KS3 · German · Year 9
Der Rattenfänger: understanding a Grimm brothers' fairy tale, imperfect tense
Storytelling: imperfect tense
Learn it. Recall it. Make it stick.
IllumED Slides
IllumED · 1/9
Your learning goal
I can understand a Grimms brothers' fairy tale and respond to it using perfect and present tenses.
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Der Rattenfänger: understanding a Grimm brothers' fairy tale, imperfect tense: 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 understand a Grimms brothers' fairy tale and respond to it using perfect and present tenses.
Key learning points
- Use the imperfect tense in German to narrate past events, mainly in writing.
- Singular weak imperfect verbs add -te to the stem for ‘ich’ and ‘er, sie, es’ and an additional -st for the ‘du’ form.
- Strong verbs have an irregular stem including a vowel change, and don’t add -te; ‘du’ forms add -st to the stem.
- Oral retelling of fairy tales can be done in the perfect tense; simpler versions can be written in the present tense.
Words to know
- imperfect
- German single-word past tense used mainly to narrate past events in writing; e.g., 'war', 'hatte', 'gab', 'fand'
- weak verb (imperfect)
- forms the imperfect by adding -te to the stem ('ich', 'er', 'sie', 'es') and -test ('du')
- strong verb (imperfect)
- forms the imperfect by changing the stem vowel, without the -te ending ('ich', 'er', 'sie', 'es'), but with -st ending ('du')
Common mistakes
The only versions of Grimm brothers' fairy tales that exist are written in the imperfect tense.
There are many versions of the Grimm brothers' fairy tales. Many are written in the imperfect tense but there are also simpler, modern adaptations written in the present or perfect tenses, especially in children's books.
For parents, carers and teachers
- Many of the original Grimm brothers' fairy tales didn't have happy endings, just as 'Der Rattenfänger' doesn't. Teachers could encourage pupils either to write a happy ending for 'Der Rattenfänger', or a more authentically gruesome ending for a happy fairy tale they know.