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Year 7

What is it? 'Was' and 'sagen'

Learning outcomes

I can use the question word ‘Was?’ and the verb 'sagen' to ask what something is and identify what someone says.

I can pronounce short and long [e] correctly.

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New
New
Year 7

What is it? 'Was' and 'sagen'

Learning outcomes

I can use the question word ‘Was?’ and the verb 'sagen' to ask what something is and identify what someone says.

I can pronounce short and long [e] correctly.

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Lesson details

Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

Key learning points

  1. [e] can be either short (followed by 2 consonants) or long (followed by a single consonant, double vowel or 'h').
  2. The question word 'Was ...?' meaning 'What ...?' is used to identify things.
  3. The verb 'sagen' means 'to say, to tell' in the infinitive and its short form 'sagt' means 'says, tells'.

Keywords

  • [e] - pronounced [e] as in 'denken' and [e] as in 'geben'

  • Was? - What?

  • Verb - a word that communicates actions or states

Common misconception

All German verbs end in -en.

Verbs have different forms (endings) depending on the subject. Long form ends in -en and short form ends in -t.

Giving a notional time for short speaking tasks is a useful way to encourage pupils to speed up mental processing and increase spoken fluency.
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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

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6 Questions

Q1.
When is a vowel short?
Correct answer: when it is followed by more than one consonant
when it is followed by one consonant
when it is followed by the letter ‘h’
Q2.
What type of nouns have a capital letter in German?
proper nouns like the names of people or countries
common nouns like 'table' or 'bottle'
Correct answer: all nouns
Q3.
What do 'der', 'die' and 'das' all mean?
Correct Answer: The, the
Q4.
Match these German nouns to their English meanings.
Correct Answer:der Tisch,(the) table
tick

(the) table

Correct Answer:die Tafel,(the) board
tick

(the) board

Correct Answer:das Fenster,(the) window
tick

(the) window

Correct Answer:die Flasche,(the) bottle
tick

(the) bottle

Correct Answer:das Heft,(the) book
tick

(the) book

Q5.
Put these parts of a sentence in the correct order to form a German sentence. The first word in this sentence has not been capitalised.
1 - wo
2 - ist
3 - der
4 - Gast
5 - ?
Q6.
Put these parts of a sentence in the correct order to form a German sentence. The first word in this sentence has not been capitalised.
1 - das
2 - Fenster
3 - ist
4 - da

6 Questions

Q1.
In which of these words is the [e] a long sound?
denken
Correct answer: geben
Correct answer: Idee
besser
Correct answer: sehen
Q2.
In which of these words is the [e] a short sound?
Correct answer: helfen
Correct answer: Bett
Leben
mehr
Correct answer: gelb
Q3.
Does 'wo' or 'was' best fit in the gap in the following sentence? ' sagt Frau Bell?'
Correct Answer: Was, was
Q4.
What does 'sagen' mean?
Correct answer: to say
tells
says
Correct answer: to tell
Q5.
What does 'sagt' mean?
Correct answer: tells
to say
Correct answer: says
to tell
Q6.
Match these German words to their English meanings.
Correct Answer:falsch,false
tick

false

Correct Answer:richtig,correct
tick

correct

Correct Answer:ja,yes
tick

yes

Correct Answer:nein,no
tick

no

Correct Answer:oder,or
tick

or

Correct Answer:nicht,not
tick

not

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