German definite articles: the words for ‘the’
Explanation and tasks
Leigh McClelland
Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�
Rachel Hawkes
Grammar explanation
Leigh McClelland, / Rachel Hawkes
German nouns are divided up into three groups.
Each group has a grammatical gender and a different word for the.
When you learn a German noun, you must learn its grammatical gender.
masculine | der | e.g. der Zug (the train) |
feminine | die | e.g. die Familie (the family) |
neuter | das | e.g. das Haus (the house) |
These words for the are called definite articles.
Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�
Rachel Hawkes
Vocabulary introduction
der
Mann
der
Grund
der
Fußball
der
Junge
der
Vater
der
Kopf
Why?
Masculine nouns (der …)
Leigh McClelland, / Rachel Hawkes,/ Emma Marsden
Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�
Rachel Hawkes
Vocabulary introduction
Leigh McClelland
die
Familie
die
Hand
die
Nacht
die
Mutter
die
Tür
Feminine nouns (die …)
Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�
Rachel Hawkes
Vocabulary introduction
Leigh McClelland
das
Wasser
das
Mädchen
das
Monster
das
Programm
das
Buch
das
Haus
Neuter nouns (das …)
Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�
Rachel Hawkes
Vocabulary introduction
Leigh McClelland
der
die
das
der, die, oder das?
Mann
Familie
Monster
Fußball
Haus
Tür
Buch
Hand
Nacht
Programm
Wasser
Junge
Grund
Kopf
Mädchen
Mutter
Vater
Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�
Rachel Hawkes
Vocabulary introduction
Leigh McClelland
Why?
der
die
das
der, die, oder das?
Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�
Rachel Hawkes
Vocabulary introduction
Leigh McClelland
Why?
der
Was passt nicht in die Reihe?
1.
2.
die
die
das
das
das
die
3.
der
das
der
4.
5.
6.
der
die
der
der
das
das
der
die
die
Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�
Rachel Hawkes
Reading exercise
Leigh McClelland
Familie
2. Die / / sitzt auf dem Gras.
Vater
Junge
Mutter
1. Die / / macht ein Picknick im Garten.
Mädchen
3. Der / / hat ein Buch.
Vater
Mädchen
4. Die / / trinkt Wasser.
Junge
Mädchen
Mutter
5. Das / / spielt Fußball mit einem Freund.
Mädchen
Junge
Familie
Mädchen
Your German friend has a film project homework but has ripped up her notes in frustration. �You rescue the scraps of paper and try to reconstruct her ideas for the opening scene.
Mutter
Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�
Rachel Hawkes
Reading exercise
Leigh McClelland
Mädchen
Junge
Eltern
Haus
Fußball
6. Der / / ist klein.
7. Der / / geht ins Haus.
8. Das / / ist groß.
Vater
9. Der / / kommt wieder aus dem Haus.
Junge
Mutter
10. Das / / explodiert!
Fußball
Familie
Mädchen
Fußball
Haus
Haus
Your German friend has a film project homework but has ripped up her notes in frustration. �You rescue the scraps of paper and try to reconstruct her ideas for the opening scene.
Mutter
Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�
Rachel Hawkes
Listening exercise
Leigh McClelland
Your German friend is on the phone describing a rather tense episode of her favourite TV programme. You are struggling to hear because your dad keeps using the blender in the kitchen. Can you make sense of it all?
der/die/das | Mann / Nacht / Monster | ist sehr dunkel. |
der/die/das | Mann / Familie / Monster | steht in der Kirche. |
der/die/das | Programm / Nacht / Grund | ist nicht klar. |
der/die/das | Familie / Mann / Monster | findet einen Körper! Was?! |
der/die/das | Kopf / Monster / Hand | ist rot und blutig. |
1
2
3
4
5
Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�
Rachel Hawkes
Listening exercise
Leigh McClelland
You keep listening to your friend, and start to make notes in English to try to make sense of the story.
article | noun | notes |
| Monster / Hand / Mann | |
| Familie / Mädchen / Mann | |
| Programm / Mann / Tür | |
| Familie / Mann / Monster | |
| Nacht / Programm / Familie | |
6
7
8
9
10
Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�
Rachel Hawkes
Listening exercise
Leigh McClelland
You keep listening to your friend, and start to make notes in English to try to make sense of the story.
article | noun | notes |
| Monster / Hand / Mann | |
| Familie / Mädchen / Mann | |
| Programm / Mann / Tür | |
| Familie / Mann / Monster | |
| Nacht / Programm / Familie | |
6
7
8
9
10
die
Hand – no fingers
der
Man sees monster
die
Door is there
das
Monster comes into the church
das
Programme ends
Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�
Rachel Hawkes
Speaking exercise
Leigh McClelland
Partner A
Read each sentence out to your partner in German, but do not say out loud the word that is crossed out. You must decide which German word for ‘the’ should be used (before the noun that you will not say!). This way your partner has to listen to the word for the and work out which word you missed out. They will choose between two pictures they have in front of them. They will then write out the whole sentence in German – so give them a moment to do this.
Partner B
Listen to your partner reading out 5 sentences. For each, tick the noun that matches the word for the that your partner says. They will not read the German noun but you will be able to tell which noun is missing by the gender of the word for the. Then try to write the spelling of each whole sentence that your partner has read out.
Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�
Rachel Hawkes
Speaking exercise
Leigh McClelland
Partner A
Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�
Rachel Hawkes
Speaking exercise
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Leigh McClelland
Partner B
Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�
Rachel Hawkes
Speaking exercise
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Leigh McClelland
Partner B
Das
Mädchen
spielt
Fußball.
Die
Mutter
trinkt
Wasser.
Die
Tür
ist
offen.
Das
Monster
ist
groß.
Der
Mann
lächelt
schön.
Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�
Rachel Hawkes
Speaking exercise
Leigh McClelland
Partner B
Partner A
Now swap roles!
Now read each sentence out to your partner in German, but do not say out loud the word that is crossed out. You must decide which German word for ‘the’ should be used (before the noun that you will not say!). This way your partner has to listen to the word for the and work out which word you missed out. They will choose between two pictures they have in front of them. They will then write out the whole sentence in German – so give them a moment to do this.
Listen to your partner reading out 5 sentences. For each, tick the noun that matches the word for the that your partner says. They will not read the German noun but you will be able to tell which noun is missing by the gender of the word for the. Then try to write the spelling of each whole sentence that your partner has read out.
Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�
Rachel Hawkes
Speaking exercise
Partner B
Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�
Rachel Hawkes
Speaking exercise
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Leigh McClelland
Partner A
Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�
Rachel Hawkes
Speaking exercise
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Leigh McClelland
Partner A
Das
Buch
ist
lang.
Der
Kopf
explodiert
plötzlich.
Die
Familie
macht
Picknick.
Das
Haus
eine
Euro.
Die
Hand
ist
kalt.
nicht
ein
kostet
Million
Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�
Rachel Hawkes
Writing exercise
Leigh McClelland
Write sentences in German based on these words. You may add other words. �Choose the words for the carefully.
Der Mann trinkt Wasser.
Die Nacht ist lang und dunkel.
Das Mädchen spielt Fußball (mit einem Freund).
Das Haus ist klein/groß/neu/offen/schön.
Der Junge liest ein Buch.
Die Mutter spielt Tennis.
Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�
Rachel Hawkes