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KS2 Grammar knowledge�Examples of crosslinguistic comparisons

Last updated: 4/5/20

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Rachel Hawkes

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Practising in language analysis

Rachel Hawkes / UKLO

Asking questions

Explanation and activity

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Rachel Hawkes

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Asking questions

In German, just swap the verb and subject (e.g. ‘du’ (you), like this:

Word order

To ask a ‘yes/no’ question in English, ‘do you..’ is followed by a verb.

Hast	du	einen Fußball?

Du	hast	einen Fußball.

grammar explanation

Do you	have	a bottle?

Statement

Question

Hast	du	eine Flasche?

Statement

Question

Note that when you hear questions, you get an extra clue from the intonation, and when you read, you see the question mark.

You	have	a football.

Do you	have	a football?

🡪

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Rachel Hawkes

Many of the grammar explanations within the NCELP resources, begin with an explanation of how the structure is formed in English. This is important, because, as we discussed earlier, students are bringing their expectations from English with them, when they being learning the new language. So it can be helpful to remind students of how we form structures, such as questions, in English, and then explicitly contrast this with how the other language forms this structure.

This slide is included in week 1.1.7 to introduce students to question formation in German. On the screen here you can see we start with the explanation about English.

This is then followed by the explanation about German. You’ll notice that in both the English and the German examples, the verb has been highlighted to draw learners’ attention to the fact that in English the verb doesn’t move when we create a question, whereas in German the verb moves in front of the subject.

SOW Week 1.1.7

Note: the verb is in orange to highlight the change in word order that happens in German, but not in English.

Tell students that they might find it tricky to remember this because a) the English construction is different, and b) additional clues are provided by intonation in spoken form, and punctuation in written form.

Note in German there is the added complication of the homophony between ‘do’ and ‘du’ – useful to ensure pupils understand that this German ‘du’ is the English ‘do’!

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Ist das eine Frage?

lesen

Frau Organisiert is texting Herr Organisiert to plan the shopping. �He is confused as there is no punctuation!

Help Herr Organisiert. �Write "?" after questions and "." after statements.

1. Hast du eine Flasche Cola __

2. Du hast einen Fußball __

3. Hast du ein Buch __

4. Hast du ein Heft __

5. Du hast eine Wasserflasche __

6. Du hast einen Tisch __

7. Du hast ein Lied __

8. Hast du einen Film __

9. Hast du eine Frage __

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Rachel Hawkes

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Ist das eine Frage?

ANTWORTEN

1. Hast du eine Flasche Cola __

2. Du hast einen Fußball __

3. Hast du ein Buch __

4. Hast du ein Heft __

5. Du hast eine Wasserflasche __

6. Du hast einen Tisch __

7. Du hast ein Lied __

8. Hast du einen Film __

9. Hast du eine Frage __

?

.

Frau Organisiert is texting Herr Organisiert to plan the shopping. �He is confused as there is no punctuation!

Help Herr Organisiert. �Write "?" after questions and "." after statements.

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Rachel Hawkes

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Frage oder Satz?

As you know, closed questions are formed by swapping the verb and subject:

Closed (yes/no) questions

Schreibst	du	ein Buch?

Du	schreibst	ein Buch.

Statement

Question

Grammatik

You are writing a book.

Are you writing a book?

Spielst	du	oft Tennis?

Du	spielst	oft Tennis.

Statement

Question

You often play Tennis.

Do you often play Tennis?

This is how you ask ‘do’ or ‘are’ questions in German.

Note that when you hear questions, you get an extra clue from the intonation, and when you read, you see the question mark.

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Frage oder Satz?

hören

Zorg is making observations about Wolfgang. He can produce a lot of words, but lacks intonation (and manners!)

Is Zorg asking a question or making a statement? Write ? or .

?

.

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

A

B

Listening �This task revisits the VSO syntax of questions vs SVO of statements. It is important to revisit essential grammar with different lexis for students to deepen their understanding of the grammar feature. Here vocabulary is recycled from 1.2.1 and 1.2.2 and integrated with the frequency adverbs from this week.

Example slide

This slide is an example to do first with students and correct. It has audio inserted for A and B and the corresponding answers.

Then go to the next slide for the full exercise. The next slide has the audio and the answers.

NB: If it seems strange to students that we have so many appearances from Zorg, the robot, explain that it is important that we remove the audible clues (i.e. raised intonation) that come with questions, so that they only focus on the syntax.

