English and German schools: pronouns 'uns' and 'ihnen'
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can use object pronouns to talk about school.
Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons
Key learning points
- Practising vocabulary, both known and new, is important for building language knowledge.
- Starting school in Germany is different from a child’s first day at school in England.
- Many German verbs are followed by direct objects or pronouns; two plural direct object pronouns are ‘uns' and 'sie'.
- Some German verbs use indirect or dative objects; two plural indirect object pronouns are 'uns' and 'ihnen'.
- Sometimes indirect object pronouns mean ‘to us’, ‘to them’, etc., but they can just mean ‘us’, ‘them’.
Keywords
Dative - case used for the indirect object in a sentence and after a dative verb or preposition
Indirect object pronoun - replaces the person, people or thing(s) that the verb action is done to, when the action is to me, for you, to them, also called dative pronoun
Common misconception
Object pronouns like me, him, they are always the same in German, like English.
German object pronouns can be direct or indirect; they change their spelling depending on the case needed, e.g. direct object pronoun 'dich' - you is accusative; indirect object pronoun 'dir' - you is dative. The case is often determined by the verb.
Teacher tip
Teachers may wish to explore the first day at school in greater depth with students. There are many videos available online that show what children's experience in Germany is like and this can lead into interesting cultural discussion.
Equipment
A mini whiteboard and pen, together with pen and paper for making notes, would be useful, if available.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Match the German word with its correct English meaning.
to tell, telling
to allow, allowing
to give, giving
to help, helping
Q2.Which German word means “our”?
Q3.What do we call a letter or group of letters added to the end of a word to change its meaning or use?
Q4.Which of these means 'their telephone' in German?
Q5.In which word is the syllable [er] not usually stressed?
Q6.Match the German and the English
the hobby
the club
the mobile phone
the answer
the street
Assessment exit quiz
5 Questions
Q1.Match the English and the German.
to explain, explaining
to allow, allowing
to tell, telling
gave, given
helped
Q2.What is one main way that a child's first day at school in Germany is different from in England?
Q3.In the sentence: Er gibt ihnen ein Buch, what does 'ihnen' mean?
Q4.Fill in the gap with the correct word for 'us': Unsere Lehrerin hilft mit den Hausaufgaben.
Q5.Fill in the gap with the correct word for 'to them': Ich erkläre die Aufgabe.
To help you plan your 8 German lesson on: English and German schools: pronouns 'uns' and 'ihnen', download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 8 German lesson on: English and German schools: pronouns 'uns' and 'ihnen', 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 Last year or this year: present and perfect tenses unit, dive into the full secondary German curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.