What did they do then? Perfect, imperfect 'war', 'hatte', 'gab', compound nouns
I can form compound nouns, recognise patterns in past participles and contrast different past tenses, in the context of talking about what others have done.
What did they do then? Perfect, imperfect 'war', 'hatte', 'gab', compound nouns
I can form compound nouns, recognise patterns in past participles and contrast different past tenses, in the context of talking about what others have done.
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Lesson details
Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons
Key learning points
- A compound noun is made up of two or more nouns. Its gender comes from the final noun, e.g., 'die Partymusik'
- Some groups of verbs form their past participles following the same vowel changes, e.g., [ei] to [ie]; [e] to [o].
- The imperfect tense is a one-word past tense, mostly used in written German, apart from some key verbs, e.g., 'es gab'.
- Sometimes the present tense is used to narrate past events. This is the 'historical present' and is mostly written.
- The purpose of the historical present is to make events feel more immediate or heighten the drama.
Keywords
Compound noun - a noun made up of two or more nouns
Past participle - verb form that forms the perfect tense, together with the auxiliary verb 'haben' or 'sein'
Imperfect tense - a single-word past tense, used mainly to narrate past events in writing, e.g., 'war', 'hatte', 'gab'
Common misconception
Verbs form their past participles by sandwiching the verb stem with 'ge-' and '-t' or '-en'.
Not all verbs form past participles in the same way. For instance, verbs that start with inseparable prefixes or end '-ieren' do not add 'ge-'. Some groups of verbs have a vowel change in the stem, e.g., 'finden', 'gefunden'.
To help you plan your year 9 German lesson on: What did they do then? Perfect, imperfect 'war', 'hatte', 'gab', compound nouns, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 9 German lesson on: What did they do then? Perfect, imperfect 'war', 'hatte', 'gab', compound nouns, 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.
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Explore more key stage 3 German lessons from the Past lives: perfect and imperfect tenses unit, dive into the full secondary German curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.'Er gab mir __________ Buch.' Which articles could complete this sentence?
Q2.Match the German and English.
stayed
went (by transport)
flew
went
wrote
met
Q3.Match the German and English.
Germany
parents
family
aeroplane
aunt
holiday