Digital Detox: perfect tense, imperfect tense, 'gerade'
I can use strong verbs in the perfect and imperfect tenses, including with 'gerade', in the context of technology and digital detox.
Digital Detox: perfect tense, imperfect tense, 'gerade'
I can use strong verbs in the perfect and imperfect tenses, including with 'gerade', in the context of technology and digital detox.
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Lesson details
Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons
Key learning points
- Strong verbs form past participles with 'ge-' and '-en'. Some have a vowel change, such as 'ei' to 'ie' or 'ie' to 'o'.
- The imperfect tense is usually used in written texts for narration. The perfect tense is much more common in speaking.
- The imperfect tense forms ‘hatte’, ‘war’, and ‘es gab’ are often used in spoken as well as written German.
- Use 'gerade' with the perfect tense to mean 'just (now)'.
- Use 'gerade' with the imperfect tense to express that the action was taking place when something else happened.
Keywords
Perfect tense - past tense formed with the present tense of 'sein' or 'haben' and a past participle
Imperfect tense - single-word past tense used mainly to narrate past events in writing
Strong verb (perfect tense) - verb whose past participle adds ‘en’ and often changes the stem vowel, e.g., 'geflogen'.
Strong verb (imperfect tense) - verb which changes the stem vowel in the imperfect tense, e.g., ‘blieb’
Gerade - adverb meaning 'just (now)'
Common misconception
Always use the imperfect tense to translate the English simple past, e.g., 'I chatted online.'.
The perfect tense is far more common in German and is used for both the English simple past and perfect tense in speaking. The imperfect is used mainly to narrate past events in writing. However, 'hatte', 'war' and 'es gab' are used in speaking too.
To help you plan your year 10 German lesson on: Digital Detox: perfect tense, imperfect tense, 'gerade', download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 10 German lesson on: Digital Detox: perfect tense, imperfect tense, 'gerade', 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 4 German lessons from the Media and technology: Mein Leben online unit, dive into the full secondary German curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
to look at, watch
to arrive, arriving
to experience, find out
to originate, develop
to celebrate, celebrating
to fly, flying
area
mobile phone
chips, fries
silence, peace
fun
diary