New
New
Year 9

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

Learning outcomes

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

I can correctly pronounce a range of sound-symbol correspondences that are written differently, but sound the same.

New
New
Year 9

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

Learning outcomes

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

I can correctly pronounce a range of sound-symbol correspondences that are written differently, but sound the same.

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. 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)'.


To help you plan your year 9 German lesson on: Childhood experiences: imperfect plural forms of 'sein' and 'haben', download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

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.
Teacher tip

Equipment

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.
Match the German and English.

Correct Answer:ich musste,I had to

I had to

Correct Answer:ich wollte,I wanted

I wanted

Correct Answer:ich konnte,I could

I could

Correct Answer:ich hatte,I had

I had

Correct Answer:ich war,I was

I was

Correct Answer:es gab,there was / were

there was / were

Q2.
Match the German and English.

Correct Answer:Gegenstand (m),object

object

Correct Answer:entdecken,to discover, discovering

to discover, discovering

Correct Answer:niemand,nobody

nobody

Correct Answer:gucken,to look, looking, to watch, watching

to look, looking, to watch, watching

Correct Answer:Reise (f),journey, trip

journey, trip

Correct Answer:Welt (f),world

world

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

Correct Answer:ich spiel,e

e

Correct Answer:du spiel,st

st

Correct Answer:er spiel,t

t

Correct Answer:wir spiel,en

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

so

Correct Answer:auch,also

also

Correct Answer:wenig (e.g., wenig Zeit),little

little

Correct Answer:kennenlernen,to get to know, meet

to get to know, meet

Correct Answer:Unterstützung (f),support, help

support, help

Correct Answer:fertig,finished

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

Assessment exit quiz

Download quiz pdf

5 Questions

Q1.
Match the German and English.

Correct Answer:einschlafen,to go to sleep, going to sleep

to go to sleep, going to sleep

Correct Answer:mitnehmen,to take along, taking along

to take along, taking along

Correct Answer:wach,awake

awake

Correct Answer:Zahn (m),tooth

tooth

Correct Answer:musste,I/she/he/it one had to

I/she/he/it one had to

Correct Answer:konnte,I/she/it/one could

I/she/it/one could

Q2.
Match the German and English.

Correct Answer:du,You (singular, informal)

You (singular, informal)

Correct Answer:ihr,You (plural - informal)

You (plural - informal)

Correct Answer:sie,they or she / it (f)

they or she / it (f)

Correct Answer:Sie,you (singular and plural, formal)

you (singular and plural, formal)

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

Correct Answer:er,war

war

Correct Answer:wir,waren

waren

Correct Answer:ihr,wart

wart

Correct Answer:du,warst

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)

Additional material

Download additional material