KS4 · German · Year 11
Rechte: perfect tense, simple past, 'seit' vs 'vor'
Lifestyle and wellbeing: Menschenrechte
Learn it. Recall it. Make it stick.
IllumED Slides
IllumED · 1/11
Your learning goal
I can use the simple past and perfect tenses and 'seit' and 'vor' to understand the historical context and recent changes relating to international human rights.
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Rechte: perfect tense, simple past, 'seit' vs 'vor': 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 simple past and perfect tenses and 'seit' and 'vor' to understand the historical context and recent changes relating to international human rights.
Key learning points
- The perfect tense uses the present tense of 'sein' or 'haben' plus a past participle, and is used in speech and writing.
- The single-verb simple past or imperfect tense in German is used most often to narrate past events in writing.
- 'Seit', with dative and present tense, expresses an unfinished action started in the past. It can mean ‘since’ or ‘for'.
- 'Vor' + length of time is used with past tense to say how long ago something happened. Use the dative case.
- These structures provide a framework for discussing the history and developments in international human rights.
Words to know
- perfect tense
- a past tense formed with the present tense of 'sein' or 'haben' and a past participle
- simple past or imperfect tense
- German single-word past tense used mainly to narrate past events in writing, e.g., 'war', 'hatte', 'gab', 'fand'
- seit
- preposition meaning 'since' or 'for' followed by the dative case
- vor
- preposition meaning ‘ago’ followed by the dative case
Common mistakes
The perfect tense is used only in speaking and the simple past only in writing.
The perfect tense can be used in informal writing and to describe a past event which has relevance to the present. The simple past is normally for writing, but 'war', 'hatte', 'gab' and modal verbs ('musste', 'wollte') are commonly used in speech.
For parents, carers and teachers
- The vocabulary in Learning Cycle 1 includes Higher-tier vocabulary. Learning Cycle 2 includes the simple past for both Foundation and Higher tiers. Learning Cycle 3 includes Higher-tier grammar only, but the vocabulary and examples given on human rights would be of interest to all students.