Unit 1

Unit 1
Teaching focus:
The irregular verbs; The verb to be; The cardinal numbers;
The articles a, an, the; The determiners this, that;
The question words what, how much, who, how, where, why
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1. The Irregular Verbs
Refer your students to Appendix 1 of their books, where they will find a list of irregular verbs in groups.
Inform them that you are going to drill one group of these verbs at the beginning of each lesson and that
this will enable them to begin formulating their own sentences in three different tenses by the end of the
very first week. Explain that you are going to chant each verb together 5 times and that although this
exercise may initially remind them of a kindergarten experience, they will soon acknowledge its
effectiveness.
For today, however, it is enough to simply read through the list together and to translate the verbs.
Choose a more advanced student to do this. If you are using the Photocopiable Materials from this book
rather than the separate Student’s Book, simply read through the translated verbs together.
When you do begin teaching the verbs (day 2), insist that the students look at the verbs (and not at you!)
as they chant them, as this will enable them to commit the orthography more easily to memory. Call
attention to the fact that English is not a phonetic language and that they will need to more or less
‘memorise’ the written form of words.
You need not explain the use of each part of the verb (infinitive – simple past – past participle) until
approximately the fourth day, when the pupils should begin making sentences of their own.
Then specify that the first part of the verb is referred to as the Infinitive and is used (among other things)
to make the Present Simple tense - the tense we use to talk about things which are true in general, and
things which occur repeatedly. Inform the class that we add ‘-(e)s’ to the infinitive form of the verb for
the third person singular (he, she, it) in the Present Simple tense. (A useful rhyme when teaching
German students is: He, she, it, ‘s’ muss mit!)
Explain that we refer to the second form of the verb (began, drank, ran, etc.) as the Past Simple/Simple
Past, and that we use it (as the name implies) to talk about actions in the past.
Specify that the third form of the verb - the Past Participle is used with the helping verb to have in
Perfect tenses (‘I have done’ / ‘I had done’) and explain that we use this form with the present tense of
the verb ‘to have’ (Present Perfect) when the time is unfinished, i.e. with time phrases such as ‘this
week/ this month/ this season’, as these are periods which have not yet ended. Stress the fact that
although the Present Perfect tense is often used to talk about actions in the past in German (Gestern
habe ich Tom gesehen. / Wir sind letzte Woche ins Kino gegangen.), we cannot use this form to talk
about finished time in English.
Drill the irregular verbs as follows:
→
begin – began – begun
One student reads
beginnen
and the others repeat
begin – began – begun 5 times.
Continue with
trinken
rennen
→
→
drink – drank – drunk (x 5) and so forth, as far as
run – ran – run (x 5)
Advise the class that they will be tested on these verbs at the beginning of the following lesson.
Begin each lesson with the irregular verbs. Test each group of verbs before progressing to the
next. Follow this procedure until the entire list of irregular verbs has been learnt.
At the beginning of the fourth lesson you can begin to elicit full sentences from your students.
First present them with some short sentences in German to translate. Then, when they are familiar with
the procedure, encourage them to formulate sentences of their own, using the vocabulary they have
learnt so far. If they wish to express an idea for which they do not as yet have the vocabulary, write it
on the board - learners tend to internalise vocabulary which they themselves have requested more
readily than vocabulary introduced by you.
Write the students’ sentences on the board until they can make them without the help of their notes.
This will usually take about a week.
Some possible sentences for translation:
● Der Wind weht/bläst jeden Tag.
● Er blies gestern Rauchringe (in die Luft)
● Ich habe Glas geblasen.
● Bäume wachsen in Wäldern.
● Ihr Haar wuchs schnell.
● Das Gras ist wieder gewachsen.
● Er weiß viel.
● Wir wußten, wer sie war.
● Sie hat die Antwort immer gewusst.
● Der Junge wirft einen Ball.
● Er warf gestern einen Ball nach mir.
● Er hat oft Bälle nach mir geworfen.
The wind blows every day.
He blew smoke rings yesterday.
I have blown glass.
Trees grow in forests.
Her hair grew quickly.
The grass has grown again.
He knows a lot.
We knew who she was.
She has always known the answer.
The boy throws a ball.
He threw a ball at me yesterday.
He has often thrown balls at me.
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2. The verb to be
A. Introduce the verb to be by asking a more advanced student to conjugate it while you write it on
the board. Add a predicative complement such as a man/a woman/a student/here/nice etc.,
as this will serve as an introduction to word order.
Example:
I am
You are
He is
She is
here.
It is
We are
You are
They are
Practise the verb to be by presenting various students with comparable short sentences to translate
from German into English. Keep the sentences simple (pronoun + to be + predicative complement),
as the aim of this exercise is not only to practise the verb to be but to demonstrate that your students’
command of the English language is greater than they suspect.
