What you and others have and what it is like: subject pronoun 'sie' for 'they'
Learning outcomes
I can describe what I and others have, using the correct subject pronouns for 'it' and 'they', and I can understand a longer text on Christmas in Berlin.
I can recognise the difference between [o] and [ö].
What you and others have and what it is like: subject pronoun 'sie' for 'they'
Learning outcomes
I can describe what I and others have, using the correct subject pronouns for 'it' and 'they', and I can understand a longer text on Christmas in Berlin.
I can recognise the difference between [o] and [ö].
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Lesson details
Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons
Key learning points
- [o] and [ö] need practice to distinguish between singular and plural forms of some nouns, e.g., 'Vogel' and 'Vögel'.
- Masculine and neuter nouns ending in -el, -en and -er don’t usually change in the plural form.
- A few -el, -en and -er plurals do add an umlaut to ‘a’, ‘o’, and ‘u’, e.g., 'Vögel'.
- To say 'they' in German, use 'sie' for all genders.
- The subject pronoun 'sie' means both 'it' (feminine) and 'they'. The verb form tells us what is being talked about.
Keywords
[o] - pronounced short [o] as in ‘Schottland’ and long [o] as in ‘Vogel’
[ö] - pronounced short [ö] as in 'zwölf' and long [ö] as in ‘Vögel’
Subject pronoun - represents the person, people or thing(s) doing the verb, e.g., I, we, they
Sie - the subject pronoun plural ‘they’
Common misconception
'Sie' always refer to feminine 'it' when used as a subject pronoun.
'Sie' means 'it' in the feminine form and 'they' in the plural form. 'Sie' is used for all plural forms.
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Starter quiz
6 Questions
water
world
pet
teacher
great
okay
ugly
dark
good