Hörverstehen - Listening
The Hörverstehen section checks whether you can pull practical information out of spoken German - announcements, short dialogues, telephone calls, directions and short narratives read twice at moderate speed. Marks come from detail (numbers, times, places, names) as much as from gist, so train both.
What the tasks ask
- Richtig/falsch or multiple-choice items on a short text.
- Gap-fill with numbers, prices, times, platform numbers, days.
- Matching speakers to statements, or putting events in order.
- A short dictation, where spelling and umlauts count.
How to work
Read the items before the first playing and underline the question word (wann, wo, wie viel, wer, wohin). Predict the answer type: a time needs um, a place needs a preposition, a price needs a number. On the first listening mark only what you are sure of; use the second playing to confirm and to catch negations.
Worked example
Item: Von welchem Gleis fährt der Zug nach Hamburg? Transcript: Der Zug nach Hamburg fährt heute nicht von Gleis 9, sondern von Gleis 7 ab. Answer: Gleis 7. Reasoning: nicht … sondern cancels the first value and substitutes the second. Gleis 9 is the deliberate distractor; a candidate who stops listening after the first number writes the wrong answer.
Traps that cost marks
- Writing the first number you hear when the speaker corrects it (eigentlich, statt, doch).
- Missing kein / nicht / nie, which reverses a richtig/falsch item.
- Dropping umlauts or capital letters in a dictation (schon vs schön, fahren vs Fahren).
- Confusing um (clock time), am (day or date) and ab (departure).
- Answering in English when the item expects the German word from the text.