)

to put, place (horizontally)

Correct Answer:treffen,to meet, meeting

to meet, meeting

Correct Answer:verstecken,to hide, hiding

to hide, hiding

Q3.
Match the German and English.

Correct Answer:Anwalt (m),lawyer

lawyer

Correct Answer:Blatt (nt),leaf

leaf

Correct Answer:Fenster (nt),window

window

Correct Answer:Hut (m),hat

hat

Correct Answer:Schlagzeug (nt),drums

drums

Correct Answer:Seite (f),page, side

page, side

Q4.
Order the words to say: 'a thin mouth and a thin nose'.

1 - ein
2 - dünner
3 - Mund
4 - und
5 - eine
6 - dünne
7 - Nase

Q5.
Write in English: 'seine Stimme war laut'.

Correct Answer: his voice was loud

Q6.
Write in German: 'there is a round table'.

Correct Answer: es gibt einen runden Tisch

Assessment exit quiz

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4 Questions

Q1.
The German noun 'Wert' means 'worth'. Write the German for the adjective 'worthless'.

Correct Answer: wertlos

Q2.
Order the sentence parts logically.

1 - der junger Mann
2 - der musikalisch ist
4 - spielt in einer Band

Q3.
Order the words to say: 'That is the lady who lives here.'

1 - das
2 - ist
3 - die
4 - Dame
5 - , die
6 - hier
7 - wohnt

Q4.
Write in German: 'the room that is light'.

Correct Answer: das Zimmer, das hell ist

Additional material

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