KS3 · German · Year 9
Make changes at home: prepositions and verbs of location and movement
Positive experiences: word order and prepositions
Learn it. Recall it. Make it stick.
IllumED Slides
IllumED · 1/12
Your learning goal
I can use verbs and prepositions correctly to talk about placing, moving and locating items in the context of changing things at home.
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Make changes at home: prepositions and verbs of location and movement: 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 verbs and prepositions correctly to talk about placing, moving and locating items in the context of changing things at home.
Key learning points
- Short [u] is pronounced as in 'Punkt' and long [u] as in 'du'; short [ü] sounds as in 'fünf' and long [ü] as in 'Tür'.
- Dual-case prepositions take the accusative case with movement and the dative case for location.
- Three placement verbs ‘stellen’, ‘setzen’, ‘legen’ describe putting something somewhere, and take the accusative case.
- Placement verbs can also be used reflexively for animate objects, when the sentence's subject and object are the same.
- When items are already in position, we use equivalent position verbs 'stehen', 'sitzen' and 'liegen' with the dative.
Words to know
- [u]
- pronounced short as in 'Punkt' and long as in 'du'
- [ü]
- pronounced short as 'fünf' and long as in 'Tür'
- dual-case preposition
- preposition followed either by accusative to indicate movement or by dative to indicate location
- placement verb
- verb that describes putting something somewhere, taking the accusative case
- position verb
- verb that describes where something is
Common mistakes
German has one general verb meaning 'to put, putting'.
German has 3 placement verbs meaning 'to put'; 'stellen' - to make something stand (vertically), 'setzen' - to make something sit, and 'legen' - to make something lay down (horizontally). Equivalent position verbs are 'stehen', 'sitzen', 'liegen'.
For parents, carers and teachers
- Teachers may find it useful to demonstrate and practise placement and position verbs using real objects, as this revises and reinforces the concept. Task D3 can be adapted and personalised for learners of all levels.