Transcript

a) Hörst du jeden Tag das Leid

b) Du arbeitest kaum im Garten

c) Putzt du manchmal das Auto

d) Du tanzt nicht so gut

e) Du sitzt oft zu Hause am Computer

f) Gehst du nie in den Garten

g) Du redest sehr oft im Unterricht

h) Lernst du manchmal in der Schule

i) Spielst du nie mit Freunden Fußball

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Frage oder Satz?

hören

Zorg is making observations about Wolfgang. He can produce a lot of words, but lacks intonation (and manners!)

Is Zorg asking a question or making a statement? Write ? or .

?

.

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

A

B

?

.

?

.

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Open (wh-) questions

Grammatik

Open (wh-) questions

Schreibst	du	ein Buch?

Closed

Open

To ask an open question, place a question word directly in front of the verb:

schreibst	du	ein Buch?

Wo

schreibt		ein Buch?

Wer

Are you writing a book?

Where are you writing a book?

Beispiel:

Was hast du am Montag?

What do you have on Monday?

Wo spielst du Tennis?

Where do you play tennis?

Wie oft putzt du dein Zimmer?

How often do you clean your room?

Wer ist dein Lieblingslehrer?

Who is your favourite (male) teacher?

Who is writing a book?

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Order of words in a question

Grammatik

Sentences are turned into questions by swapping the verb and subject.

Du spielst zu Hause Gitarre.

Spielst du zu Hause Gitarre?

You play/are playing guitar at home.

Do you play / Are you playing guitar at home?

To ask an open question, place a question word in front of the verb.

Wann spielst du zu Hause Gitarre?

When do you play / are you playing guitar at home?

Only the verb and subject swap places. The adverb and noun stay in the same position.

Wer spielt zu Hause Gitarre?

Who plays / is playing guitar at home?

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Saying what people do [1]

Present simple and continuous

Year 7 French

Term 1.2 - Week 3 - Lesson 19

Natalie Finlayson / Emma Marsden /

Stephen Owen

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Rachel Hawkes

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Le verbe

grammaire

Verbs tell you how two nouns relate to each other.

Verbs are not just action words! They can mean things that we can’t see or hear:

In English, you can add ‘-ed’ or ‘-ing’ to the end of verbs and put ‘to’ in front of them.

Verbs can have other verbs in front of them, like ‘do’, ‘was’, ‘is’, or ‘has’.

loves

studies

hates

speaks

The girl ??? French.

be

have

want

get

become

happen

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Rachel Hawkes

Robust knowledge of verb vocabulary is absolutely critical for learning a language. That is, the meaning of verbs – ‘go’, ‘eat’, ‘be’, ‘play’, ‘love’ – not the grammar of verbs in their different tenses and forms. It would be useful to explain this to students. It is something that we take for granted in our own language.

�Students in year 7 should all know what a verb is, from their primary school lessons. It might, however, be worth checking this in the initial stages.

Before showing this slide, ask students to define a verb and give some examples.

Note (2^nd to last point): important to emphasise here that we’re trying to move away from the reliance of ‘verb is an action word’. What is demonstrated here is the importance of the DISTRIBUTION in the language - this is how we know whether something is a verb - not by its meaning, but by what words come around it. It is not taught like this generally. Generally people focus on the semantics (e.g. adj is a describing word - but to be an adjective t needs to be describing a noun). Another example is that nouns often have 'the' or 'a' in front of them 🡪 you can't define a noun by 'it's a thing or a person' as it can be an activity, and then children are stumped.

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Le verbe

grammaire

Circle the verb/verbs in the following sentences.

1. George plays computer games for three hours every day. �2. Helen loves detective stories. �3. Everyone thinks that it is great. �4. He never really liked fizzy drinks. �5. The climate is getting warmer.

6. If the match had been more exciting, the players would have been happier. �7. Are you becoming a bore? �8. What kind of taste do you detect? �9. The fish was eaten by the shark. �10. Making myself do sport is my ambition this year!

1. George plays computer games for three hours every day. [to play]

2. Helen loves detective stories. [to love]

3. Everyone thinks that it is great. [to think, to be]

4. He never really liked fizzy drinks. [to like]

5. The climate is getting warmer. [to get]

6. If the match had been more exciting, the players would have been happier. [to be, to be]

7. Are you becoming a bore? [to become]

8. What kind of taste do you detect? [to do, to detect]

9. The fish was eaten by the shark. [to eat]

10. Making myself do sport is my ambition this year! [to make, to do, to be]

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Rachel Hawkes

Awareness-raising exercise in English to teach students to recognise different forms of verbs. This is in preparation for a lot of work with verbs and, in particular, the two forms of the present in English with the one equivalent form in French.

Answers revealed on clicks.

