SACE Stage 2 German (continuers) cheat sheet

Register choice: use du/ihr with friends, family and peers; use Sie with strangers, officials, teachers and most adults. Mixing them in one exchange reads as a social error.

Formal letter openings: Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, / Sehr geehrte Frau Müller, / Sehr geehrter Herr Schmidt, - closing Mit freundlichen Grüßen.

Informal letter openings: Liebe Anna, / Hallo zusammen, / Lieber Tom, - closing Liebe Grüße / Viele Grüße / Bis bald.

Politeness forms: subjunctive Konjunktiv II (Könnten Sie…?, Ich hätte eine Frage, Wäre es möglich…?) plus bitte and modal particles (doch, mal, eigentlich, ja) soften requests.

Conversation repair phrases: Wie bitte? / Entschuldigung, das habe ich nicht verstanden. / Können Sie das bitte wiederholen? / Was bedeutet …?

Agreeing and disagreeing: Da stimme ich dir zu. / Das sehe ich anders. / Einerseits … andererseits … - disagreement is usually hedged before the objection.

Duzen vs. siezen in a role-play: pick one register at the start and keep verb endings, pronouns and possessives consistent (dein/deine vs. Ihr/Ihre).

Turn-taking signals: Na ja, … / Also, … / Übrigens, … / Ach so! / Genau! - these mark openings, topic shifts and back-channelling in dialogue.

Skim for gist first (headline, first sentence of each paragraph, bolded words), then scan for named details: numbers, dates, places, names.

Recognise text types by layout cues: Anzeige (short, price/contact), Leserbrief (opinion + greeting/sign-off), Bericht (past tense, neutral), Rezension (evaluation adjectives).

Inference rule: an answer is supported only if the text states it or it follows necessarily; plausible-but-unstated options are distractors.

Negation traps: nicht/kein, nie, kaum, ohne … zu, statt … zu, weder … noch reverse the proposition - check polarity before choosing.

Connectors carry argument logic: weil/da (cause), deshalb/daher (consequence), obwohl (concession), damit (purpose), sodass (result).

Tense signals: Präteritum marks written narrative; Perfekt marks spoken or informal report; Konjunktiv II marks hypotheticals or polite requests, not facts.

Vocabulary from context: use compound structure (Umwelt+schutz, Haus+aufgabe) and separable prefixes (an-, auf-, aus-, ein-) to infer meaning.

Summary response format: state the main claim, give one or two supporting details from the text, and attribute opinion to the author (laut Text, die Autorin meint).

Text-type conventions: Bericht - past tense, third person, factual; Leserbrief - address, opinion, reasons, sign-off; E-Mail - subject line, greeting, body, closing.

Word order rules: verb second in main clauses; verb final in subordinate clauses (weil, dass, obwohl, wenn); time–manner–place order for adverbials (heute mit dem Bus zur Schule).

Perfect tense: haben with most verbs; sein with motion/state-change verbs (gehen, fahren, kommen, werden, bleiben, aufstehen).

Infinitive constructions: um … zu (purpose), ohne … zu (without doing), statt … zu (instead of), brauchen … zu + infinitive with nicht/kaum.

Connectors for cohesion: zunächst, außerdem, darüber hinaus, dennoch, trotzdem, folglich, abschließend - vary them to avoid repetition of und/aber.

Adjective endings after definite article: -e (nom. all genders, acc. fem./neut.), -en elsewhere; after ein-words: -er/-es/-e in nominative.

Formal writing checklist: consistent register, correct capitalisation of nouns, comma before aber/sondern/denn, and verb-final in every subordinate clause.

Cohesive devices: pronoun reference (er/sie/es, dieser, solcher), synonyms, and echo of key nouns to link sentences without repeating the same word.

Du/Sie shift: since the 1970s du has spread into workplaces, advertising and among younger adults; Sie remains standard with officials and in formal correspondence.

Regional greetings: Grüß Gott (southern Germany/Austria), Moin (northern Germany), Servus (Bavaria/Austria), Hallo (nationwide, informal).

Landeskunde basics: 16 Bundesländer; capital Berlin; Austria and Switzerland are separate German-speaking states with their own varieties (österreichisches Deutsch, Schweizer Hochdeutsch).

School and training: Gymnasium leads to Abitur; duale Ausbildung combines apprenticeship and vocational school; gap year is often called das FSJ or Work & Travel.

Environmental culture: Energiewende, Mülltrennung (separate bins for Papier, Plastik, Bio, Restmüll) and Pfand on bottles reflect everyday sustainability norms.

Politeness norms: pünktlichkeit, formal Sie in first contact, and direct-but-hedged disagreement (Da muss ich widersprechen, aber …) are widely expected.

Festivals and customs: Karneval/Fasching, Oktoberfest, Weihnachtsmarkt, Adventskranz, Silvester fireworks; regional differences matter more than national stereotypes.

Word formation and loanwords: German compounds and Anglicisms (Handy, Public Viewing) show language change; Swiss German avoids ß and uses ss instead.