What you did when on Sylt: perfect tense, telling the time: half past the hour
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can talk about what happened in the past and give the time it happened using ‘halb’ to mean half past.
Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons
Key learning points
- [y] commonly sounds like [ü], e.g., 'typisch'. In English words like 'Yoga' and 'Baby', [y] is pronounced as in English.
- Words ending in -ic/-ical in English often end in -isch in German, e.g., 'typisch'.
- There are three different ways to say 'you' in German: 'du', 'Sie' and 'man'.
- The perfect tense is made up of a part of ‘haben’ or ‘sein’ in the present tense, and a past participle.
- Half past the hour is expressed as half to the next hour in German, e.g., 9:30 is ‘halb zehn’.
Keywords
[y] - pronounced as in 'typisch'
Perfect tense - a verb tense that describes completed actions in the past, e.g., 'I said', 'she played'
Common misconception
Giving the time as half past the hour works the same in German as it does in English, e.g., ‘halb neun’ is 'half past nine'.
In German, half past is expressed as half of the next hour, so 'half past nine' is 'halb zehn', or 'half way to ten', the next hour.
Teacher tip
The context of this lesson is a visit to Sylt. Teachers may wish to further explore the cultural aspect of holidays in Germany with students by sourcing videos online.
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.Which word means 'perhaps'?
Q2.Match the German and English.
excursion, outing, trip
boat
entry, admission
food, meal
drive, trip
course
Q3.Match the German and English.
to plan, planning
to call, calling
to look, looking
to catch, catching
to bring, bringing
to drink, drinking
Q4.Order the words to say: 'He bought the tickets.'
Q5.Write in English: 'ich hatte Durst'.
Q6.Write in German: 'I went to bed'.
Assessment exit quiz
4 Questions
Q1.In which words is [y] pronounced like [ü]?
Q2.Write the word 'symbolic' in German.
Q3.'Jun kommt um halb drei an.' What time is Jun arriving?
Q4.Match the German and English.
you (informal) ate cake
you (informal) went to the beach
you (formal) ate cake
you (formal) went to the beach
you (general) ate cake
you (general) went to the beach
To help you plan your 8 German lesson on: What you did when on Sylt: perfect tense, telling the time: half past the hour, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 8 German lesson on: What you did when on Sylt: perfect tense, telling the time: half past the hour, 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 Past events: perfect and imperfect tenses, adjective agreement and comparatives unit, dive into the full secondary German curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.