New
New
Year 9

A charity concert: past participles, verb stress, 'kein' vs 'nicht'

Learning outcomes

I can use weak and strong past participles and negation correctly in the context of planning a charity event.

I can use correct verb stress.

New
New
Year 9

A charity concert: past participles, verb stress, 'kein' vs 'nicht'

Learning outcomes

I can use weak and strong past participles and negation correctly in the context of planning a charity event.

I can use correct verb stress.

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. Past participles of weak verbs sandwich the stem between ge- and -t; verbs with inseparable prefixes don't add ge-.
  2. Past participles of strong verbs sandwich the stem between ge- and -en; the stem vowel may change: 'singen', 'gesungen'.
  3. The prefix 'mit' adds the meaning of 'taking part', or 'doing with' to verbs, e.g., 'mitmachen' - 'to join in'.
  4. 1st syllable stress is common in German; words with inseparable prefixes stress the 2nd syllable, -ieren verbs the -ie.
  5. 'Kein' (no, not any) negates nouns with indefinite articles, with 'ein' endings; 'nicht' (not) negates everything else.

Keywords

  • Past participle - verb form that forms the perfect tense, together with the auxiliary verb

  • Mit - preposition 'with', also a verb prefix adding the meaning of participation or 'doing with'

  • Stress - pronouncing one syllable more heavily than other syllables in a word

  • Kein - article 'no, not any' that negates nouns preceded by an indefinite article

  • Nicht - adverb 'not' that negates everything except nouns with an indefinite article

Common misconception

German verbs always stress the same syllable.

Generally German infinitive verbs stress the first syllable; however, words starting with inseparable prefixes be-, er-, ge-, ver-, ent- stress the 2nd syllable, which includes most past participles; -ieren verbs stress the 'ie' in present and past.


To help you plan your year 9 German lesson on: A charity concert: past participles, verb stress, 'kein' vs 'nicht', download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

This lesson includes all key GCSE past participle patterns. Regular recall of high-frequency forms at the start or end of any lesson builds fluency - try playing music (without words is best) and challenging pupils to list as many past participles as they can before it stops.
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.
Which word is not a translation of 'vor'?

ago
before
Correct answer: for
in front of

Q2.
Match the German and English.

Correct Answer:gegeben,gave, (have, has) given

gave, (have, has) given

Correct Answer:geholfen,(have, has) helped

(have, has) helped

Correct Answer:gesprochen,spoke, (have, has) spoken

spoke, (have, has) spoken

Correct Answer:gesungen,sang, (have, has) sung

sang, (have, has) sung

Correct Answer:gesehen,saw, (have, has) seen

saw, (have, has) seen

Correct Answer:gesammelt,(have, has) collected

(have, has) collected

Q3.
Match the German and English.

Correct Answer:Butterbrot (nt),sandwich

sandwich

Correct Answer:Geschichte (f),story, history

story, history

Correct Answer:Karte (f),card, map, menu, ticket

card, map, menu, ticket

Correct Answer:Frau (f),woman

woman

Correct Answer:König (m),king

king

Correct Answer:Orchester (nt),orchestra

orchestra

Q4.
Order the words to say: 'The school is near to the town centre.'

1 - der
2 - Wald
3 - ist
4 - ganz
5 - nah
6 - am
7 - Dorf

Q5.
Write in English: 'diese Sachen waren interessant'.

Correct Answer: these things were interesting

Q6.
Write in German: 'there are lots of classes'.

Correct Answer: es gibt viele Klassen

Assessment exit quiz

Download quiz pdf

4 Questions

Q1.
Which words stress the second syllable?

Correct answer: gesungen
mitmachen
mitgemacht
organisieren
Correct answer: vergessen

Q2.
Order the words to say: 'Yesterday I didn't bring any money with me.'

1 - gestern
2 - habe
3 - ich
4 - kein
5 - Geld
6 - mitgebracht

Q3.
Write in German: 'I didn't eat an ice cream'.

Correct Answer: ich habe kein Eis gegessen

Q4.
Write in German: 'I didn't phone Wolf'.

Correct Answer: ich habe Wolf nicht angerufen

Additional material

Download additional material