KS3 · German · Year 8
Where I went: singular perfect tense 'sein' vs 'haben', 'mit' + dative
Past journeys: perfect tense with 'sein'
Learn it. Recall it. Make it stick.
IllumED Slides
IllumED · 1/10
Your learning goal
I can say where I went and how I got there, using the perfect tense with ‘sein’.
1 of 10
Where I went: singular perfect tense 'sein' vs 'haben', 'mit' + dative: 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 say where I went and how I got there, using the perfect tense with ‘sein’.
Key learning points
- [a] and [o] are short when followed by two consonants, but long in other words.
- ‘Mit’ is used with an article in the dative to describe the manner in which a person travels, e.g., ‘mit dem Bus’.
- The perfect (past) tense is formed with three parts: subject, part of ‘haben’ or ‘sein’ and past participle.
- ‘Sein’ is used to form the perfect tense with past participles of verbs of movement to a destination.
Words to know
- [a]
- short and long sound-symbol correspondence pronounced as in ‘sagen’ and ‘kalt’
- [o]
- short and long sound-symbol correspondence pronounced as in ‘wo?’ and ‘Kopf’
- dative
- case used after a dative preposition, e.g., ‘mit’ or ‘von’
- past participle
- verb form that forms the perfect tense, together with the auxiliary verb
Common mistakes
To talk about the past using the perfect tense, we always use the present tense of ‘haben’ with a past participle.
Some verbs require the present tense of ‘sein’ with a past participle when forming the past perfect tense. These are mostly verbs of movement to a destination, e.g., ‘fahren’ to travel, ‘fliegen’ to fly.
For parents, carers and teachers
- Teachers may wish to exploit the focus on Poland by looking in more detail at where Poland is and some of its well-known cities with classes.