What you do at home: present tense (weak verbs) 1st and 2nd person singular | German

Starter quiz

Match the German words below to the correct English translations.
- guten Tag, hallo
  
  ⇔
  
  hello ✓
- tschüs
  
  ⇔
  
  bye ✓
- leider
  
  ⇔
  
  unfortunately ✓
- wo
  
  ⇔
  
  where ✓
- das Heft
  
  ⇔
  
  exercise book ✓
- die Tafel
  
  ⇔
  
  board ✓
Match the verb forms.
- habe
  
  ⇔
  
  (I) have ✓
- hat
  
  ⇔
  
  (she, he, it) has ✓
- spiele
  
  ⇔
  
  (I) play ✓
- ist
  
  ⇔
  
  (she, he, it) is ✓
- redet
  
  ⇔
  
  (she, he, it) talks ✓
- macht
  
  ⇔
  
  (she, he, it) does ✓
What is a 'weak verb'?
- a verb that follows a regular pattern of changes ✓
- a verb that follows an irregular pattern of changes
- the form of the verb found in the dictionary
- the part of the infinitive up to the -en
Which words contain a long [i]?
- Film (m)
- Musik (f) ✓
- Tisch (m)
- wir ✓
Fill in the gap in the following sentence with an appropriate conjunction to link the two sentence parts together: 'Ich habe da eine Flasche ______ ein Buch.'
- 'und' ✓
Rewrite the following statement to make it a closed (yes/no) question: 'Er hat eine Lieblingsband.'
- 'Hat er eine Lieblingsband?' ✓

Exit quiz

Which words have a hard [ch]?
- Buch (nt) ✓
- nochmal ✓
- Milch (f)
- Licht (nt)
- acht ✓
Match the German words or phrases below to the correct English translations.
- nie
  
  ⇔
  
  never ✓
- gehen
  
  ⇔
  
  to go, going ✓
- kaum
  
  ⇔
  
  hardly ✓
- hören
  
  ⇔
  
  to listen, listening ✓
- einmal die Woche
  
  ⇔
  
  once a week ✓
- jeden Tag
  
  ⇔
  
  every day ✓
Where should frequency adverbs be placed?
- after the verb ✓
- before the verb
- anywhere in the statement
Form the 2nd person singular present tense of the verb 'gehen'.
- 'Du gehst' ✓
What happens to the 2nd person singular verb form if a verb stem ends in a '-z'?
- '-st' is added to the verb stem
- '-t' is added to the verb stem ✓
- '-e' is added before the verb ending

Worksheet

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Lesson Details

Key learning points

[ch] can be either soft (as in 'ich') or hard (as in 'Buch').
Remove 'en' from the infinitive, add 'st' for the 2nd person singular of most weak verbs in German.
If the verb stem ends in 'z', add only '-t' for the 2nd person singular.

Common misconception

[ch] is pronounced as in the English 'cheese'.

[ch] is soft in German after [i] or [e]. It is hard after [a] [o] or [u]. This is because [a] [o] and [u] are pronounced with a more open mouth whilst [i] and [e] have a more closed mouth.

Keywords

[ch] - pronounced soft as in 'ich' or hard as in 'Buch'
Frequency adverb - describes how often something happens
2nd person singular - form of the verb used with 'du' (you)
Verb stem - created by removing '-en' from the end of the infinitive