New
New
Year 8

What you did when on Sylt: perfect tense, telling the time: half past the hour

Learning outcomes

I can talk about what happened in the past and give the time it happened using ‘halb’ to mean half past.

I can recognise and pronounce the different sounds made by [y].

New
New
Year 8

What you did when on Sylt: perfect tense, telling the time: half past the hour

Learning outcomes

I can talk about what happened in the past and give the time it happened using ‘halb’ to mean half past.

I can recognise and pronounce the different sounds made by [y].

These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.

These resources were created for remote use during the pandemic and are not designed for classroom teaching.

Lesson details

Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

Key learning points

  1. [y] commonly sounds like [ü], e.g., 'typisch'. In English words like 'Yoga' and 'Baby', [y] is pronounced as in English.
  2. Words ending in -ic/-ical in English often end in -isch in German, e.g., 'typisch'.
  3. There are three different ways to say 'you' in German: 'du', 'Sie' and 'man'.
  4. The perfect tense is made up of a part of ‘haben’ or ‘sein’ in the present tense, and a past participle.
  5. 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.


To help you plan your year 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 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.
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

Loading...

Some of our videos, including non-English language videos, do not have captions.

Prior knowledge starter quiz

Download quiz pdf

6 Questions

Q1.
Which word means 'perhaps'?
durch
etwas
manchmal
schon
Correct answer: vielleicht
Q2.
Match the German and English.
Correct Answer:Ausflug (m),excursion, outing, trip

excursion, outing, trip

Correct Answer:Boot (nt),boat

boat

Correct Answer:Eintritt (m),entry, admission

entry, admission

Correct Answer:Essen (nt),food, meal

food, meal

Correct Answer:Fahrt (f),drive, trip

drive, trip

Correct Answer:Kurs (m),course

course

Q3.
Match the German and English.
Correct Answer:planen,to plan, planning

to plan, planning

Correct Answer:rufen,to call, calling

to call, calling

Correct Answer:schauen,to look, looking

to look, looking

Correct Answer:fangen,to catch, catching

to catch, catching

Correct Answer:bringen,to bring, bringing

to bring, bringing

Correct Answer:trinken,to drink, drinking

to drink, drinking

Q4.
Order the words to say: 'He bought the tickets.'
1 - er
2 - hat
3 - die
4 - Karten
5 - gekauft
Q5.
Write in English: 'ich hatte Durst'.
Correct Answer: I was thirsty
Q6.
Write in German: 'I went to bed'.
Correct Answer: ich bin ins Bett gegangen

Assessment exit quiz

Download quiz pdf

4 Questions

Q1.
In which words is [y] pronounced like [ü]?
Correct answer: Physik
Party
Correct answer: Gymnasium
Handy
Correct answer: Sylt
Q2.
Write the word 'symbolic' in German.
Correct Answer: symbolisch
Q3.
'Jun kommt um halb drei an.' What time is Jun arriving?
1:30
2:00
Correct answer: 2:30
3:00
3:30
Q4.
Match the German and English.
Correct Answer:du hast Kuchen gegessen,you (informal) ate cake

you (informal) ate cake

Correct Answer:du bist an den Strand gegangen,you (informal) went to the beach

you (informal) went to the beach

Correct Answer:Sie haben Kuchen gegessen,you (formal) ate cake

you (formal) ate cake

Correct Answer:Sie sind an den Strand gegangen,you (formal) went to the beach

you (formal) went to the beach

Correct Answer:man hat Kuchen gegessen,you (general) ate cake

you (general) ate cake

Correct Answer:man ist an den Strand gegangen,you (general) went to the beach

you (general) went to the beach

Additional material

Download additional material