KS4 · German · Year 10
Ich bin Ingenieurin: imperfect modals
My personal world: Tolle Lebenserfahrungen
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IllumED Slides
IllumED · 1/8
Your learning goal
I can use modal verbs in the imperfect tense to talk about work and studying.
1 of 8
Ich bin Ingenieurin: imperfect modals: 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 modal verbs in the imperfect tense to talk about work and studying.
Key learning points
- [o] and [ö] are long when followed by no consonants or only one consonant.
- To form the imperfect of singular modal verbs, remove -en and add -te for ‘ich’, -test for ‘du’, -te for ‘sie/er/es’.
- To form the imperfect of plural modal verbs, remove -en and add -ten for ‘wir’, -tet for ‘ihr’, -ten for ‘sie’.
- In sentences with modal verbs, the second verb is in the infinitive at the end of the sentence.
Words to know
- imperfect tense
- verb tense used most often for modal verbs when they describe past events
- modal verb
- verb of necessity or possibility used with a 2nd verb in the infinitive, e.g., must, can, want
Common mistakes
Modal verbs must add ge- in the imperfect tense.
Modal verbs are normally used in the imperfect to describe past events. The imperfect is a different tense from the perfect and is formed differently.
For parents, carers and teachers
- Cycle 3 contains Higher grammar. Task C2 Option 2 is, however, for Foundation pupils. Foundation pupils could move straight to their version of this task after Cycle 2. Question 2 of the starter quiz, and questions 2 and 4 of the exit quiz are Higher-only.