Punjab PSEB Matric German cheat sheet

German is written phonemically: each letter or letter group has a stable sound, so 'a' is [a] as in 'Tag', 'ä' is [ɛː] as in 'Bär', and 'ei' is always [ai] as in 'mein'.

Long vowels are marked in spelling by a following 'h' (fahren, Uhr) or by doubling the vowel (Haar, Boot); a vowel before double consonants is short (kommen, Mutter).

'ch' is soft [ç] after e, i, ä, ö, ü and consonants (ich, Milch) but hard [x] after a, o, u, au (Buch, auch); 'sch' is always [ʃ] (Schule).

Final devoicing: b, d, g, s, v are pronounced voiceless at the end of a word or syllable - 'Tag' sounds like [taːk], 'gibt' like [giːpt], 'Haus' like [haʊs].

Umlaut changes both sound and meaning: schon/schön, Mutter/Mütter, fuhr/für; listen for the fronted vowel to identify plural or subjunctive forms.

Word stress normally falls on the first syllable of native stems (ÁRbeit, LÉhrer); inseparable prefixes be-, ge-, er-, ver-, zer-, ent- are unstressed (besÚchen, verSTÉHen).

Separable prefixes are stressed and split off in main clauses: ÁUFstehen → 'Ich stehe um sechs Uhr auf'; in subordinate clauses the prefix rejoins (…, weil ich um sechs Uhr aufstehe).

Listening tasks: read the questions first, note the key word (Wann? Wo? Wie viel?), and mark distractors - numbers, times and prices are often corrected mid-dialogue ('nicht um acht, sondern um halb neun').

Speaking tasks: use set formulas for introductions (Ich heiße …, Ich bin … Jahre alt, Ich wohne in …), requests (Könnten Sie bitte …?) and opinions (Meiner Meinung nach …, Ich finde, dass …).

Skim the text for its type and purpose first: Anzeige, E-Mail, Speisekarte, Fahrplan, Bericht - each has predictable information slots (Preis, Zeit, Ort, Kontakt).

Match the question type to the strategy: detail questions need a targeted scan for a keyword; global questions (Was ist das Thema?) need the title and first/last sentences.

True/false items hinge on quantifiers and negation: alle, viele, einige, wenige, kein; a single 'nicht' or 'nur' reverses the statement.

Watch for the distractor pattern where the text mentions a word from the question but attaches it to a different person, time or condition.

Compound nouns carry their gender and meaning from the last element: der Fahrplan (der Plan), das Krankenhaus (das Haus), die Hausaufgabe (die Aufgabe).

Separable verbs in the present tense appear split in the clause, so search the sentence end for the prefix: 'Der Kurs fängt um neun Uhr an' = anfangen.

Infinitive constructions at the end signal meaning: 'Ich habe vor, … zu …' (intention), 'um … zu …' (purpose), 'ohne … zu …' (without doing).

Recognise the perfect tense frame: haben/sein in position 2 plus the past participle at the end (Ich habe den Film gesehen; Sie ist nach Delhi gefahren).

For gap-fill reading, decide the missing word's part of speech from the gap's position (article before noun, preposition before case, conjunction at clause start) before checking options.

Main clause word order: the finite verb stands in position 2 - 'Am Montag fahre ich nach Delhi'; if a clause starts with an adverb, subject and verb invert.

Subordinate clauses with weil, dass, wenn, obwohl, als send the finite verb to the end: 'Ich bleibe zu Hause, weil ich krank bin.'

Yes/no questions put the finite verb first (Kommst du mit?); W-questions put the question word first and the verb second (Wann kommst du?).

Four cases: nominative (subject), accusative (direct object), dative (indirect object, after aus, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu), genitive (possession).

Article endings: der/die/das (nom.), den/die/das (acc.), dem/der/dem (dat.); ein/eine/ein, einen/eine/ein, einem/einer/einem.

Personal pronouns in the accusative: mich, dich, ihn, sie, es, uns, euch, sie; in the dative: mir, dir, ihm, ihr, ihm, uns, euch, ihnen.

Perfect tense uses haben with most verbs but sein with movement/change-of-state verbs (gehen, fahren, kommen, werden, bleiben) and with sein itself.

Past participle: regular verbs ge- + stem + -t (gemacht, gespielt); strong verbs ge- + changed stem + -en (gesehen, gegessen, gefahren); verbs in -ieren take no ge- (studiert).

Modal verbs (können, müssen, dürfen, sollen, wollen, mögen) take the infinitive at the end: 'Ich muss heute lernen'; the modal itself takes the personal ending, the infinitive none.

Every German noun is capitalised and carries one of three genders: der (masculine), die (feminine), das (neuter); always learn the article with the noun.

Gender is often signalled by suffix: -ung, -heit, -keit, -schaft, -in are feminine; -chen, -lein, -ment are neuter; -er, -ling, -ismus are masculine.

Days, months and seasons are masculine (der Montag, der Juli, der Sommer); most countries and cities are neuter and used without an article (Ich fahre nach Berlin).

Telling the time: official style uses 24-hour numbers (14:30 = vierzehn Uhr dreißig); colloquial style uses 'halb' meaning half TO the hour - halb acht = 7:30, and 'Viertel nach/vor'.

Numbers are said in reverse order with 'und': 21 = einundzwanzig, 47 = siebenundvierzig; years are said as hundreds - 1998 = neunzehnhundertachtundneunzig.

Everyday polite formulas: Entschuldigung (excuse me), Es tut mir leid (I'm sorry), Vielen Dank / Bitte schön, Könnten Sie mir helfen?

Prepositions of place with two-way verbs (in, an, auf, über, unter, vor, hinter, neben, zwischen) take the accusative for direction (in die Schule) and the dative for position (in der Schule).

Time prepositions: um for clock times (um acht Uhr), am for days and dates (am Montag, am 5. Mai), im for months and seasons (im Juli, im Winter), in for future periods (in einer Woche).

Common abbreviations in everyday texts: z. B. (zum Beispiel), u. a. (unter anderem), ca. (circa), usw. (und so weiter), Nr. (Nummer), Str. (Straße).