KS3 · German · Year 8
In Berlin: present and past, 1st person singular and plural, 'um...Uhr' for time
Berlin: numbers and time
Learn it. Recall it. Make it stick.
IllumED Slides
IllumED · 1/9
Your learning goal
I can use the 12-hour clock and word order 2 to say what hour I did different activities, and use present and past (perfect) tenses to translate a message into German.
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In Berlin: present and past, 1st person singular and plural, 'um...Uhr' for time: 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 the 12-hour clock and word order 2 to say what hour I did different activities, and use present and past (perfect) tenses to translate a message into German.
Key learning points
- Revisiting individual word meanings in listening, reading and speaking practice activities strengthens memory.
- Contrasting the present and perfect tense in practice tasks deepens the knowledge of both structures.
- ‘Uhr’ means 'o’clock'. ‘Um’ means ‘at’ with time, e.g., 'um drei Uhr' ('at three o’ clock'). ‘Die Stunde’ means ‘hour’.
- Starting with time triggers word order 2 so the verb stays in 2nd place, e.g., 'um zwei Uhr habe ich Karten gespielt'.
Words to know
- um
- preposition meaning ‘at’ with time, e.g., 'um drei Uhr' ('at three o’clock')
- word order 2 (WO2)
- inverts the subject and verb in a sentence
- perfect tense
- verb tense that describes completed actions in the past, e.g., 'ich habe gesagt’ ('I said'), ‘sie hat gespielt’ ('she played')
Common mistakes
In German, ‘Uhr’ means ‘hour’.
‘Die Uhr’ looks and sounds a bit like ‘hour’ but it means ‘clock’ and ‘um … Uhr’ means ‘at … o’clock’. 'Die Stunde' means ‘hour’.
For parents, carers and teachers
- Pupils can benefit from plentiful opportunities to practise word order 2 (WO2) in different contexts, like the structured speaking task in this lesson, where they need to use word order 2 (WO2), inverting subject and verb in their answers as they start with the time of day.