Language and vocabulary in use (Sprachmittlung / Wortschatz und Grammatik)
What this domain tests
This section combines Sprachmittlung (mediation) with Wortschatz und Grammatik in use. Mediation asks you to relay information from a German text into English (or from English into German) for a real addressee, so the focus is successful communication, not literal translation. Vocabulary and grammar are tested in context: gap-fill, word formation, sentence transformation, error correction and short production. You need both range (the right word, a varied structure) and control (tense, agreement, word order, register).
Core rules
- For mediation, identify four things before writing: who is speaking, who will read or listen, what function the message has (request, warning, invitation, information) and which details matter (names, times, prices, conditions).
- Paraphrase chunks, not single words. If you do not know a word, describe it or use a simpler synonym.
- Keep the register: informal for a friend, neutral-polite for an office, formal for a letter of complaint.
- In grammar tasks, read the whole sentence first. The correct tense often depends on a time marker or a second clause.
- Check subject–verb agreement, irregular plurals, word order after connectors, and the difference between since/for, used to/would, make/do.
Worked example
German source: „Bitte beachten Sie, dass die Anmeldung bis Freitag erfolgen muss.“ Task: Relay this to your English exchange partner in an informal email. Weak rendering: ‘Please pay attention that the registration has to occur until Friday.’ Reasoning: This is too literal. Beachten Sie is a polite instruction, not ‘pay attention’; erfolgen is empty in English; bis Freitag means ‘by Friday’, not ‘until Friday’. A better version is: ‘Just a quick reminder - you need to sign up by Friday.’ The function (reminder), addressee (partner), register (informal) and key detail (deadline) are all preserved.
Traps
- False friends: bekommen → get, not become; aktuell → current, not actual; eventuell → possibly, not eventually.
- Translating every word and losing the purpose.
- Mixing formal and informal address in one text.
- Using the present perfect where the simple past is required, or forgetting the -s in third-person singular.
- In word formation, ignoring the part of speech required by the gap (noun, adjective, adverb).