Schreiben - Writing
Schreiben asks you to produce connected German on a familiar topic: an informal letter or e-mail to a friend, a short dialogue, a picture description, or a paragraph of about 50–80 words on a given situation. Control of the structures you have learnt scores higher than ambitious vocabulary.
Formats and their conventions
- Informal letter: place and date top right (Mumbai, 12. März), salutation Liebe Nina, or Lieber Paul,, closing Viele Grüße or Bis bald plus your name. Always du, never Sie.
- E-mail: same register; a short subject line helps but is optional.
- Dialogue: one turn per line, speaker's name, a question in each turn where the prompt asks for one.
- Picture description: Auf dem Bild sehe ich …, then who, where, what they are doing, then one line of comment.
Planning in three minutes
Underline every bullet point in the prompt and number it; give each one two sentences. Fix the tense: perfect for what happened (Wir haben Tiere gesehen), present for description, möchte/wollen for plans.
Worked example
Prompt: Schreibe deiner Freundin Nina über den Ausflug in den Zoo: was ihr gesehen habt, was dir gefallen hat, was ihr gegessen habt. Model: Liebe Nina, wie geht es dir? Am Samstag waren wir mit der Klasse im Zoo. Wir haben Elefanten und Affen gesehen. Am besten hat mir der Elefant gefallen. Danach haben wir Pommes gegessen. Reasoning: greeting in the present; waren and haben … gesehen for past events; mit der Klasse takes the dative after mit; hat … gefallen is the fixed dative pattern for liking. Three bullets, three answers - full content marks.
Traps that cost marks
- Skipping one bullet: content marks are lost even if the German is flawless.
- Breaking verb-second after a fronted phrase (Am Samstag wir waren …).
- Wrong auxiliary in the perfect: ich habe nach Pune gefahren instead of bin.
- Mixing du and Sie in the same letter.
- No salutation or closing, or the formal Mit freundlichen Grüßen to a friend.