KS3 · German · Year 9
A charity concert: past participles, verb stress, 'kein' vs 'nicht'
Places and projects: imperfect modal verbs
Learn it. Recall it. Make it stick.
IllumED Slides
IllumED · 1/12
Your learning goal
I can use weak and strong past participles and negation correctly in the context of planning a charity event.
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A charity concert: past participles, verb stress, 'kein' vs 'nicht': slides adapted from the imported teaching text; recall questions created from its keywords, learning points and common mistakes. Self-check practice, with no automatic grading or XP. Answers stay on this page and are cleared when you leave.
Original teaching resources
The original illustrated PowerPoint is available as well as the IllumED text slides. It retains the publisher’s design and credits.
Download original PowerPoint ↓What you’ll learn
I can use weak and strong past participles and negation correctly in the context of planning a charity event.
Key learning points
- Past participles of weak verbs sandwich the stem between ge- and -t; verbs with inseparable prefixes don't add ge-.
- Past participles of strong verbs sandwich the stem between ge- and -en; the stem vowel may change: 'singen', 'gesungen'.
- The prefix 'mit' adds the meaning of 'taking part', or 'doing with' to verbs, e.g., 'mitmachen' - 'to join in'.
- 1st syllable stress is common in German; words with inseparable prefixes stress the 2nd syllable, -ieren verbs the -ie.
- 'Kein' (no, not any) negates nouns with indefinite articles, with 'ein' endings; 'nicht' (not) negates everything else.
Words to know
- past participle
- verb form that forms the perfect tense, together with the auxiliary verb
- mit
- preposition 'with', also a verb prefix adding the meaning of participation or 'doing with'
- stress
- pronouncing one syllable more heavily than other syllables in a word
- kein
- article 'no, not any' that negates nouns preceded by an indefinite article
- nicht
- adverb 'not' that negates everything except nouns with an indefinite article
Common mistakes
German verbs always stress the same syllable.
Generally German infinitive verbs stress the first syllable; however, words starting with inseparable prefixes be-, er-, ge-, ver-, ent- stress the 2nd syllable, which includes most past participles; -ieren verbs stress the 'ie' in present and past.
For parents, carers and teachers
- This lesson includes all key GCSE past participle patterns. Regular recall of high-frequency forms at the start or end of any lesson builds fluency - try playing music (without words is best) and challenging pupils to list as many past participles as they can before it stops.