GCSE German: Asking questions

Secondary Resources > Grammar and Vocabulary

In this episode Heidi shows Tina and Malik her favourite plant shop in Frankfurt and teaches them how to ask questions using the question words wer, was, wo, wann and wie.

Malik and Tina vlog inside the plant shop and practice asking questions.

This short film is from the BBC Teach series German Grammar and Vocabulary.

Teacher Notes

Before you watch the episode

This episode concentrates on the use of question words, so some useful prior revisiting could include questions with the simple inversion of verb and subject and no question word, eg;

• Du liest Bücher. Liest du Bücher?
• Er hat einen Bruder… Hat er einen Bruder/hat er Geschwister?

Revision on any known/frequently used questions in areas taught so far could also be recapped with work on identifying the question formation when a question word is added:

• Wie alt bist du?
• Wo wohnst du?
• Was machst du?

Additional games/challenges either before or after the episode could include giving statements/answers and asking students to formulate the questions.

During watching the episode

The episode is set in a specific location, but demonstrates the power of being able to ask simple questions in whatever location, with the key question words enabling core vocabulary to be practised. Students could be encouraged to predict or recall the questions (with verb prompts if required), or identify alternative questions for the setting e.g. Wie heißt diese Pflanze? Wie findest du diese Blume(n)?

After watching the episode

In addition to recapping the standard subject-verb inversion for questions without question words, the following activities could be developed:

The “w” question word prompts can then be used for a range of different scenarios, for example in different shops, locations or situations to practise both high frequency vocabulary and verbs.

Additional question words can be used (both before, during and after the episode including warum?

As a further challenge, individual vocabulary items with question marks can be used as prompts to encourage students to identify potential questions - essential practice for standard conversation scenarios and role plays. Here the range of question words could also be extended to include; warum, wie viel? wie viele? was für? welch(-er/e/es) (with appropriate endings).

Encouraging students to use the ‘w’ questions as a framework to stimulate more extensive speaking and writing narratives.

Translation practice - from English to German - avoiding the translation of ‘do/does’ used in English question formation.

Key vocabulary used in the episode:

More German grammar and vocabulary