icon-background-square
New
New
Year 7

Christmas traditions: singular and plural nouns

Learning outcomes

I can recognise and use three different plural rules, understand some German Christmas traditions and write a Christmas letter in German.

I can recognise the short and long [ä] sound.

icon-background-square
New
New
Year 7

Christmas traditions: singular and plural nouns

Learning outcomes

I can recognise and use three different plural rules, understand some German Christmas traditions and write a Christmas letter in German.

I can recognise the short and long [ä] sound.

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. [ä] can be either short (followed by 2 or more consonants) or long (followed by a single consonant or 'h').
  2. For noun plural rule 1, most masculine and neuter nouns add -e to the end and an umlaut on the vowel (ä, ö, ü).
  3. For noun plural rule 2, words ending in -el, -en or -er are often the same in the plural.
  4. For noun plural rule 3, most feminine nouns add '-n' or '-en'.

Keywords

  • [ä] - pronounced long [ä] as in ‘spät’ and short [ä] as in ‘lächeln'

  • Plural rule 1 - most masculine and neuter nouns add -e to the end and an umlaut on the vowel (ä, ö, ü)

  • Plural rule 2 - masculine and neuter nouns ending in -el, -er or -en often stay the same in their plural form

  • Plural rule 3 - most feminine nouns either add -n or -en to the end of the noun

Common misconception

All nouns change when they are in their plural form.

There are three different plural rules. 1. Most masculine and neuter nouns add -e to the end and an umlaut to the vowel; 2. M. and nt. nouns ending in -el, -er or -en often stay the same when plural; 3. Most feminine nouns add -n or -en to the end.

Navigate the topic of Father Christmas carefully. There will be students who don’t celebrate Christmas at all, those who do give and receive gifts but for whom the celebrations are 100% secular, those who are practising Christians, and those who still believe in Father Christmas.
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.
What is an umlaut?
Correct answer: two dots above the vowels a, o or u
a line above the vowels a, o or u
two dots above the vowels e, a or u
a letter which looks like 'B' and means 'ss'
Q2.
Masculine and neuter nouns ending in __________ don't usually change in their plural form.
Correct answer: -el
-e
-sch
Correct answer: -en
Correct answer: -er
Q3.
Which of these words is the plural word for 'the' in German?
der
Correct answer: die
das
Q4.
Match the vocabulary below to the correct English translations.
Correct Answer:manchmal,sometimes
tick

sometimes

Correct Answer:oft,often
tick

often

Correct Answer:nie,never
tick

never

Correct Answer:kaum,hardly
tick

hardly

Correct Answer:einmal die Woche,once a week
tick

once a week

Q5.
Match the infinitives to the correct English translations.
Correct Answer:zeigen,to show
tick

to show

Correct Answer:sprechen,to speak
tick

to speak

Correct Answer:zuhören,to listen
tick

to listen

Correct Answer:lesen,to read
tick

to read

Correct Answer:schreiben,to write
tick

to write

Correct Answer:wiederholen,to repeat
tick

to repeat

Q6.
Complete the following sentence: 'Die Familie __________ da.'
sind
Correct answer: ist
sein

6 Questions

Q1.
Which words have a long [ä] sound?
Correct answer: zählen
Verhältnis
Correct answer: spät
Correct answer: Nähe
lächeln
Q2.
Match the vocabulary below to the correct English translations.
Correct Answer:der Hund,dog
tick

dog

Correct Answer:die Kirche,church
tick

church

Correct Answer:die Familie,family
tick

family

Correct Answer:die Woche,week
tick

week

Correct Answer:die Katze,cat
tick

cat

Correct Answer:die Idee,idea
tick

idea

Q3.
Select the singular nouns.
Correct answer: der Film
die Spiele
die Zimmer
Correct answer: der Engel
Correct answer: das Haustier
Q4.
Translate the following sentence into English: 'Die Kirchen sind warm.'
Correct Answer: The churches are warm., The churches are warm
Q5.
German children have the choice to send their Christmas wish list to one of how many possible people?
two
Correct answer: three
four
Q6.
The song 'Wir wünschen dir frohe Weihnacht' is a translated version of which English Christmas song?
Jingle Bells
Deck the Halls
Correct answer: We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Silent Night

Additional material

Download additional material