Lesson video

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(Mrs. Roberts speaking German) <v ->Great to see you here today.

Thank you for joining us.

</v> And I will guide you through today's lesson.

Today's lesson comes from the unit "In the classroom: 'sein,' nouns, indefinite articles, questions." And the title of today's lesson is "Greetings and location: 'wo' and singular definite articles." Today's lesson, you'll be able to greet a teacher or friend, ask an answer about where someone is, and recognise the definite article "the." You will also be able to recognise the long and short "a" sound.

So let's have a look at our keywords for today's lesson.

Now we've got four keywords today.

The first one is "a," pronounced short "a" as in kalt and long "a" as in sagen, wo meaning where, ist meaning is, and the definite article, different forms of the singular "the," der, die, das.

And as we go through the lesson, you will notice that we reference these keywords very frequently.

And let's start with our first learning cycle for today, which is greetings and asking where someone is.

Now in German, there are different ways to greet people.

There are two ways to say hello in fact.

One is when we greet somebody informally.

So when we're greeting maybe family or we're greeting friends, and we would use "Hallo." Let's hear.

Hallo.

Super.

Well done.

And that means hello or hi and we use it to greet friends or family.

"Hallo, Izzy!" "Hallo, Lucas!" Can you turn to the person next to you or say it to me? Hallo! Brilliant.

Well done.

There's also the more formal "Guten Tag," which can be used to greet a teacher, Mr. or Mrs. Let's have a look.

(Mrs. Roberts speaking German) (Mrs. Roberts speaking German) Let's have a look again.

Herr means Mr. And Frau means Mrs. So the next time you go along to your German lesson, then you can greet your teacher using (speaking German) and your teacher's name or (speaking German) and your teacher's name.

Let's have a go.

True or false? You would usually use "Guten Tag" to say hello to your sister.

Tell the person next to you or tell me what do you think? Now don't forget to pause the video here and give this a go.

Remember to press play when you're done.

Absolutely right.

It's false, isn't it? And why? Because you would use "Hallo," as your sister is part of your family and this is the informal version of hello or hi.

Now, who would you greet with "Guten Tag" from these people here? We've got Mia, Frau Jones, and Herr Banik.

So have a look and see what you think.

You tell the person next to you or tell me.

Off you go.

Now pause the video here and give this a go and then remember to press play when you're done.

Brilliant.

Right, well done.

So let's have a look.

Frau Jones and Herr Banik.

Well done.

Now remember we say "Guten Tag" when we use Frau, Mrs, and Herr, Mr. Thank you, Lucas, for reminding us.

So over to you now for some practise.

So I'd like you to fill in the gaps with either "Hallo" or "Guten Tag." So have a look at the name or the person at the end of the sentence because I think that will give it away.

Remember, "Hallo" is for friends and family and "Guten Tag" is if we're talking to a teacher.

So pause the video here and you can either tell the person next to you or you can tell me or you can write your answer down.

And then when you are finished, make sure you press play.

Okay, I heard loads of great discussion going on there.

Okay, so let's have a look.

So we've got Hallo Mia.

And Mia is the first-name terms with somebody, so it's probably a friend or a sibling, and so we would use Hallo.

Guten Tag Herr Bell.

So it's Mr. Bell, so we use the formal version of hello.

Hallo Ben.

Again, first-name terms, so hallo.

Hallo Mohammed.

First-name terms, so hallo.

Guten Tag Frau Mayer.

Hello, Mrs. Mayer.

So it's a teacher.

You're going to use Guten Tag.

And (speaking German) Becker.

So hello, Mr. and Mrs. Becker.

Right, now what we're going to have a look at is wo, which is a question word and it means "where." Can you say it after me? (Mrs. Roberts speaking German) It's really important when we're encountering new vocabulary that we say it over and over again in order for our brain to retain it.

And often, if we use an action along with the word, then it means that our brain retains it even better.

Let's have one last go.

Wo.

Brilliant.

Well done, everybody.

Super.

Which word means where? Can you remember? Go and quickly tell the person next to you or tell me.

Pause your video here and then remember to press play once you're done.

That's right.

It's wo.

Well done.

Now if we want to use wo in a phrase, a question phrase, then we can say "wo ist," meaning "where is." And we can use this to ask the location of someone, somewhere, or something.

Wo ist Mia? Where is Mia? Wo ist Lucas? Where is Lucas? Lucas ist da.

Meaning Lucas is there.

Mia ist hier.

Mia is here.

So "da," as Lucas rightly points out to us, "da" means "there" and "hier" means "here." Can you say it after me? Da.

Hier.

Well done.

Excellent.

So have a go at matching up these three statements, the German with the English.

Off you go.

Pause the video here and then press play once you're done.

Well done.

Excellent.

Okay, let's have a look then.

Some really great work going on here today.

Lucas ist hier, meaning Lucas is here.

