Valencian Community PAU German II cheat sheet

PAU German texts are usually 350–450 words; tasks combine multiple-choice, true/false with justification, and short-answer questions in German or Valencian/Spanish depending on the option chosen.

True/false justification rule: a bare 'wahr/falsch' earns no marks; the mark comes from quoting or closely paraphrasing the exact line of the text that proves the answer.

Signal words for contrast (aber, jedoch, allerdings, dennoch, trotzdem) usually mark the sentence that carries the answer to an inference question.

For 'Was bedeutet...?' vocabulary items, always answer with a German synonym or German paraphrase, never by translating into Spanish or Valencian.

Scanning order: read the questions first, underline the key noun or number in each, then locate the matching paragraph rather than reading word by word.

Beware of distractors built from words copied verbatim from the text but attached to a false statement; the correct option is normally a paraphrase.

Numbers, dates, percentages and names are the highest-yield anchors for locating an answer quickly in a long text.

For title/author-intention questions, check the last paragraph: German journalistic texts typically restate the thesis in the final two sentences.

Standard PAU writing task: 120–150 words, one topic chosen from two options, usually an opinion, a letter/email, or a narrative based on a prompt.

Register rule: 'du' for friends, family and peers; 'Sie' for officials, companies, teachers and unknown adults - mixing them within one text is penalised.

Email frame: Anrede (Liebe/Lieber … or Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,) + comma, lowercase start of the next line, closing (Viele Grüße / Mit freundlichen Grüßen) + name.

Opinion structure worth 4 paragraphs: Einleitung with the topic, two arguments each with a justification or example, Schluss with a restated position.

Connectors that raise the band: einerseits … andererseits, außerdem, deshalb, obwohl, während, zum Beispiel, zusammenfassend.

Verb-second rule in main clauses, verb-final in subordinate clauses (weil, dass, obwohl, wenn), and verb-first after an initial adverbial - check every sentence for position 2.

Assessment criteria are typically task completion, coherence, grammatical accuracy and lexical range; a short text below the word count loses task-completion marks regardless of accuracy.

Avoid Spanish calques: 'realisieren' is not 'darse cuenta' (use 'sich bewusst sein / merken'), 'bekommen' is not 'tener' (use 'haben').

Four-case system: Nominativ (subject), Akkusativ (direct object; after durch, für, gegen, ohne, um), Dativ (indirect object; after aus, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu), Genitiv (possession; after wegen, trotz, während, statt).

Two-way prepositions (an, auf, in, über, unter, vor, hinter, neben, zwischen) take Akkusativ for motion/direction and Dativ for position/state.

Adjective endings: after der/die/das → -e or -en; after ein/eine → mixed pattern; with no article → strong endings (-er, -es, -e, -en).

Tenses: Perfekt with haben for most verbs, with sein for motion/state change (gehen, fahren, kommen, werden, bleiben) and for sein/werden/bleiben; Präteritum dominates in written narrative with modal verbs, haben and sein.

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

Konjunktiv II for hypotheticals and politeness: hätte, wäre, würde + infinitive; real conditions use Präsens in both clauses (Wenn ich Zeit habe, komme ich).

Word formation: -ung, -heit, -keit, -schaft make nouns feminine; -er agent nouns masculine; ver-, be-, er- often change valency or add completion meaning.

Separable verbs split in main clauses (Ich stehe um 7 Uhr auf) but stay together in subordinate clauses and with modal verbs (…, weil ich um 7 Uhr aufstehe).

Typical formats: short monologues or dialogues played twice, with multiple-choice, true/false, or gap-fill answers in German.

Before the first listening, read the items and predict the answer type (number, place, name, reason) so the second listening confirms rather than discovers.

Numbers trap: German says 'einundzwanzig' (21) and 'zweiundvierzig' (42) with units before tens; prices are often said as 'drei neunzig' for 3,90.

Umlauts and ß change meaning: schon/schön, Stadt/Staat, Masse/Maße, fühlen/füllen - write what you hear, then check plausibility.

Negation and hedging (nicht, kein, kaum, eigentlich nicht, eher nicht) usually decide the answer in opinion-type items.

Dates use 'am' + ordinal + 'en' (am dritten Mai); times use 'um' + clock time (um halb acht = 7:30, um Viertel vor acht = 7:45).

Discourse markers (also, nun, übrigens, allerdings, im Gegenteil) introduce corrections or contrast, so the last statement by a speaker usually overrides the first.

If a word is missed, keep the place in the item sequence and continue; the answer is almost never recovered by stopping to reconstruct the previous sentence.

Mediation task rule: convey the relevant information in the target language for a stated reader; do not translate word for word, and do not add information absent from the source.

Change of register is expected when the addressee differs: a formal German notice becomes an informal 'du' message to a friend, keeping only the facts needed.

Reported speech uses Konjunktiv I in formal German (Er sagte, er habe keine Zeit); Konjunktiv II substitutes when Konjunktiv I is identical to the indicative (sie haben → sie hätten).

Spanish 'tener que' maps to müssen or haben zu; 'hay que' maps to man muss / es ist nötig, not to a literal 'es hat'.

'Se' passive and impersonal 'se' have no German equivalent: rewrite with man + active verb or with the werden-passive.

Cognate traps for Spanish speakers: Gymnasium (academic secondary school, not gym), Note (school mark), Lehrer/Lehre (teacher/apprenticeship), sensibel vs. sensible.

Language-awareness items ask about function, not translation: identify whether a modal particle (doch, mal, ja, eben) signals emphasis, softening, or shared knowledge.

Text-type conventions differ: German formal letters use 'Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren' with a comma and lowercase continuation; Spanish-style colon after the greeting is incorrect.

DACH covers Germany, Austria and Switzerland; Switzerland has four national languages (German, French, Italian, Romansh), with German spoken in the north and centre.

German school system: Grundschule (primary, usually years 1–4), then tracked secondary - Gymnasium leads to Abitur, which is the university entrance qualification.

Austria's school-leaving certificate is the Matura (also Matura/Abitur-equivalent in Switzerland); Germany's is the Abitur.

Political system of Germany: parliamentary democracy, Bundestag elected every four years, Bundesrat represents the Länder, federal president has a mainly representative role.

Austria is a federal republic of nine Bundesländer; Switzerland is a confederation of 26 cantons with direct democracy through Volksabstimmungen and initiatives.

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

Environmental culture: Mülltrennung (separating glass, paper, packaging, organic waste) is legally regulated and expected in households.

Everyday conventions: shops are closed on Sundays, punctuality is treated as a mark of respect, and formal address 'Sie' plus surname is the default with strangers and officials.