NSSCAS German Foreign Language 8207 key terms

Listening task in which you hear spoken German once or twice and answer questions about main ideas, specific details, or the speakers' opinions.

Skill of grasping the overall topic, purpose, or message of a spoken or written text without understanding every individual word.

Ability to find specific facts, numbers, names, or short statements in a spoken or written text when answering exam questions.

Important word in a question or text that points to where the answer is and helps you ignore unrelated information.

Reading task in which you read German texts and show understanding of content and meaning by matching, choosing, or answering questions.

Short advertisement or public notice, often in a newspaper or online; reading tasks may ask you to identify its purpose or match details.

Question-and-answer exchange in speech or writing, usually in German; exam tasks may ask about the interviewee's views, reasons, or feelings.

Short account in your own words of a German text's main points, usually without personal opinion or unnecessary examples and minor details.

Extended piece of writing on a set topic, organised into an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion for the exam.

Factual written account of an event or situation that answers what happened, when, where, who was involved, and why, usually in the past tense.

Letter written in polite, standard German to an official, company, or institution, using formal greetings, Sie-forms, and conventional closing formulas.

Personal letter to a friend or relative in German, using informal greetings, du-forms, and relaxed everyday language rather than official formulas.

Short digital message that may be formal or informal; exam tasks often require a subject line, greeting, clear content, and sign-off.

Writing or speaking task that reports the main trends, figures, and comparisons in a chart or table rather than listing every number.

Written or spoken response in German that gives your opinion on an issue and supports it with reasons and examples.

Fixed phrases and sentence starters in German used to express opinions, agree, disagree, or structure a discussion clearly and fluently.

Oral exchange in which participants give and defend opinions; exam tasks often require you to react to a partner and support your view.

Speaking task in which you act out a situation with a partner in German, using suitable phrases, register, and turn-taking.

Short structured talk on a topic, usually with an introduction, main points, and conclusion, delivered without reading a full script.

Way of pronouncing words, including individual sounds, word stress, and rhythm; clear pronunciation helps listeners understand your spoken German better.

Rising and falling pitch in speech that signals questions, emphasis, or emotion and helps make your meaning clear in German.

Ability to speak at a steady pace with few long pauses, even when you make some grammar or vocabulary mistakes.

Skill of saying what you think, using phrases such as meiner Meinung nach or ich finde, dass, and then giving support.

Grammatical case that shows a noun phrase's role in a German sentence; the four cases are nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive.

German case used for the subject of a sentence and for the complement after sein, werden, and bleiben. It answers who or what.

German case used for the direct object and after certain prepositions, including durch, für, gegen, ohne, and um. It often marks the thing acted upon.

German case used for the indirect object and after prepositions such as mit, nach, bei, seit, von, zu, and aus.

German case that shows possession or close relationship, often translated with of or an apostrophe-s, and used after wegen and während.

Changing a verb's form to match person, number, tense, and mood, as in ich gehe, du gehst, and er geht.

Changing articles, adjectives, and sometimes nouns to show case, gender, and number in German noun phrases; correct endings are essential.

Verb with a separable prefix, such as aufstehen or einkaufen, whose prefix moves to the end of a main clause.

Auxiliary verb such as können, müssen, or dürfen that changes the mood of a main verb and sends the infinitive to the end.

Subordinate clause that cannot stand alone and sends its conjugated verb to the end, often introduced by weil, dass, or wenn.

Verb form used for unreal conditions, polite requests, and advice, for example ich würde kommen or wenn ich Zeit hätte.

Voice that shifts focus from the doer to the action, formed with werden plus the past participle, as in Das Haus wird gebaut.

System of endings added to adjectives before nouns in German; the ending depends on the article, gender, case, and number.

Small word such as in, auf, mit, or für that links a noun phrase to the rest of the sentence and often controls case.

Word with a similar meaning to another word in German; useful for paraphrasing in writing and speaking without changing the sense.

Level of formality in language, such as du versus Sie or colloquial versus formal wording, chosen to fit the situation.