New
New
Year 8

Since when? 'seit' with dative and present tense

Learning outcomes

I can use 'seit' to say when something started or for how long it has been happening.

I can use my knowledge of singular nouns with short [e] and [a] to predict plural noun spelling with [e] and [ä].

New
New
Year 8

Since when? 'seit' with dative and present tense

Learning outcomes

I can use 'seit' to say when something started or for how long it has been happening.

I can use my knowledge of singular nouns with short [e] and [a] to predict plural noun spelling with [e] and [ä].

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Lesson details

Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

Key learning points

  1. Short [e] and [ä] are pronounced the same.
  2. In some singular nouns with short [a], the vowel changes to short [ä] in the plural.
  3. Using a range of skills to develop vocabulary is an important part of language learning.
  4. 'Seit' can mean 'since' when used with a point in time, or 'for' when used with a time span.
  5. Seit is followed by the dative and is used with the present tense in German, though in English we say 'have been -ing'.

Keywords

  • Seit - preposition meaning ‘since’ or ‘for’, followed by the dative case

  • Dative - case used for the indirect object in a sentence and after a dative verb or preposition

Common misconception

'Seit' is always used with the continuous past, like in English e.g. I have been learning German since June.

In German, 'seit' is used with the present tense to say 'for' e.g. 'Ich lerne seit vier Jahren' 'I have been learning for four years' as well as 'since' e.g. 'Ich lerne seit Juni Deutsch', 'I have been learning since June'.


To help you plan your year 8 German lesson on: Since when? 'seit' with dative and present tense, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

For speaking Task C3, teachers may wish to add a competitive element to the task by giving pairs a time limit and the challenge to see how many different sentences they can make in that time. The pair with the most could then be asked to demonstrate some examples of their work.
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 of these words means 'birthday' in German?
Jugendklub
Schloss
Correct answer: Geburtstag
Woche
Q2.
Match the German time words to their English meanings.
Correct Answer:Montag,Monday

Monday

Correct Answer:Tag,day

day

Correct Answer:Jahr,year

year

Correct Answer:Woche,weak

weak

Correct Answer:Monat,month

month

Q3.
Translate the word ‘uns’ into English.
Correct Answer: us, us to us, to us us, to us
Q4.
Put the words in the correct order to make a sensible German sentence.
1 - Ich
2 - rufe
3 - meinen
4 - Freund
5 - am Montag
6 - an
Q5.
Fill in the gap with the correct dative pronoun meaning 'them' Ich erkläre die Wahrheit.
Correct Answer: ihnen
Q6.
Match the German verbs to their correct English meanings.
Correct Answer:mitbringen,to bring along/ with

to bring along/ with

Correct Answer:erklären,to explain, explaining

to explain, explaining

Correct Answer:anrufen,to call, calling, (on the phone)

to call, calling, (on the phone)

Correct Answer:aussehen,to look, appear

to look, appear

Assessment exit quiz

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5 Questions

Q1.
Which two German vowel sounds are pronounced the same?
[e] and [i]
[a] and [e]
[a] and [ä]
Correct answer: [e] and [ä]
Q2.
Match the German words to their English meanings.
Correct Answer:gleich,same

same

Correct Answer:einmal,once

once

Correct Answer:bei,at (the house of)

at (the house of)

Correct Answer:seit,since, for

since, for

Correct Answer:vor,ago

ago

Q3.
Put the words in the correct order to say: 'I have been in Germany since Tuesday.'
1 - ich
2 - bin
3 - seit
4 - Dienstag
5 - in
6 - Deutschland
Q4.
Translate to English: Ich kenne Alex seit einem Monat.
Correct Answer: I have known Alex for a month
Q5.
Which sentence is correct in German to translate 'I have been working at the firm for a year.' ?
Ich habe seit einem Jahr in der Firma gearbeitet.
Ich habe gearbeitet seit einem Jahr in der Firma.
Correct answer: Ich arbeite seit einem Jahr in der Firma.
Ich bin gearbeitet seit einem Jahr in der Firma.

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