What about Lucas ist da? Absolutely, Lucas is there.

Well done.

And finally, Wo ist Lucas? That's our question.

And where is Lucas? Well done, everybody.

Now what we're going to do is have a conversation now with each other.

So you can either have a conversation with the person next to you or you can pretend to be more than one person, which is absolutely fine.

And top tip, when you've done one conversation, have a go at another one and keep varying the vocabulary that you are using.

So Partner A is going to greet and ask where someone is in your class.

So they might say for example, (speaking German)? And if you want to do the actions, you can but you don't have to.

And Partner B will respond using a sentence with a greeting and the name of the person and "ist," meaning is, and then either "da" or "hier." So for example, (speaking German).

Hello, Mia is there.

You've got some keywords at the bottom here that you can use to help you.

You've got (speaking German).

And you'll notice that two of those words are our keywords today, wo and ist, okay, meaning where and is.

So spend some time now practising with your partner or pretending to be more than one person.

And I look forward to hearing what you've come back with.

Off you go.

Pause your video here and press play once you are done.

Right, welcome back.

Well done.

Let's have a look at a little example that we could have had.

So Partner A could have said, (speaking German)? And Partner B could have said, (speaking German).

Partner A, another example could have said, (speaking German)? And they said, (speaking German).

How did you get on? I heard lots of fantastic conversations going on, so well done.

Now we're going to move on to our second cycle for today, which is recognising the short and long "a" sound.

So as you go through your German learning journey, you will encounter lots of different sounds.

It's a bit like when you begin to learn reading as a young child and you learn the phonics and that helps you to decipher new words.

And it's exactly the same when we're learning German.

We're learning a foreign language.

It's really, really helpful for us to know the sounds so that we can feel confident in our pronunciation and also we can feel confident when we recognise a word that we perhaps haven't encountered previously.

So let's have a look here.

First of all, it's important to know the German vowels.

So remember our vowels are A-E-I-O-U.

Can be short or they can be long.

Now they're short when they're followed by more than one consonant, for example, Mann.

So you've got the double N there, meaning man, or Gast with the st.

So those are your two consonants, meaning guest.

So listen and repeat the short "a" sound after me.

Oh, it's fantastic repetition going on.

Well done.

Let's have a look at it in some words.

Kalt.

Meaning cold.

(chattering) Kalt.

Kalt.

Well done, everybody.

Klasse.

Meaning class.

Mann.

Meaning man.

Lang.

Meaning long.

And Gast.

Gast.

Meaning guest.

What fantastic accents you have! Well done, everybody.

Okay, let's have a look at these three words here.

Can you recognise the words with the short "a" sound? I want you to turn to the person next to you or tell me which words have the short "a" sound? Have a go at pronouncing them.

Off you go.

Pause your video here and have a go.

Remember to press play when you're done.

Well done if you said Hallo and Gast.

You are absolutely right.

Aisha quite rightly says here, "I can see the pattern with the short 'a' sound.

Can you?" Let's see what Sam thinks.

Well done, Sam.

"It's always followed by two consonants." Fantastic.

Now we're going to have a look at the long "a" sound.

So German vowels are long when there is a double vowel.

For example, Paar.

So pair, so you've got the double A there.

The letter h follows the "a," for example, fahren, meaning to go or drive.

And when there is a single consonant that follows the "a." Sagen, meaning to say or tell.

So listen and repeat the long "a" sound after me.

Let's have a look at some words with that sound in.

Sagen.

Repeat after me.

Sagen.

Meaning say or tell.

Paar.

Make sure you're saying them after me.

Well done to all of those of you who are doing that.

Paar.

Tag.

Meaning day.

Haben.

Meaning have.

And fahren.

Let's hear it.

Fahren.

Well done.

Fahren, meaning to go or drive.

So let's do a little check here.

Which words have the long "a" sound? Now quite often, when you say a word in another language and you've learned a rule, you'll know whether or not that word sounds right.

So have a go at these words with a partner or just by yourself or telling me.

And see if there was somewhere you've perhaps used the short "a" sound, does it sound a bit odd? Try it with a long "a" sound.

See which one sounds better.

Off you go.

Pause your video here and remember to press play when you're done.

Right.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's see.

How did you get on? If you said (speaking German), you are absolutely right.

They all have the long "a" sound.

So Aisha's asking here, "What's the pattern with the long 'a' sound?" Let's see if Sam can remember.

Well done, Sam.

So the "a" sound is long when there is a double vowel, when it's followed by an h or by a single consonant.

For our next practise task, we're going to have a go at a listening activity.

And in this listening activity, you have got two columns.

One column which has got long like sagen.

So that's for the long "a" sound.

And the second column is short like kalt.

So short "a" sound.

Now you will hear five different words and you have to decide whether to tick the long "a" sound column like sagen or the short "a" sound column like kalt.

