New
New
Year 11
AQA

Abenteuer im Ausland: perfect tense stem changes, perfect tense questions

I can form the past participles of strong verbs with stem changes, and I can ask questions in the perfect tense about a past trip or experience.

New
New
Year 11
AQA

Abenteuer im Ausland: perfect tense stem changes, perfect tense questions

I can form the past participles of strong verbs with stem changes, and I can ask questions in the perfect tense about a past trip or experience.

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Lesson details

Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

Key learning points

  1. Strong verbs form past participles with 'ge-' and '-en' in the perfect tense.
  2. Some verbs have a vowel change in their past participle, such as 'ei' → 'ie', 'ie' → 'o', 'i' → 'u' or 'e' → 'o'.
  3. To form a closed question in the perfect tense, swap the position of 'haben' or 'sein' with the subject.
  4. For open questions in the perfect tense, place a question word before 'haben' or 'sein'; the subject follows.

Keywords

  • Strong verb (perfect tense) - verb whose past participle adds ‘-en’ and often changes the stem vowel, e.g., 'geflogen'

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

  • Closed question - a question which can be answered with yes/no, formed by inverting the subject and verb in a sentence

  • Open question - a question starting with a wh- word, followed by word order 2

Common misconception

Verbs with inseparable prefixes do not change when forming their past participle.

Verbs with inseparable prefixes do not add 'ge-' when forming their past participle, but many do have vowel changes, e.g., 'vermeiden' becomes 'vermieden', 'empfehlen' becomes 'empfohlen'.


To help you plan your year 11 German lesson on: Abenteuer im Ausland: perfect tense stem changes, perfect tense questions, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

The texts used for Task B2 could also be used to produce questions seeking futher information, as an alternative task or an extension to produce questions for the information given in the texts.
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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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Prior knowledge starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
'Geschlossen' is ...
an auxiliary verb.
Correct answer: a past participle.
a verb stem.
an inseparable verb.
an infinitive verb.
Q2.
Match the German and English.
Correct Answer:Apfel (m),apple

apple

Correct Answer:Bahn (f),train, railway, way

train, railway, way

Correct Answer:Brücke (f),bridge

bridge

Correct Answer:Pferd (m),horse

horse

Correct Answer:Ruhe (f),silence, peace

silence, peace

Correct Answer:Seen (pl),lakes, seas

lakes, seas

Q3.
Match the German and English.
Correct Answer:abnehmen,to decrease, lose weight

to decrease, lose weight

Correct Answer:beschließen,to decide, deciding

to decide, deciding

Correct Answer:holen,to get, fetch

to get, fetch

Correct Answer:vermeiden,to avoid, avoiding

to avoid, avoiding

Correct Answer:werfen,to throw, throwing

to throw, throwing

Correct Answer:zunehmen,to increase, gain weight

to increase, gain weight

Q4.
Order the words to say: 'Unfortunately he died last week.'
1 - leider
2 - ist
3 - er
4 - letzte
5 - Woche
6 - gestorben
Q5.
Write in English: 'Ich habe das Bild selber gemalt.'
Correct Answer: I painted the picture myself
Q6.
Write in German: 'We celebrated together.'
Correct Answer: Wir haben zusammen gefeiert

Assessment exit quiz

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4 Questions

Q1.
What is the past participle of 'verschwinden'?
geverschwindet
geverschwinden
geverschwunden
Correct answer: verschwunden
verschwundet
Q2.
Order the words to form an open question.
1 - wo
2 - hat
3 - er
4 - mit
5 - dem
6 - Hund
7 - gespielt
Q3.
Order the words to form a closed question.
1 - bist
2 - du
3 - auf
4 - einen
5 - Berg
6 - gestiegen
Q4.
Write in German: 'I sang' in the perfect tense.
Correct Answer: Ich habe gesungen

Additional material

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