KS4 · German · Year 11
Medizin früher und heute: 'es gibt' vs 'es gab', imperfect
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Your learning goal
I can understand the imperfect tense in the context of past medical developments and influential ideas, and I can contrast past and present using 'es gibt' and 'es gab'.
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Medizin früher und heute: 'es gibt' vs 'es gab', imperfect: 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 understand the imperfect tense in the context of past medical developments and influential ideas, and I can contrast past and present using 'es gibt' and 'es gab'.
Key learning points
- Weak verbs form the imperfect tense by adding these endings to the verb stem: -te, -test, -te, -ten, -tet, -ten.
- Strong verbs have irregular stems in the imperfect tense, with vowel changes and endings: -, st, -, en, t, en.
- The verbs ‘sein’, ‘haben’, modal verbs and 'es gab' are commonly used in spoken as well as written German.
- Use 'es gibt' to mean 'there is, are' and 'es gab' to mean 'there was, were', followed by the accusative case.
- Use 'es gibt' and 'es gab' to contrast present and past.
Words to know
- imperfect tense
- German single-word past tense used mainly to narrate past events in writing
- es gibt
- means 'there is, there are' and is a general statement that something exists
- es gab
- means 'there was, there were', the past tense of 'es gibt'
Common mistakes
The imperfect tense is never used in spoken German.
The irregular verbs 'haben' and 'sein', modal verbs and 'es gab' are all common in spoken German. Other verbs in the imperfect mainly appear in written texts.
For parents, carers and teachers
- Whilst the formation of the imperfect tense is Higher tier grammar, all students should be able to recognise and use the common verbs 'es gibt' and 'es gab', as well as all imperfect forms of 'sein' 'haben', and singular imperfect modal verbs.