KS3 · German · Year 9
Travels and places: present and imperfect modal verbs
Places and projects: imperfect modal verbs
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IllumED Slides
IllumED · 1/8
Your learning goal
I can talk and write about my travels using past and present modal verbs and correct time-manner-place word order.
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Travels and places: present and imperfect modal 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 talk and write about my travels using past and present modal verbs and correct time-manner-place word order.
Key learning points
- Use imperfect modal verbs in speech and writing to say what you and others wanted, were able or had to do.
- Use present modal modal verbs to communicate present/future actions, e.g., Ich will in der Zukunft nach Rügen fahren.'.
- Adverbs in a sentence follow the order time, manner, place (TMP); this word order applies in all tenses.
- Details of time, manner and place often co-occur in travel sentences – word order must follow TMP in main clauses.
Words to know
- imperfect modal (verb)
- single-word past verb of necessity or possibility (‘had to’, ‘was able’, ‘wanted’) used with a 2nd verb in infinitive, which goes to the end
- time, manner, place (TMP)
- order of adverbs in a German sentence - time before manner before place, abbreviated to TMP
Common mistakes
The only way to communicate about past events in German is by using the 2-verb perfect tense, e.g., 'Ich bin nach Deutschland gefahren. Ich habe dort einen Strandurlaub gemacht.'.
We also use the single verb imperfect tense - 'war', 'hatte' and 'es gab', and imperfect modal forms - 'musste', 'konnte', 'wollte', with a 2nd (infinitive) verb, to talk about events in the past.
For parents, carers and teachers
- Places in this lesson include Frankfurt (Germany), Innsbruck and Attersee (Austria), and the islands Helgoland and Rügen in the North Sea. For the final writing task, pupils could research a German-speaking place they have not yet been to, and write about an imagined journey there.