To go further you could ask students to:�

tell you what the ‘infinitive’, the dictionary form, of each verb is in English (shown in square brackets above)

�- change the ‘dictionary’ form into as many different versions of the same VERB as they can, without turning it into a different word class (part of speech)! e.g. think, thinks, thinking, thought are all forms of the same verb; BUT…. thoughtful, thoughtless, thinker are NOT verbs, but they come from the same word family.

- give you some words that can be both a noun and a verb (e.g., head; captain; chair; cook). �

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Present simple or continuous?

English has two present tense forms.

I make the bed every week. I am making the bed at the moment.

French has one present tense only. The BE + -ing form does not exist.

Je fais le lit chaque semaine. Je fais le lit en ce moment.

grammaire

Present simple - normally; routine

Present continuous (BE + -ing) - ongoing; current

Je fais = I make AND

I’m making

Adverbs of time tell us which English tense to choose.

In French, the present simple is used with all adverbs.

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Rachel Hawkes

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Adverbs of time

[every week]

chaque semaine

[at the moment]

en ce moment

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Rachel Hawkes

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Present simple or continuous?

lire (1/2)

Nick is babysitting for the Petit family. He makes notes about the children, Jaques and Géraldine.

1.1 Choose the correct adverb.

A

B

C

D

E

Jaques is playing tennis at the moment/every week.

Géraldine wears a uniform at the moment/every week.

Géraldine is having lunch at the moment/every week.

Jaques is doing his homework at the moment/every week.

Jaques goes for a walk at the moment/every week.

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Rachel Hawkes

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Present simple or continuous?

lire (2/2)

Nick is babysitting for the Petit family. She makes notes about the children, Jaques and Géraldine.

1.2 Choose present simple (normally; routine) or continuous (ongoing; current).

F

G

H

I

J

Jaques washes/is washing up at the moment.

Géraldine learns/is learning English every week.

Géraldine plays/is playing with her friends at the moment.

Jaques reads/is reading a book at the moment.

Géraldine sings/is singing every week.

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Rachel Hawkes

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Present simple or continuous?

Speaking exercise

Madame Petit calls Nick with more information about her children. Help Nick take notes. Choose present simple or continuous.

écouter

A

B

C

D

E

Jaques does/is doing his homework.

Géraldine cooks/is cooking.

Géraldine is/is being naughty.

Géraldine does/is doing the housework.

Jaques has/is having an idea.

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Rachel Hawkes

Basic translation exercise to introduce present tenses and revise vocabulary from Term 1 weeks 2 and 7.

Teacher explains that the temporal adverbs are not given in the English translation because the verb tense provides information about whether things happen routinely, or are ongoing right now.

Teacher draws attention to fact that French tense is the same throughout, and that students will have to listen out for the adverb in French to find out this information.

No new verbs are introduced at this point; all sentences contain the previously introduced être, avoir and faire.

Students will be familiar with all vocabulary from this week and previous weeks, with the exception of madame [294] which is a highly frequent word.

Audio plays on clicking the letters.

Transcript

Audio plays on individual letter clicks.

A. Jaques fait les devoirs en ce moment.

B. Jaques a une idée chaque semaine.

C. Géraldine fait le ménage en ce moment.

D. Géraldine est méchante chaque semaine.

E. Géraldine fait la cuisine chaque semaine.

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Present simple or continuous?

Géraldine cooks/is cooking.

Speaking exercise

Madame Petit calls Nick with more information about her children. Help Nick take notes. Choose present simple or continuous.

écouter

A

B

C

D

E

Jaques does/is doing his homework.

Géraldine is/is being naughty.

Géraldine does/is doing the housework

Jaques has/is having an idea.

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Rachel Hawkes

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Present simple or continuous?

Speaking exercise

Nick is talking about the Petit family in English. Decide whether to translate what he says with ‘en ce moment’ or ‘chaque semaine’.

lire

A

Madame Petit fait le tour [en ce moment / chaque semaine] mais elle fait la cuisine [en ce moment / chaque semaine].

B

Monsieur Petit fait le lit [en ce moment / chaque semaine] et fait le ménage [en ce moment / chaque semaine].

C

Géraldine fait le modèle [en ce moment / chaque semaine] et fait une promenade [en ce moment / chaque semaine].

D

Jaques est méchant en [en ce moment / chaque semaine] mais il fait les devoirs [en ce moment / chaque semaine].

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Rachel Hawkes

Basic translation exercise to introduce present tenses and revise vocabulary from Term 1 weeks 2 and 7.

Students hear Nick’s English voice. The adverbs are obscured by noises. Students must work out from the present tense form alone whether these things happen every week, or are happening at the moment.

