New
New
Year 11
Edexcel

Deutsche Städte: comparative adjectives

I can use comparative adjectives to draw comparisons between places and to enhance descriptions.

New
New
Year 11
Edexcel

Deutsche Städte: comparative adjectives

I can use comparative adjectives to draw comparisons between places and to enhance descriptions.

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Lesson details

Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

Key learning points

  1. Turn an adjective into a comparative adjective by adding '-er', e.g., 'schneller'.
  2. To say 'than' when making a comparison, use 'als', e.g., 'meine Stadt ist größer als dein Dorf'.
  3. Some adjectives also gain an umlaut in the comparative form, e.g., 'jünger'.
  4. Adjectives ending -el or -er remove the penultimate ‘e’, e.g., 'teurer', 'dunkler'.
  5. Comparatives can be useful for developing opinions, reasons and ideas when writing descriptions.

Keywords

  • Comparative - a form of adjective or adverb used to compare people, places, things or ideas

Common misconception

German forms comparatives in the same way as English.

To form the comparative in German, add '-er' to the adjective. This applies in English, but only for short adjectives. For longer adjectives, we add 'more' before the adjective. This is never the case in German.


To help you plan your year 11 German lesson on: Deutsche Städte: comparative adjectives, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Following on from Tasks B1a and B1b about Rothenburg, students might like to research another German town and compare it with their own home town. This could also feed into their written response to Task C1.
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Lesson video

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Prior knowledge starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Which word is not an adjective?
hell
leicht
musikalisch
Correct answer: nochmal
traurig
Q2.
Match the German and English.
Correct Answer:Direktor (m),director, principal, headteacher

director, principal, headteacher

Correct Answer:Kilo(gramm) (nt),kilo(gram), kg

kilo(gram), kg

Correct Answer:Kritik (f),criticism, review

criticism, review

Correct Answer:Post (m),(blog)post

(blog)post

Correct Answer:Titel (m),title

title

Correct Answer:Vergleich (m),comparison

comparison

Q3.
Match the German and English.
Correct Answer:gesünder,healthier

healthier

Correct Answer:größer,bigger

bigger

Correct Answer:jünger,younger

younger

Correct Answer:kälter,colder

colder

Correct Answer:länger,longer

longer

Correct Answer:näher,nearer

nearer

Q4.
Order the words to say: 'The river is both wide and deep.'
1 - der Fluss
2 - ist
3 - sowohl
4 - breit
5 - als
6 - auch
7 - tief
Q5.
Write in English: 'Er ist älter als ich.'
Correct Answer: he is older than me, he's older than me, he is older than I am, he's older than I am
Q6.
Write in German: 'The fruit was bad.'
Correct Answer: das Obst war schlecht

Assessment exit quiz

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4 Questions

Q1.
What is the acronym which can be used to plan responses to writing tasks?
Correct Answer: BORDER
Q2.
Which comparatives are correct?
mehr interessant
Correct answer: interessanter
interessantes
Correct answer: jünger
junger
Q3.
Match the adjectives to the correct comparatives.
Correct Answer:gut,besser

besser

Correct Answer:gern,lieber

lieber

Correct Answer:viel,mehr

mehr

Correct Answer:hoch,höher

höher

Q4.
Write in German: 'more expensive than'.
Correct Answer: teurer als

Additional material

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