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      Childhood experiences: imperfect plural forms of 'sein' and 'haben'

      Lesson details

      Learning outcome

      I can form the imperfect tense plural forms of the verbs 'haben' and 'sein', and use them in the context of childhood experiences.

      Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

      Key learning points

      1. Some sound-symbol correspondences are written differently, but sound the same, e.g., [äu] and [eu].
      2. Notice verb endings and use surrounding context to help identify the subject of a sentence using a form of 'you'.
      3. The 'wir', 'sie/Sie' imperfect tense forms of 'haben' are both 'hatten'. For 'sein' they are both 'waren'.
      4. The 'ihr' imperfect tense form of 'haben' is 'hattet'. For 'sein' it is 'wart'.
      5. The subject pronoun 'sie' can mean 'she, it' or 'they'. With a capital letter, 'Sie' is formal 'you'.

      Keywords

      • Sound-symbol correspondence - relationship between letters and their sounds, abbreviated to SSC

      • Hatten - 1st and 3rd person plural imperfect tense form of 'haben', meaning 'had'

      • Hattet - 2nd person plural imperfect tense form of 'haben', meaning 'had'

      • Waren - 1st and 3rd person plural imperfect tense form of 'sein', meaning 'were'

      • Wart - 2nd person plural imperfect tense form of 'sein', meaning 'were'

      Common misconception

      The subject pronoun 'sie' always means 'she'.

      The subject pronoun 'sie' means 'she' when used with a 3rd person singular verb ending or 'they' when used with a 3rd person plural verb ending. If written as 'Sie' and is used with a 3rd person plural verb ending, it can mean 'you (formal)'.

      Teacher tip

      A follow-up homework task could be for students to write a short paragraph about their own childhoods, using 'haben' and 'sein' in the imperfect tense.

      Licence

      This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2026), 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

      6 Questions

      Q1.
      Match the German and English.

      Correct Answer:ich musste,I had to
      Correct Answer:ich wollte,I wanted
      Correct Answer:ich konnte,I could
      Correct Answer:ich hatte,I had
      Correct Answer:ich war,I was
      Correct Answer:es gab,there was / were

      Q2.
      Match the German and English.

      Correct Answer:Gegenstand (m),object
      Correct Answer:entdecken,to discover, discovering
      Correct Answer:niemand,nobody
      Correct Answer:gucken,to look, looking, to watch, watching
      Correct Answer:Reise (f),journey, trip
      Correct Answer:Welt (f),world

      Q3.
      Match the subject pronoun and verb stems to the correct verb endings.

      Correct Answer:ich spiel,e
      Correct Answer:du spiel,st
      Correct Answer:er spiel,t
      Correct Answer:wir spiel,en

      Q4.
      Choose the correct verb to complete the following sentence: 'Sie __________ Tennis.' (They play tennis.)

      spielt
      Correct answer: spielen
      spielst
      spiele

      Q5.
      Match the German and English.

      Correct Answer:also,so
      Correct Answer:auch,also
      Correct Answer:wenig (e.g., wenig Zeit),little
      Correct Answer:kennenlernen,to get to know, meet
      Correct Answer:Unterstützung (f),support, help
      Correct Answer:fertig,finished

      Q6.
      A modal verb is a verb of necessity or possibility ('must', 'can', 'want') used with a 2nd verb in the infinitive, which goes to the of the sentence.

      Correct Answer: end

      5 Questions

      Q1.
      Match the German and English.

      Correct Answer:einschlafen,to go to sleep, going to sleep
      Correct Answer:mitnehmen,to take along, taking along
      Correct Answer:wach,awake
      Correct Answer:Zahn (m),tooth
      Correct Answer:musste,I/she/he/it one had to
      Correct Answer:konnte,I/she/it/one could

      Q2.
      Match the German and English.

      Correct Answer:du,You (singular, informal)
      Correct Answer:ihr,You (plural - informal)
      Correct Answer:sie,they or she / it (f)
      Correct Answer:Sie,you (singular and plural, formal)

      Q3.
      Match the subject pronoun with the correct form of the verb.

      Correct Answer:er,war
      Correct Answer:wir,waren
      Correct Answer:ihr,wart
      Correct Answer:du,warst

      Q4.
      Which of the words below does not have the same sound-symbol correspondence (SSC) in the vowels as 'Mai'?

      meist
      frei
      Correct answer: Knie
      Hai
      Mainz

      Q5.
      What is the correct meaning of 'Sie' in the following sentence? 'Sie haben viel Geld.'

      she
      it
      Correct answer: you (formal)

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