icon-background-square
New
New
Year 8

Ask the meaning of unknown words: nouns, gender, articles, nominative case

Learning outcomes

I can identify the nominative case and ask about the meaning of unknown words in German so that I can add new words to my vocabulary.

I can use my knowledge of sound-symbol correspondences to clearly pronounce new words.

icon-background-square
New
New
Year 8

Ask the meaning of unknown words: nouns, gender, articles, nominative case

Learning outcomes

I can identify the nominative case and ask about the meaning of unknown words in German so that I can add new words to my vocabulary.

I can use my knowledge of sound-symbol correspondences to clearly pronounce new words.

warning

These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.

Lesson details

Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

Key learning points

  1. Knowing the German sound-symbol correspondences well supports pronunciation and understanding of new words.
  2. Some famous German city names are different from English and need good pronunciation for recognition and clarity.
  3. The nominative case identifies the subject in a sentence, i.e., who is doing the action of a verb.
  4. Words for 'the' and 'a' change according to the grammatical gender of the noun.
  5. 'Wie sagt man das auf Deutsch?' is a key question to ask the meaning of unknown words.

Keywords

  • SSC - stands for sound-symbol correspondence, refers to the relationship between letters and their sounds

  • Nominative case - used to describe the subject of a sentence, i.e., who or what is doing the action of the verb

  • Grammatical gender - way to categorise all nouns as either feminine, masculine or neuter

Common misconception

Names of foreign cities and towns don't have English equivalents.

Some cities around the world (e.g., München) have an English equivalent (e.g., Munich).


To help you plan your year 8 german lesson on: Ask the meaning of unknown words: nouns, gender, articles, nominative case, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Students could use their own backpacks to do a spoken version of Task B1.
speech-bubble
Teacher tip
equipment-required

Equipment

copyright

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

Loading...

Some of our videos, including non-English language videos, do not have captions.

6 Questions

Q1.
Match the German and English.
Correct Answer:da,there
tick

there

Correct Answer:hier,here
tick

here

Correct Answer:leider,unfortunately
tick

unfortunately

Correct Answer:oder,or
tick

or

Correct Answer:groß,big, large
tick

big, large

Correct Answer:klein,small, little
tick

small, little

Q2.
Match the German and English.
Correct Answer:Was ist das?,What is that?
tick

What is that?

Correct Answer:tschüs,bye
tick

bye

Correct Answer:ich weiß nicht,I don't know
tick

I don't know

Correct Answer:Ist das klar?,Is that clear?
tick

Is that clear?

Correct Answer:Nicht wahr?,Isn't it?
tick

Isn't it?

Correct Answer:Wie sagt man ... ?,How do you say ... ?
tick

How do you say ... ?

Q3.
'Mein Freund hat __________ Flasche.'. Choose the correct missing word.
nicht
nein
kein
Correct answer: keine
keinen
Q4.
Order the words to say: 'The man is eating and the woman is drinking.'
1 - der
2 - Mann
3 - isst
4 - und
5 - die
6 - Frau
7 - trinkt
Q5.
Write in English: 'Ich habe das Wort gelernt.'
Correct Answer: I learnt the word., I learned the word., I have learnt the word., I have learned the word.
Q6.
Write in German: 'I travel by car.'
Correct Answer: Ich fahre mit dem Auto.

5 Questions

Q1.
Match the words with their missing sounds.
Correct Answer:[v],ater
tick

ater

Correct Answer:[w],asser
tick

asser

Correct Answer:[sp],ielen
tick

ielen

Correct Answer:[st],ark
tick

ark

Correct Answer:[z],ug
tick

ug

Correct Answer:[j],ahr
tick

ahr

Q2.
Match the sentence halves.
Correct Answer:Das ist ein,Tisch.
tick

Tisch.

Correct Answer:Das ist eine,Flasche.
tick

Flasche.

Correct Answer:Ich habe kein,Haustier.
tick

Haustier.

Correct Answer:Ich habe,Fragen.
tick

Fragen.

Q3.
Order the words to say: 'There is a school but no teacher.'
1 - es
2 - gibt
3 - eine
4 - Schule
5 - aber
6 - keine
7 - Lehrerin
Q4.
Write in German: 'How do you say that in German?'
Correct Answer: Wie sagt man das auf Deutsch?, Wie sagt man es auf Deutsch?
Q5.
Write in German: 'I live in Munich.'
Correct Answer: Ich wohne in München., Ich lebe in München., Ich wohne in Muenchen., Ich lebe in Muenchen.

Additional material

Download additional material