Cantabria PAU German II cheat sheet

Typical Cantabria PAU German texts: 300–450 words, often a press or magazine article on Alltag, Umwelt, Medien, Jugend or deutsch-spanische Beziehungen; questions usually mix true/false with justification and short open answers.

True/false with justification rule: the justification must be a literal quotation or close paraphrase from the text that contains the key word; a correct verdict without textual evidence earns no marks.

Question stems in German signal the required answer type: 'Nennen Sie' wants a list of nouns, 'Erklären Sie' wants a full clause, 'Zitieren Sie' demands verbatim copying with quotation marks.

Antonym/contrast connectors (aber, jedoch, trotzdem, dennoch, im Gegenteil) usually introduce the sentence that contradicts the distractor; concession clauses (obwohl, zwar … aber) invert expectations.

Unknown-word strategy: identify the compound's head (last element carries gender and core meaning: Umweltschutz = Schutz + Umwelt) and the prefix (un-, miss-, über- modify meaning predictably).

Scanning for numbers, names, places and dates is faster than linear reading; the answer to detail questions sits in the same paragraph as the keyword, rarely across a paragraph break.

Inference questions ('Was lässt sich daraus schließen?') are answered by combining two explicit statements; an option that merely repeats one sentence verbatim is usually the distractor.

Register and stance markers (leider, glücklicherweise, angeblich, kritisch) reveal the author's opinion; PAU items often ask 'Welche Haltung nimmt die Autorin ein?'

Standard PAU formats: informal email/letter to a friend (du-Form), opinion text or comment on a statement, and short narrative; 120–180 words is the usual band, so plan 3 paragraphs: opening, two developed points, closing.

Register rule: du/ihr with first names and informal greetings (Hallo …, Liebe/Lieber …) versus Sie with titles and 'Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren'; mixing both in one text is a penalised error.

Email frame formulas: 'vielen Dank für deine E-Mail', 'es tut mir leid, dass ich mich so lange nicht gemeldet habe', 'Schreib mir bald!', 'Liebe Grüße' + name; formal: 'Mit freundlichen Grüßen'.

Opinion paragraph formula: 'Meiner Meinung nach …' + thesis, then 'Einerseits … andererseits …' or 'Zum einen … zum anderen …', then a concrete example with 'Zum Beispiel' or 'Ich habe selbst erlebt, dass …'.

Verb-second rule in main clauses: the finite verb occupies position 2, so after an initial adverbial the subject follows the verb ('Im Sommer fahre ich …'); subclauses send the finite verb to the end (weil, dass, obwohl, wenn).

Cohesion devices to score above the minimum: deshalb, außerdem, trotzdem, allerdings, dadurch, schließlich, einerseits/andererseits; vary connectors rather than repeating 'und' or 'aber'.

Word-count and task-coverage check: answer every bullet of the prompt explicitly; an unanswered prompt point costs more than a grammar slip.

Assessment criteria in PAU writing: task achievement, coherence, range and accuracy; a text with simple structures and no errors scores lower than one with subordinate clauses and minor slips.

Four-case system: nominative (subject), accusative (direct object, after durch/für/gegen/ohne/um), dative (indirect object, after aus/bei/mit/nach/seit/von/zu), genitive (possession, after wegen/trotz/während/statt).

Two-way prepositions (an, auf, in, über, unter, vor, hinter, neben, zwischen) take accusative for motion/direction with a change of location and dative for position/state: 'Ich gehe in die Schule' vs 'Ich bin in der Schule'.

Adjective endings need two facts: article type (definite, indefinite, zero) and case/number/gender; zero-article dative masculine is -em (mit gutem Wein), zero-article accusative feminine is -e (gute Musik).

Tense formation: Perfekt = haben/sein + Partizip II (sein with motion/state change and with sein, bleiben, werden); Präteritum is standard for sein, haben, Modalverben and in written narrative.

Passive: werden + Partizip II; agent with von (person), means with durch (thing); substitute with sein + Partizip II for resulting state ('Das Fenster ist geöffnet').

Konjunktiv II for hypotheticals and politeness: hätte, wäre, würde + infinitive; real conditionals use present in both clauses ('Wenn ich Zeit habe, komme ich'), unreal ones use Konjunktiv II in both.

Relative pronouns agree in gender and number with the antecedent but take their case from their function in the relative clause; prepositions in the clause fix the case.