Two equally plausible events are connected by mais in each case so that students cannot guess from context.

No new verbs are introduced at this point; all sentences contain the previously introduced être, avoir and faire.

Students will be familiar with all vocabulary from this week and previous weeks, with the exception of madame [294] which is a highly frequent word.

Audio plays on clicking individual letters.

Transcript

A. Mrs Petit goes on a tour [noise] but is cooking [noise].

B. Mr Petit is making the bed [noise] and does the housework [noise].

C. Géraldine is making a model [noise] and goes for a walk [noise].

D. Jaques is being naughty [noise] but does his homework [noise].

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Present simple or continuous?

Speaking exercise

Nick is talking about the Petit family in English. Decide whether to translate what he says with ‘en ce moment’ or ‘chaque semaine’.

lire

A

Madame Petit fait le tour [en ce moment / chaque semaine] mais elle fait la cuisine [en ce moment / chaque semaine].

B

Monsieur Petit fait le lit [en ce moment / chaque semaine] et fait le ménage [en ce moment / chaque semaine].

C

Géraldine fait le modèle [en ce moment / chaque semaine] et fait une promenade [en ce moment / chaque semaine].

D

Jaques est méchant en [en ce moment / chaque semaine] mais il fait les devoirs [en ce moment / chaque semaine].

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Rachel Hawkes

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Present simple / continuous

We have already seen that the French present tense

has two English meanings:

�Stephen Owen

Elle porte un uniforme

She is wearing a uniform

She wears a uniform

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Rachel Hawkes

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Circle the translations of the verbs that sound best to you (the most likely meaning).

		en ce moment	normalement
1	Claude aime le football.	is liking	likes
2	Michel passe une semaine à faire le ménage.	is spending	spends
3	Paul fait la cuisine chaque semaine.	is doing	does
4	Natalie a une voiture moderne.	is having	has
5	Sarah est grande et intelligente.	is being	is
6	Zoë parle à une amie.	is talking	talks
7	Jean donne un cadeau à un ami.	is giving	gives
8	Gaëlle reste à l’école.	is staying	stays
9	Philippe fait les devoirs chaque semaine.	is doing	does
10	Claire fait un voyage.	is going on	goes on

Lire

Present simple / continuous

lire

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Rachel Hawkes

This is meta-linguistic activity to raise students awareness about the ambiguity of the French present tense. This activity should give rise to lots of talk about the two English forms.

This reading task asks learners to consider whether they would translate the French present tense verb in each sentence with the simple present or the present continuous meaning.

Whilst both answers are possible, in some cases more so than in others, there will be a sense of which is the “best fit”. This should be discussed with learners. As long as learners can justify their choice, they cannot really be “wrong”, but the real aim of this exercise is simply to force them to engage with both possible meanings in the English, whilst appreciating the fact that both are rendered by the present tense in French.

Note: this is teaching pupils to use grammar to get meaning, and that this involves subtle decisions!

The sentences consist entirely of vocabulary already presented, either this week or in previous weeks.

Suggested answers are provided via animated ovals which appear upon clicking the mouse. N.B. Where both answers would be a good fit, given the time expressions ‘en ce moment’ and ‘normalement’, both are indicated with the animated oval.

Please explain to students that that the ‘à’ in ‘à faire le ménage’ (sentence 2 on the slide) is used with the infinitive after ‘passer’ to mean ‘doing’ that verb.

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Possessive adjectives

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Rachel Hawkes

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Possessive adjectives

Compare these French and English sentences.

What do you notice about the possessive adjectives?

Elle adore son livre.

She loves her book.

Il adore son livre.

He loves his book.

Elle adore sa voiture.

She loves her car.

Il adore sa voiture.

He loves his car.

Rowena Kasprowicz

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Rachel Hawkes

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Possessive adjectives

In French, the possessive adjective (his / her) has to agree with the noun it belongs to.

Elle adore son livre.

Il adore sa voiture.

In English, the possessive adjective (his / her) has to agree with the subject of the sentence

She loves her book.

He loves his car.

“agree” means it needs to match the noun’s gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural)

Rowena Kasprowicz

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Rachel Hawkes

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Possessive adjectives

Rowena Kasprowicz

English	French
She loves her brother.	Elle adore son / sa frère.
He likes his sister.	Il aime son / sa sœur.
He reads his book.	Il lit son / sa livre.
She finds her mobile phone.	Elle trouve son / sa portable.
She writes her letter.	Elle écrit son / sa lettre.
He wears his shirt.	Il porte son / sa chemise.

Choose which possessive adjective is needed to complete the French sentences. Don’t be tricked by the English sentences!

