New
New
Year 11
Edexcel

Die Vennbahn: perfect tense, imperfect tense, weak past participles

Learning outcomes

I can use adverbs to give and respond to detailed responses in the past tense, form past participles of a range of weak verbs, and apply this knowledge when translating into German.

I can correctly pronounce [v] in inseparable prefixes.

New
New
Year 11
Edexcel

Die Vennbahn: perfect tense, imperfect tense, weak past participles

Learning outcomes

I can use adverbs to give and respond to detailed responses in the past tense, form past participles of a range of weak verbs, and apply this knowledge when translating into German.

I can correctly pronounce [v] in inseparable prefixes.

These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.

These resources were created for remote use during the pandemic and are not designed for classroom teaching.

Lesson details

Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

Key learning points

  1. Use 'gern', 'lieber' and 'früher' with a past tense to mean 'liked', 'rather', 'in the past, used to'.
  2. Weak verbs form their past participles by sandwiching the verb stem with 'ge-' and '-t', e.g., 'gespielt'.
  3. Verbs with separable prefixes add 'ge-' after the separable prefix, e.g., 'aufgemacht'.
  4. Verbs with inseparable prefixes do not add 'ge-' to form their past participle, e.g., 'erlebt'.
  5. Verbs ending '-ieren' do not add 'ge-' to form the past participle. They add the suffix '-iert', e.g., 'ausprobiert'.

Keywords

  • Gern - adverb meaning ‘gladly, liked to’ with the past tense

  • Lieber - comparative adverb meaning ‘more gladly, rather’

  • Früher - adverb meaning ‘previously, in former times, in the past'

  • Past participle - verb form that forms the perfect tense, together with the auxiliary verb 'haben' or 'sein'

Common misconception

'Lieber' means 'love'.

It is easy to confuse the words 'Liebe', 'liebe' and 'lieber', particularly in spoken German. Pay careful attention to pronunciation and listen out for [er]. 'Liebe' is a noun (love), 'liebe' is a verb (love) and 'lieber' is an adverb (more gladly).


To help you plan your year 11 German lesson on: Die Vennbahn: perfect tense, imperfect tense, weak past participles, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Using the imperfect tense with 'früher', 'gern' and 'lieber' is Higher Tier grammar. Foundation Tier students are expected to use these adverbs with the perfect tense and 'war', 'hatte', 'es gab'. Tasks in LC3 are Option 1 (Higher Tier), Option 2 (Foundation Tier).
Teacher tip

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

Loading...

Some of our videos, including non-English language videos, do not have captions.

Prior knowledge starter quiz

Download quiz pdf

6 Questions

Q1.
Match the German words with their English meanings.
Correct Answer:Gericht (nt),court/ dish

court/ dish

Correct Answer:Frühstück (nt),breakfast

breakfast

Correct Answer:Brücke (f),bridge

bridge

Correct Answer:Schaden (m),damage

damage

Correct Answer:Tod (m),death

death

Correct Answer:anhaben,to wear, have on

to wear, have on

Q2.
Match each German verb to its English meaning.
Correct Answer:produzieren,to produce, producing

to produce, producing

Correct Answer:verlangen,to demand, demanding

to demand, demanding

Correct Answer:amüsieren,to amuse, amusing

to amuse, amusing

Correct Answer:begeistern,to inspire/be enthusiastic

to inspire/be enthusiastic

Correct Answer:kontrollieren,to control/check

to control/check

Q3.
Which of the following sentences is written correctly in the perfect tense with 'haben'?
Ich bin das Gericht bezahlt.
Correct answer: Ich habe das Gericht bezahlt.
Ich hat das Gericht bezahlen.
Ich habe das Gericht bezahlen.
Q4.
Put the words in the correct order to make a grammatically-correct perfect tense sentence.
1 - ich
2 - bin
3 - zur
4 - Kirche
5 - gegangen
Q5.
What is the German word for 'a German person' (female)?
Correct Answer: eine Deutsche, Deutsche
Q6.
Which sentence correctly uses a subject relative clause and a comparative?
Correct answer: Das Mädchen, das süß ist, ist glücklicher.
Das Mädchen ist süß als das andere.
Das Mädchen, das süß war, ist gleich wie das andere.
Das Mädchen das süß ist ist glücklicher.

Assessment exit quiz

Download quiz pdf

6 Questions

Q1.
Which sentence correctly uses 'lieber' with the perfect tense?
Correct answer: Ich habe lieber Frühstück gegessen.
Ich habe Frühstück lieber essen.
Ich liebe Frühstück lieber gegessen.
Q2.
What is the past participle of the verb 'funktionieren'?
Correct Answer: funktioniert
Q3.
Put these words in the correct order to make a sentence using 'früher' in the perfect tense. Start with 'ich'.
1 - ich
2 - habe
3 - früher
4 - die
5 - Kirche
6 - besucht
Q4.
Fill in the correct past participle of 'aufmachen' to complete the sentence in the perfect tense: 'Ich habe die Karte .'
Correct Answer: aufgemacht
Q5.
Which sentence uses a verb ending in '-ieren' correctly in the perfect tense?
Ich habe das Frühstück anprobieren.
Ich habe das Frühstück angeprobiert.
Ich habe das Frühstück ausprobieren.
Correct answer: Ich habe das Frühstück ausprobiert.
Q6.
Match each adverb to the most appropriate sentence meaning.
Correct Answer:gern,I enjoy it

I enjoy it

Correct Answer:lieber,I prefer it

I prefer it

Correct Answer:früher,In the past, I used to ...

In the past, I used to ...

Additional material

Download additional material