Some possible sentences for translation:
Ich bin glücklich.
I am happy.
Du bist eine Frau.
You are a woman.
Er ist alt.
He is old.
Sie ist schön.
She is beautiful.
Es ist ein Haus.
It is a house.
Wir sind intelligent.
We are intelligent.
Ihr seid nett.
You are nice.
Sie sind Kinder.
They are children.
B. Explain that we usually contract the verb to be in spoken English and in informal written English
(not in business letters) and elicit the contracted forms from the class:
Positive:
I am
You are
He/she/it is
We are
You are
They are
Contraction:
I’m
You’re
He’s/she’s/it’s
We’re
You’re
They’re






here.
here.
C. Negate the sentences by eliciting not after the verb to be:
Negative:
I’m not
you’re not
he’s not
she’s not
it’s not
we’re not
you’re not
they’re not
or
or
or
or
or
or
or
you aren’t
he isn’t
she isn’t
it isn’t
we aren’t
you aren’t
they aren’t
here.
D. Write the interrogative form on the board and specify that while the word order for an
affirmative sentence is:
Subject
● Peter
-
Verb
reads
-
Object
books.
-
Verb
is
-
Predicative Complement,
here.
or in our case:
Subject
● She
the word order for interrogative clauses/questions is:
Verb
● Is
-
Subject
she
-
Object/Predicative Complement
here?
Question
Am I
Are you
Is he
Is she
Is it
Are we
Are you
Are they
here?
Note:
1. It is not yet necessary to introduce the word order
Auxiliary Verb
Subject
Main Verb
Object
● Are
you
reading
a book?
● Does
she
have
a car?
Do so when you reach the relevant tenses (Present Continuous – Unit 7, Present Simple – Unit 9).
2. Read through Appendix 2 - Parts of Speech; The Parts of a Sentence with your students if and when it
becomes apparent that terms such as subject and object require further clarification. For now it is
sufficient to define the subject as the person or thing that performs an action and the object as the
person or thing to whom/which something is done.
E. Now ask a more advanced student the questions ‘Are you here?’ and ‘Are you at home?’ and
elicit the short answers ‘Yes, I am.’ and ‘No, I’m not.’
Write the short positive and negative forms on the board, stressing the fact that
we cannot contract a verb and subject when they stand alone.
Thus, the correct reply to the question ‘Are you here?’ is either ‘Yes, I am here./Yes, I’m here.’
or ‘Yes, I am.’, NOT ‘Yes, I’m.’
Short Positive Answer
Short Negative Answer
Yes, I am.
Yes, you are.
Yes, he is.
Yes, she is.
Yes, it is.
Yes, we are.
Yes, you are.
Yes, they are.
No, I’m not.
No, you’re not. / No, you aren’t.
No, he’s not. / No, he isn’t.
No, she’s not. / No, she isn’t.
No, it’s not. / No, it isn’t.
No, we’re not. / No, we aren’t.
No, you’re not. / No, you aren’t.
No, they’re not. / No, they aren’t.
Note:
If asked why we do not reply to Yes/No questions with ‘Yes.’ and ‘No.’ respectively (without an ensuing subject
and auxiliary), explain that for native speakers of English, monosyllabic answers sound somewhat brusque and
are therefore considered discourteous.
It may be useful to demonstrate a few more examples of short answers at this point to familiarise your students
with this structure. Do not, however, make this an exhaustive exercise.
Examples of short answers:
● Can you swim?
Yes, I can. / No, I can’t.
● Have you got a car?
Yes, I have. / No, I haven’t.
● Should we drink and drive?
No, we shouldn’t.
● Do you live in Germany?
Yes, I do. / No, I don’t.
● Could you stay longer today?
Yes, I could. / No, I couldn’t.
● Will you go home after the lesson? Yes, I will. / No, I won’t.
● Would you like to live by the sea?
Yes, I would. / No, I wouldn’t.
Specify that we make short answers with Yes,/No, + subject + helping/auxiliary verb
(i.e. the first verb in the question, and not - contrary to what learners often believe - the main verb. Thus, ‘Yes, I
live.’ is an incorrect reply to the question ‘Do you live in Germany?’).
F. Erase the verb to be from the board and choose a number of individuals to conjugate it without
looking at their notes.
G. Request that your students write any one positive sentence with the verb to be in German.
When they have done this, instruct them to select a fellow student to
i. translate it
ii. negate it
iii. convert it into a question
iv. answer the question with two short answers - one positive, one negative
Weave the sentences orally round the class.
Example:
Student A:
Es ist ein schöner Tag.
Student B:
It’s a beautiful day.
It isn’t a beautiful day. / /It’s not a beautiful day.
Is it a beautiful day?
Yes, it is. / No, it isn’t.
Der Himmel ist blau.
Student C:
The sky is blue. etc.
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