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Rachel Hawkes

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Asking questions

Stephen Owen / Emma Marsden

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Asking questions

Stephen Owen & Emma Marsden

Remember, to ask a question in French,

raise the pitch of your voice at the end of a sentence:

Tu as un animal. You have a pet.

Tu as un animal ? Do you have a pet?

Do not say the final ‘s’.

SILENT FINAL CONSONANT

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Rachel Hawkes

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Questions with où

Remember, in French we use intonation to form questions.

Tu as un animal ?

Do you have a pet?

Je vais où ?

Where are you going?

Literally: You have an animal?

Tu vas où ?

“Do” is not used in French!

The question word goes to the end of the French sentence.

Where am I going?

We can add the question word où ? – where?

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Rachel Hawkes

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Introducing verbs

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Rachel Hawkes

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aller

[ to go | going ]

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Rachel Hawkes

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aller

[to go | going]

va

[goes | is going]

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Rachel Hawkes

Teacher note for 25 most frequent verbs:

Students should know the meaning of this verb already, as it was set as (audio and quizlet) homework. It is re-presented here in the infinitive and short form to deepen students’ knowledge and model the use of both forms in sentences.

Introducing the verb aller more explicitly. Aller is one of the 25 most frequently used verbs in French. All 25 most frequent verbs will be introduced early on using the same format. Both long form (infinitive) and short form (3^rd person singular) are introduced in order to familiarise students with various forms of the same verb.

Bring up the word aller on its own, say it, students repeat it, and remind them of the phonics. Draw attention to SSC ’a’ and ‘é/er/et/ez’
Try to elicit the meaning from the students.
Then bring up the English translations. Emphasise the two meanings for the infinitive.
Bring up the short form va, say it, students repeat it. . Draw attention to SSC ‘a’.
Try to elicit the meaning from the students. Emphasise the two meanings for the short form.

Note: Students have had explicit teaching that the present tense in French communicates two different present tense meanings in English. This reinforces that learning. Emphasise the two meanings for the short form, reminding students that French only has one form and does not have a direct equivalent of the grammar for ‘is + ing’, the continuous form (as covered in previous weeks).

�

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aller�

[to go| going]

va

[goes | is going]

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Rachel Hawkes

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va

[goes | is going]

Elle va au parc.

[She goes | is going to the park.]

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Rachel Hawkes

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aller�

[to go | going]

Elle aime aller au parc.

[She likes going to the park.]

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Rachel Hawkes

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va

[goes | is going]

Elle au parc.

va

[She goes | is going to the park.]

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Rachel Hawkes

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aller

[to go | going]

Elle aime au parc.

aller

[She likes going to the park.]

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Rachel Hawkes

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Practising in language analysis

Rachel Hawkes / UKLO

3^rd person singular

Explanation and activity

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Dictionary verb Vs he/she form

Only the infinitive form of a verb appears in the dictionary.

e.g. wohnen (to live / living), lernen (to learn / learning)

To say what he/she does or is doing, use er (he), sie (she)

and change the ending from -en to -t:

wohnen – Er wohnt in Berlin.

(He lives in Berlin / He is living in Berlin.)

lernen – Sie lernt Gitarre.

(She learns guitar / She is learning guitar.)

There is only one present tense in German!

How many are there in English?

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Rachel Hawkes

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Hören: Infinitiv oder er/sie?

Infinitiv	Er/Sie

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Noch einmal, bitte!

to learn / learning

plays / is playing

has

to talk / talking

to say / saying

lives / is living

learns / is learning

to write / writing

does/makes

to come / coming

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Rachel Hawkes

Here, students listen to the verb, decide first if it is infinitive or s/he form, then write the English translation (e.g. 1. to learn, 2. plays)

It is worth doing the first two with students as examples, and give feedback before doing the remainder.�Each audio is activated by clicking the numbered button.

Students can be encouraged to ask for a repeat, if they need to hear it again. ‘Noch einmal, bitte’. They have just met ‘noch’ meaning ‘still’. Here the phrase means ‘one time more/again, please’ or literally, ‘still one time, please’. This recycles ‘bitte’, which they encountered a few weeks ago, and of course they know ‘ein’.

A prompt is on the slide to teach this phrase, with an image to remind them what it means.

Note: This listening repeats some of the verbs from the previous reading, but in their opposite forms (i.e. infinitive or 3^rd person singular). In addition, verbs are recycled from previous learning (hat, sagen) and one is included from the phonics from this week (kommen).

Transcript [with numbers]

1. lernen�2. spielt

3. hat�4. reden

5. sagen

6. wohnt

7. lernt

8. schreiben

9. macht

10. kommen