KS4 · German · Year 10
Mein Alltag jetzt und früher: '-chen' and '-lein', 'wenn' and 'als'
My personal world: Der Alltag
Learn it. Recall it. Make it stick.
IllumED Slides
IllumED · 1/11
Your learning goal
I can use the perfect and present tenses, along with ‘wenn’ and ‘als’, to compare past and present routines and activities.
1 of 11
Mein Alltag jetzt und früher: '-chen' and '-lein', 'wenn' and 'als': 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 perfect and present tenses, along with ‘wenn’ and ‘als’, to compare past and present routines and activities.
Key learning points
- German [ch] can be soft or hard. The sound [ei] is pronounced like ‘frei’.
- The suffixes -chen and -lein are added to make diminutive nouns. They often gain an umlaut and are always neuter.
- 'Wenn' means ‘when’, ‘whenever’ of ‘if’ and is used for repeated actions or conditions in the present or future.
- 'Als' means ‘when’ to refer to a specific past event or point in time.
- Both 'als' and 'wenn' trigger word order 3, sending the finite verb to the end of the sentence or clause.
Words to know
- wenn
- conjunction meaning ‘if’ or ‘when’ which triggers word order 3
- als
- conjunction meaning ‘when’, referring to specific past events, which triggers word order 3
- word order 3
- (WO3) after certain conjunctions, the verb is sent to the end of the sentence or clause
- -chen, -lein
- suffixes added to nouns to make diminutive or ‘little’ forms
Common mistakes
We use 'wann' to say what we did, do or will do 'when'.
'Wann' is a question word and means 'when' in questions and indirect questions. Use 'als' for 'when' when referring to specific past events or points in time and 'wenn' for repeated actions or conditions in the present or future.
For parents, carers and teachers
- Suffixes '-chen' and '-lein' are required knowledge at Higher tier only, but may be of interest and fun for all students, and a useful way to revisit the sounds [ch] and [ei]. Word order 3 after conjunctions with single verb structures is Foundation tier and Higher tier with 2-verb structures.