KS4 · German · Year 10
Lebenserfahrung: simple past with früher, gern, lieber, am liebsten, reflexive verbs
My personal world: Tolle Lebenserfahrungen
Learn it. Recall it. Make it stick.
IllumED Slides
IllumED · 1/9
Your learning goal
I can use reflexive verbs and adverbs in the perfect and imperfect tenses in the context of studies and work.
1 of 9
Lebenserfahrung: simple past with früher, gern, lieber, am liebsten, reflexive verbs: 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 reflexive verbs and adverbs in the perfect and imperfect tenses in the context of studies and work.
Key learning points
- In two-verb structures, the reflexive pronoun normally comes after the first verb.
- In the perfect tense, it is more common to use the simple past versions of ‘haben’, ‘sein’, and ‘es gibt’.
- Use ‘früher’ in the perfect and imperfect tenses to mean ‘used to’.
- Use ‘gern’, ‘lieber’, ‘am liebsten’ in the perfect and imperfect tenses to talk about likes and preferences.
Words to know
- simple past
- synonymous with the imperfect; German single-word past tense used mainly to narrate past events in writing; for example, 'war', 'hatte', 'gab'
- perfect tense
- German two-word past tense using either 'haben' or 'sein' with a past participle
- reflexive verb
- verb used to indicate doing something to yourself, e.g., 'to wash yourself'
Common mistakes
Verbs that are reflexive in English must be reflexive in German and vice versa.
Different verbs are reflexive in different languages. For example, 'sich erinnern' is not reflexive in English.
For parents, carers and teachers
- Learning Cycle 2 contains Foundation and Higher options for the tasks. Task B1a could be made more challenging by changing each of the verb options to the infinitive.