New
New
Year 10
Edexcel

Lebenserfahrung: simple past with früher, gern, lieber, am liebsten, reflexive verbs

I can use reflexive verbs and adverbs in the perfect and imperfect tenses in the context of studies and work.

Link copied to clipboard

New
New
Year 10
Edexcel

Lebenserfahrung: simple past with früher, gern, lieber, am liebsten, reflexive verbs

I can use reflexive verbs and adverbs in the perfect and imperfect tenses in the context of studies and work.

Link copied to clipboard

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. In two-verb structures, the reflexive pronoun normally comes after the first verb.
  2. In the perfect tense, it is more common to use the simple past versions of ‘haben’, ‘sein’, and ‘es gibt’.
  3. Use ‘früher’ in the perfect and imperfect tenses to mean ‘used to’.
  4. Use ‘gern’, ‘lieber’, ‘am liebsten’ in the perfect and imperfect tenses to talk about likes and preferences.

Keywords

  • Simple past - synonymous with the imperfect; German single-word past tense used mainly to narrate past events in writing; for example, 'war', 'hatte', 'gab'

  • Perfect tense - German two-word past tense using either 'haben' or 'sein' with a past participle

  • Reflexive verb - verb used to indicate doing something to yourself, e.g., 'to wash yourself'

Common misconception

Verbs that are reflexive in English must be reflexive in German and vice versa.

Different verbs are reflexive in different languages. For example, 'sich erinnern' is not reflexive in English.


To help you plan your year 10 german lesson on: Lebenserfahrung: simple past with früher, gern, lieber, am liebsten, reflexive verbs, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Learning Cycle 2 contains Foundation and Higher options for the tasks. Task B1a could be made more challenging by changing each of the verb options to the infinitive.
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.

6 Questions

Q1.
Match the German with the English.
Correct Answer:der Arbeitsplatz,workplace, job

workplace, job

Correct Answer:die Bildung,education, learning, creation, formation

education, learning, creation, formation

Correct Answer:die Hochschule,college, university

college, university

Correct Answer:die Literatur,literature

literature

Correct Answer:soziale Medien,social media

social media

Correct Answer:Stief-,step-

step-

Q2.
Match the German with the English.
Correct Answer:die Rede,speech, talk

speech, talk

Correct Answer:sich freuen auf,to look forward to

to look forward to

Correct Answer:treffen,to meet, meeting

to meet, meeting

Correct Answer:die Eltern,parents

parents

Correct Answer:die Freude,joy

joy

Correct Answer:eigen,own

own

Q3.
Which word means 'prefer'?
gern
Correct answer: lieber
sehr gern
liebe
mag
Q4.
Sort the words below into the correct order to translate the following sentence into German: 'I stood by the window'.
1 - ich
2 - habe
3 - am
4 - Fenster
5 - gestanden
Q5.
Sort the words below into the correct order to translate the following sentence into German: 'I had to jump high'.
1 - ich
2 - musste
3 - hoch
4 - springen
Q6.
Translate 'früher' in the following sentence: 'Früher war ich ärmer'.
Correct Answer: Used to

6 Questions

Q1.
Match the German with the English.
Correct Answer:sich befinden,to be situated

to be situated

Correct Answer:sich erinnern an,to remember, remembering

to remember, remembering

Correct Answer:sich finden,to be found, to find oneself

to be found, to find oneself

Correct Answer:sich kümmern um,to take care of, be concerned about

to take care of, be concerned about

Correct Answer:verletzen,to injure, injuring

to injure, injuring

Correct Answer:das Zeugnis,report

report

Q2.
Sort the words below into the correct order to translate the following sentence into German: 'We wanted to meet at the college'.
1 - wir
2 - wollten
3 - uns
4 - an
5 - der
6 - Hochschule
7 - treffen
Q3.
Sort the words below into the correct order to translate the following sentence into German: 'I was very happy'.
1 - ich
2 - habe
3 - mich
4 - sehr
5 - gefreut
Q4.
Fill in the gap in the following sentence with a form of 'sein': 'Er ist gestern gestorben; ich traurig.'
Correct Answer: war
Q5.
Fill in the gap in the following sentence with an appropriate adverb: 'Ich habe gern mit meiner Oma gesprochen aber ich habe mein eigenes Ding gemacht.'
Correct Answer: lieber
Q6.
What did the person in the following sentence most prefer doing? 'Ich habe gern Erklärungen gelesen, ich habe lieber mein Abitur gemacht, und am liebsten bin ich Arbeitgeber geworden.'
reading explanations
doing their A-Levels
Correct answer: becoming an employer

Additional material

Download additional material