Neu in Deutschland: 'hatte', 'war', 'es gab', imperfect tense singular & plural
I can use the perfect and imperfect tenses to understand the recent experiences of a young person arriving to live and study in Germany.
Neu in Deutschland: 'hatte', 'war', 'es gab', imperfect tense singular & plural
I can use the perfect and imperfect tenses to understand the recent experiences of a young person arriving to live and study in Germany.
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Lesson details
Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons
Key learning points
- Use the imperfect forms 'hatte', 'war', 'gab' to talk about the past instead of the perfect tense.
- Imperfect weak verbs are formed like 'lernen'.
- Imperfect strong verbs take the same endings as 'liegen'.
Keywords
Perfect tense - German two-word past tense using either 'haben' or 'sein' with a past participle
Imperfect tense - German single-word past tense, also called the simple past
Common misconception
The imperfect tense is never used in spoken German.
The most common irregular verbs 'haben' and 'sein' are very common in speaking, along with 'es gab'. Other verbs in the imperfect mainly appear in written texts.
To help you plan your year 10 German lesson on: Neu in Deutschland: 'hatte', 'war', 'es gab', imperfect tense singular & plural, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 10 German lesson on: Neu in Deutschland: 'hatte', 'war', 'es gab', imperfect tense singular & plural, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.The English words below are cognates or near-cognates in German. Which ones change spelling in German?
Q2.Match the German and English.
to believe, believing
to answer, answering
to be called, being called
really, very, whole, all the
just, fair
same, right away, equally
Q3.Which of the following sentences are in the perfect tense?
Q4.Match the imperfect forms of 'sein' and 'haben' to the correct English meanings.
(I, he, she, it) was
(you all) were
(you) had
(you all) had
(we, they) were
(we, they) had
Q5.'Es gibt' means __________. 'Es gab' is the imperfect tense form, meaning __________. For example: 'Es __________ im Winter Schnee in den Alpen, aber letztes Jahr __________ es nicht genug!'
Q6.'Hatte', 'war' and 'es gab' are frequently used in writing and speaking in German to describe past events. Other forms of the imperfect tense are mostly used in .
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which of the following statements about the German imperfect tense are true?
Q2.Sort the imperfect verb forms below into the following order: (1) I (and he/she/it) (2) you (singular), (3) we, (4) you (plural).
Q3.Irregular verb stems in the imperfect tense need to be learnt, but the past participle and the imperfect stem are often similar. Match the German to the English simple past equivalent.
I brought
I knew
I decided
I moved
I thought
Q4.Match the German and English.
lay
let, allowed
came
sat
went
started