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Lesson 1 of 2
  • Year 9

Past and future goals: revisiting tenses and word order, translation skills

Learning outcomes

I can understand and translate texts on past achievements and future goals, applying knowledge of perfect and present tenses, present and imperfect modals, and word order.

I can pronounce and transcribe a range of SSCs.

Lesson 1 of 2
New
New
  • Year 9

Past and future goals: revisiting tenses and word order, translation skills

Learning outcomes

I can understand and translate texts on past achievements and future goals, applying knowledge of perfect and present tenses, present and imperfect modals, and word order.

I can pronounce and transcribe a range of SSCs.

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Lesson details

Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

Key learning points

  1. Frequent reading aloud and transcription can aid fluency in both speaking and comprehension.
  2. When discussing past goals, use the perfect for most verbs, but the imperfect for modals.
  3. For future goals, the present tense can be used to express future intentions, with a future time phrase.
  4. The word 'als' can mean 'when' in the past tense, 'as a' (role), or 'than' in comparsons.
  5. Translation into and from German requires attention to vocabulary, tenses, word order, accuracy, and careful checking.

Keywords

  • Sound-symbol correspondence - (SSC) relationship between letters and their sounds

  • Word order one (WO1) - subject - verb - object - the standard word order in a German sentence, e.g., 'ich lerne Deutsch'

  • Word order two (WO2) - inverts the subject and verb in a sentence

  • Word order three (WO3) - after certain conjunctions, the verb is sent to the end of the sentence or clause

Common misconception

To talk about the future in German you have to use the future tense with 'werden'.

In German, you can use the present tense and a future time phrase to talk about the future: 'ich spiele nächste Woche Tennis' - 'I'm playing/going to play tennis next week'. 'Planen' and 'vorhaben' in the present tense also express future intentions.


To help you plan your year 9 German lesson on: Past and future goals: revisiting tenses and word order, translation skills, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Translation tasks in Learning Cycle 3 are suggested as pair-work activities for collaborative working in developing translation skills. The tasks could also be adapted or scaffolded further as required.
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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.
'Das ist meine Lieblings__________.' Choose the correct missing word.

Beruf
Fach
Correct answer: Firma
Menschen

Q2.
Match the German and English.

Correct Answer:Fußball (m),football

football

Correct Answer:Körper (m),body

body

Correct Answer:Luft (f),air

air

Correct Answer:Meinung (f),opinion

opinion

Correct Answer:Karriere (f),career

career

Correct Answer:Naturwissenschaft (f),science

science

Q3.
Match the German and English.

Correct Answer:brauchen,to need, needing

to need, needing

Correct Answer:fliegen,to fly, flying

to fly, flying

Correct Answer:führen,to lead, leading

to lead, leading

Correct Answer:kosten,to cost, costing

to cost, costing

Correct Answer:schaffen,to manage, achieve

to manage, achieve

Correct Answer:wissen,to know, knowing

to know, knowing

Q4.
Order the words to say: 'I don't know if they understand everything.'

1 - ich
2 - weiß
3 - nicht
4 - ob
5 - sie
6 - alles
7 - begreifen

Q5.
Write in English: 'ich hatte eine gute Erfahrung'.

Correct Answer: I had a good experience

Q6.
Write in German: 'a boring weekend'.

Correct Answer: ein langweiliges Wochenende

Assessment exit quiz

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4 Questions

Q1.
Match the words and missing sounds.

Correct Answer:kr__gen,[ie]

[ie]

Correct Answer:Pr__s,[ei]

[ei]

Correct Answer:_rten,[w]

[w]

Correct Answer:_ersuchen,[v]

[v]

Correct Answer:h__te,[eu]

[eu]

Correct Answer:Tr__m,[au]

[au]

Q2.
Match each meaning of 'als' to the correct example sentence.

Correct Answer:when,als er jung war

als er jung war

Correct Answer:as,eine Ausbildung als Arzt

eine Ausbildung als Arzt

Correct Answer:than,mehr als zwei tausend Euro

mehr als zwei tausend Euro

Q3.
Order the words to say: 'I plan to earn lots of money.'

1 - ich
2 - habe
3 - vor
4 - viel
5 - Geld
6 - zu
7 - verdienen

Q4.
Write in German: 'I wanted to become very rich'.

Correct Answer: ich wollte sehr reich werden

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