Okay.

Off we go then.

Number one.

(instructor speaking German) <v Mrs. Roberts>Number two.

</v> (instructor speaking German) <v Mrs. Roberts>Number three.

</v> (instructor speaking German) <v Mrs. Roberts>Number four.

</v> (instructor speaking German) <v Mrs. Roberts>And number five.

</v> (instructor speaking German) <v Mrs. Roberts>Let's have a look then.

How did you get on?</v> So number one was the short "a" sound like in kalt.

It was Mann.

Number two was Paar.

So long "a" sound.

Number three, fahren.

Again, like sagen, the long "a" sound.

And number four, Klasse.

So it's followed by a double consonant.

Therefore, it's a short "a" sound.

And number five, again, followed by a double consonant, danke.

And that's a short "a" sound.

Well done, everybody.

Listening tasks are always a little bit challenging when you're listening to a native speaker.

But you did a great job.

Well done.

Now our final cycle today is recognising the singular definite article.

So, "the" is the definite article in English.

In German, there are different ways to say "the." There's not just one way.

There's lots of different ways.

Now let's start by having a look at the singular definite article.

So our first form of "the" is der.

And that is the masculine form of "the." For example, der Tisch, meaning the table.

There's also a feminine form of "the," which is die.

Die Flasche, meaning the bottle.

And there's a neuter form of "the," which is das.

Das Fenster, meaning the window.

Now, all German nouns have a grammatical gender, but it's really important to remember that the grammatical gender is not the same as biological gender at all.

So they're completely different things.

Now the grammatical gender is whether the noun is masculine, feminine, or neuter.

So is it masculine der, feminine die, or neuter das? So which of these four words does not mean "the"? Is it (speaking German)? Quickly, tell the person next to you or tell me.

Don't forget to pause the video here and then press play once you're done.

What did you go for? Well done.

Da.

And you'll notice our long "a" sound there again, creeping in from our keywords.

So der, die, and das all mean "the" but da means "there." Thank you, Jacob.

Now I want you to have a go at matching up the forms of "the" with their grammatical gender.

So you've got der, die, and das and you need to match them up.

You can either write it down or you can just tell the person next to you or tell me.

Off you go.

Pause the video here and then remember to press play when you're done.

Excellent.

Let's have a look.

Well done for remembering der is masculine, die is feminine, and das is neuter.

Absolutely superb learning going on here today! Well done.

Oh, now! Thank you, Izzy.

Izzy has just pointed out that das is an exception to our "a" sound rule.

Now das is only followed by one consonant.

And previously, we learned that the long "a" sound is when it's followed by one consonant.

However, das is an exception, and you will always encounter exceptions in any language and it's just about learning them as we go along and accepting them for what they are.

So the "a" is short, but it's followed by a single consonant so we say das.

We don't say das.

We say das.

Have a quick go.

Well done.

Brilliant.

Okay, have a look at these nouns, and I want you to listen to me say it and then I want you to repeat it.

And the picture shows you very clearly what they are.

Off we go.

(Mrs. Roberts speaking German) (Mrs. Roberts speaking German) (Mrs. Roberts speaking German) (Mrs. Roberts speaking German) (Mrs. Roberts speaking German) (Mrs. Roberts speaking German) (Mrs. Roberts speaking German) What do you think that question might mean? That's right.

Where is the window? So I want you to say either (speaking German).

A, B, C.

(Mrs. Roberts speaking German) Okay? So (speaking German)? Quickly tell the person next to you.

(Mrs. Roberts speaking German) Well done.

That's correct.

(Mrs. Roberts speaking German) Where is the table? Well done! Super.

(Mrs. Roberts speaking German) Where is the board? Well done.

Excellent.

Now, for our final practise, I would like you to have a go at completing the gaps.

I would also like you to translate these words into English.

Now you need to complete the gap with either der, die, or das.

And top tip here is that there's quite a big hint on the practise task itself, in that it tells you after the noun if it's masculine, feminine, or neuter.

So you just got to think back a little bit and think, oh, masculine.

That was der, wasn't it, for "the." I'm not going to tell you any more, okay? So have a go at filling in the gaps and then translating the words into English.

Off you go.

Pause video here and press play once you are done.

Okay, welcome back.

How did you get on? Fantastic recalling.

Well done.

Really, really impressed.

Okay, so number one was a neuter noun.

So it was das, which is exercise book.

Number two was a feminine noun, so it would be die and it's board.

Number three was a feminine noun again, so it would be die and it means bottle.

Number four was a neuter noun, so it's das, meaning window.

Das Fenster, meaning window.

And number five, der Tisch, meaning table, is a masculine noun.

I'm going to leave you now to have a look through today's summary.

I have been so impressed with your learning and I look forward to seeing you again soon.

(Mrs. Roberts speaking German).

I've finished the video