GERMAN IMPERFECT TENSE RESOURCE BOX #1

GERMAN IMPERFECT TENSE CONJUGATION PRACTICE 5 workbooks @ £1.00 each in the bundle each workbook focusing on a specific set of 25 German verbs in the imperfect tense, 3 differentiated conjugation challenges, 150 quick conjugations, complete answer key and verb lists, 750 conjugations in total ideal for advanced KS3 German and KS4 German students who are developing their knowledge and understanding of conjugation in German, and working with more complex texts which include a range of tenses.

The verbs groups are:

regular German verbs
irregular & mixed German verbs
high-frequency German verbs
German reflexive verbs
German separable verbs

I do tend to introduce the perfect tense and imperfect tense fairly closely together, as usage of the tenses is not directly equivalent with English for example, particularly in spoken German, and working with both tenses simultaneously allows us to contrast and compare usage.

The workbooks focus on the mechanics of conjugation, rather than usage, but I’ve found that when my students are able to provide the correct conjugation very quickly, and out of a specific context, they feel really confident that their German conjugation skills are developing well, which is a key step in creating and producing correct German, in both oral and written form. My students really like this kind of grammar activity, as they like to work and learn independently, which is a successful way of varying teaching and learning methodologies - I’ve found it’s really important to avoid predominantly teacher-led learning in the languages classroom.

The workbook focuses on the correct conjugation of verbs, rather than usage, but I definitely find it useful to remind students of a number of things when focusing on or revising tense and verb conjugation. Language learners do often try to conflate what they know about conjugation in their first language and the language they are learning, and with the German imperfect tense of separable verbs for example, I frequently see attempts such as ich war stehen auf / ich war aufstehen for I was getting / standing up or similarly ich machte / tat aufstehen for I did get / stand up. Students also tend to look for a direct translation of the notion of used to…, before they understand that the notion is implicit in the tense itself. There are certain complexities with German separable verbs, as learners whose first language does not have equivalent separable verbs can find positioning the separable prefix correctly quite challenging.

I refer frequently the difference in usage between English and German, and this is important particularly when explaining when and in which contexts to use the present perfect, simple past and the continuous / progressive simple past tense. Though the workbook focuses solely on the correct conjugation of verbs, and does not look at word order in the context of full sentences, there are conjugation patterns that students can learn, recognize and apply, ensuring that their spoken and written German is accurate, and that their understanding of German across the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing is robust. Students become very familiar and confident the more they work with conjugation, and these quick conjugations certainly help to embed that successfully.

I’ve used these ‘quick conjugations’ for many years with my German classes. My students definitely find them to be a great way of practising, reinforcing and revising how to conjugate essential verbs in German. I use them in a range of contexts such as independent work either in class time or at home, holiday refresher work, or individual activities for cover lessons. I tend to give my students regular opportunities to practice the conjugations during the whole schools year, and they find this really useful for mapping their own progress and developing their overall understanding of how German conjugation ‘works’.

Each set has the following structure:

Two alphabetical verb reference lists: German-English and English-German.

Three conjugation challenges, each with 50 individual conjugations:

Conjugation Challenge 1: each verb conjugated in German across a range of pronouns, with students writing the corresponding English verb conjugation.

Conjugation Challenge 2: gives the infinitive of each verb in German, specifying the target pronoun. Students write the corresponding verb conjugation in German.

Conjugation Challenge 3: students write the corresponding German verb conjugation, and its infinitive, from an English prompt.

Notes and Next Steps sheet, which encourages students to think about how their understanding of German conjugation works, what progress they have made, what their targets for improvement might realistically be, and what they might reasonably do in order to meet those targets. Students also note down any new verbs they discover, which enables them to build up a really sound verb vocabulary bank. We also use this to guide our whole-group discussions about conjugation and German grammar, and learning and progress in general - this is a really successful and popular activity.

answer key: there are 6 pages in the answer key book - for me, answer keys are an essential and integral part of learning with these kinds of workbooks - they give my students an additional opportunity to engage with language, they certainly help them develop more independence in their learning, and they genuinely enjoy ‘correcting’ their own, and especially each other’s work.

Try this free sampler to see if it’s the kind of activity that would work well in your German classrooms:

GERMAN CONJUGATION PRACTICE FREE SAMPLER

https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/german-conjugation-practice-sampler-12154187

Currently in my store I have quick conjugation workbooks for a range of verb groups featuring the following tenses:

present tense (Präsens)
perfect tense (Perfekt)
imperfect tense (Präteritum)
future tense (Futur I)
conditional tense (Konjuktiv II, Futur I)
pluperfect tense (Plusquamperfekt)
future perfect tense (Konjuktiv I, Futur II)
conditional perfect tense (Konjuktiv II, Plusquamperfekt)

Have a browse in my store for more German grammar activities, and a wide range of other German teaching and learning resources, with special offer bundles, resource boxes, and lots of freebies too - I’ve included a couple here for you to try.

This resource consists of non-editable files in a zipped format. It is copyright, all rights reserved. It may not be copied, rewritten, amended, shared or distributed, in whole or in part, outside your own classroom in any way. The license for purchase is a single-user license only. Please read the Terms of Use carefully.

VIELEN DANK UND VIEL SPAß BEIM KONJUGIEREN!