Word formation for vocabulary items: -ung, -heit, -keit, -schaft make nouns (feminine); -bar, -los, -voll, -ig make adjectives; ver-, be-, er-, ent- change verb meaning systematically (ver- often completion or error).

Cantabria PAU listening tasks are usually played twice and combine short true/false items, multiple choice and gap-filling with numbers, times, prices or names.

Pre-listening reading time is used to underline the keyword in each item and predict its word class (number, place, activity), which tells you what to listen for.

Numbers trap: German says 'siebenundzwanzig' for 27, 'einundzwanzig Uhr dreißig' for 21:30, and prices as 'neunzehn neunzig' for 19.90; write digits immediately.

Distractors usually appear first and are corrected later with aber, eigentlich, doch nicht, stimmt nicht, or a self-repair ('also doch um acht'); the second mention is generally the valid one.

Negation and hedging carry the answer in opinion items: nicht, kein, kaum, eher nicht, ich bezweifle, dass …; a positive keyword inside a negated sentence is a false-friend answer.

Dates and days: 'am dritten Mai' = 3 May; 'übermorgen', 'vorgestern', 'nächste Woche', 'Ende des Monats' require anchoring to a stated reference day.

Note-taking shorthand: record only content words and symbols (→, +, −, ?), never full sentences; writing during playback costs the following utterance.

Telephone and announcement formulas give structure: 'Guten Tag, hier spricht …', 'Ich rufe an wegen …', 'Könnten Sie mir sagen, …', 'Vielen Dank für Ihren Anruf' mark the request and the outcome.

Direction matters: German→Spanish demands a natural Spanish sentence (no calques), Spanish→German demands correct case, verb position and gender; word-for-word transfer is penalised in both.

Spanish 'tener' + noun maps to German 'haben' or to 'es gibt'/'es ist' constructions: 'tener hambre' = Hunger haben, 'hay que' = man muss; avoid literal 'es hat'.

Spanish impersonal 'se' has no single German equivalent: use man + verb, passive with werden, or a reflexive verb depending on the sentence.

German separable prefixes split in main clauses (aufstehen → ich stehe um sieben auf) and stay attached in infinitive and subclause (…, weil ich um sieben aufstehen muss).

Spanish 'estar + gerund' corresponds to German present tense or 'gerade + verb', not to a progressive form; German has no continuous tense.

Modal particles (doch, mal, ja, eben, halt) carry tone rather than content; in translation render the function (emphasis, softening, shared knowledge) rather than a literal word.

Mediation tasks (Sprachmittlung) ask you to relay content for a third person: keep the informative core (who, what, when, where, how much), drop decorative detail, and do not add facts absent from the source.

False friends to check before writing: German 'bekommen' = receive (not become), 'Gift' = poison, 'eventuell' = possibly, 'Konzept' ≠ concept in every context, 'Fabrik' = factory.

Three official standard varieties: Bundesdeutsch (Germany), österreichisches Deutsch (Austria) and Schweizer Hochdeutsch (Switzerland); Austrian vocabulary differs (Erdapfel, Paradeiser, Jause, Matura, Sessel).

Country names and articles: die Schweiz, die Türkei, der Iran, die USA (plural); most countries are articleless (Deutschland, Österreich, Frankreich) and take 'nach' for direction.

Political system of Germany: Bundestag (elected, Berlin), Bundesrat (Länder chamber), Bundeskanzler as head of government, Bundespräsident as head of state with mainly representative powers.

Austria is a federal republic of nine Bundesländer with capital Vienna; Switzerland is a confederation (Eidgenossenschaft) of 26 cantons with four official languages: Deutsch, Französisch, Italienisch, Rätoromanisch.

German school system: Grundschule (primary), then tracked secondary routes (Gymnasium → Abitur, Realschule, Hauptschule) plus the dual system of Berufsausbildung for vocational training.

Social conventions: duzen among friends, students and peers; siezen with strangers, officials and superiors; 'Sie' is capitalised in letters; small talk topics avoid salary and personal income.

German-language media and institutions useful in texts: ARD/ZDF, Deutsche Welle, Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Goethe-Institut; in Austria ORF, in Switzerland SRF.

Calendar and customs: Advent and Weihnachtsmarkt in December, Karneval/Fasching before Lent, Erntedank, Tag der Deutschen Einheit on 3 October, Nationalfeiertag in Austria on 26 October.