New
New
Year 8

Opinions and reasons: 'weil' vs 'denn', word order after 'weil'

Learning outcomes

I can ask open or closed questions to find out what someone likes or doesn't like and why.

I can distinguish ‘viel’ and ‘weil’ and pronounce them correctly.

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New
New
Year 8

Opinions and reasons: 'weil' vs 'denn', word order after 'weil'

Learning outcomes

I can ask open or closed questions to find out what someone likes or doesn't like and why.

I can distinguish ‘viel’ and ‘weil’ and pronounce them correctly.

Link copied to clipboard

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Lesson details

Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

Key learning points

  1. 'Viel' means 'lots of' and is used with uncountable nouns like 'love' or 'time'. 'Viele' means 'many' with plural nouns.
  2. 'Weil' and 'denn' both mean 'because'. Both are conjunctions and connect clauses or sentences.
  3. Add 'un-' to make some German adjectives negative, like the English 'un-' or 'im-'.
  4. Open or information questions start with a wh- word and have more information in the answer than yes/no.

Keywords

  • Viel, viele - a lot, many

  • Weil - conjunction meaning 'because' followed by word order 3 (WO3)

  • Open question - question starting with a wh- word that has more information in the answer than yes/no

  • Warum? - why?

Common misconception

‘Viel’ is pronounced like ‘vile’ in English.

‘Weil’ in German sounds similar to ‘vile’ in English. However, ‘viel’ contains [v] which sounds like English ‘f’ and [ie] which is like English double ‘ee’.


To help you plan your year 8 german lesson on: Opinions and reasons: 'weil' vs 'denn', word order after 'weil', download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Once pupils know the verb ‘mögen’, question word ‘warum’, conjunctions ‘weil’ and ‘denn’, and how to ask closed and open questions, teachers can turn ‘transition’ moments in class time into opportunities to elicit opinions and reasons spontaneously.
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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

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6 Questions

Q1.
'Hast du __________?'. Choose the correct missing words.
März
Correct answer: Schmerzen
oben
Correct answer: Lust
müde
Q2.
Match the German and English.
Correct Answer:Brief (m),letter

letter

Correct Answer:Dezember (m),December

December

Correct Answer:Kaffee (m),coffee

coffee

Correct Answer:Küche (f),kitchen

kitchen

Correct Answer:Schweiz (f),Switzerland

Switzerland

Correct Answer:Zug (m),train

train

Q3.
Match the German and English.
Correct Answer:dauern,to last, take (time)

to last, take (time)

Correct Answer:erreichen,to reach, reaching

to reach, reaching

Correct Answer:schaffen,to manage, managing

to manage, managing

Correct Answer:suchen,to search, look for

to search, look for

Correct Answer:fahren,to drive, ride, go (transport)

to drive, ride, go (transport)

Correct Answer:lesen,to read, reading

to read, reading

Q4.
Order the words to say: 'We are staying in Vienna for three hours.'
1 - wir
2 - bleiben
3 - drei
4 - Stunden
5 - in
6 - Wien
Q5.
Write in English: 'Ich habe Schottland interessant gefunden.'
Correct Answer: I found Scotland interesting
Q6.
Write in German: 'You (singular informal) are not tired.'
Correct Answer: Du bist nicht müde

5 Questions

Q1.
Which of these words is pronounced like the English 'vile'?
viel
viele
Correct answer: weil
weiß
Wien
Q2.
'Der Hund hat Hunger.'. Choose the correct missing word.
weil
Correct answer: viel
viele
Q3.
Match up the sentence halves.
Correct Answer:Ich habe viel,Zeit.

Zeit.

Correct Answer:Ich habe viele,Freunde.

Freunde.

Correct Answer:Ich lese gern, denn,es ist lustig.

es ist lustig.

Correct Answer:Ich lese gern, weil,es spannend ist.

es spannend ist.

Q4.
Order the words to say: 'Why do you normally travel to the countryside?'
1 - warum
2 - fahren
3 - Sie
4 - normalerweise
5 - auf
6 - das
7 - Land
Q5.
Write in German: 'The book is uninteresting.'
Correct Answer: Das Buch ist uninteressant

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