KS4 · German · Year 11
Die Umwelt: word order with questions, questions with wo-compounds
Lifestyle and wellbeing: Meine Welt
Learn it. Recall it. Make it stick.
IllumED Slides
IllumED · 1/10
Your learning goal
I can use wo-compounds and the correct word order in questions in an interview to learn more about the environment.
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Die Umwelt: word order with questions, questions with wo-compounds: 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 wo-compounds and the correct word order in questions in an interview to learn more about the environment.
Key learning points
- Closed questions where the answer is yes/no are formed by inverting the subject and verb.
- Open questions, which seek more information than yes/no, start with a question word followed by the verb then subject.
- Use wo- and wor- prefixes with prepositions to ask questions. Prepositions do not stand alone at the end of a question.
- Many verbs take prepositions and require a wo-compound when asking questions.
Words to know
- closed question
- question formed by inverting subject and verb where the answer is yes/no
- open question
- question starting with a wh- word that has more information in the answer than yes/no
- preposition
- word that is used before a noun, a noun phrase, or a pronoun, connecting it to another word
- wo-, wor-
- prefix added to prepositions to ask questions
Common mistakes
All questions in German invert the subject and verb. Apart from that the word order is the same as English.
Subject and verb are inverted, but word order differs from English for a verb with a preposition - 'What are you talking about?'. In German, a preposition never ends a question. Use 'wo(r)' + preposition to start the question - 'Worüber redest du?'.
For parents, carers and teachers
- Wo-compounds are Higher Tier grammar only. Learning Cycle 3 includes a short pairwork activity on forming questions with wo-compounds. It can be used or adapted for this or any other theme or context.