NCEA L1 German key terms

Words or phrases used when meeting someone, such as Guten Tag or Hallo. In the listening and speaking tasks you must recognise and produce these greetings and choose the one that matches the time of day or formality.

The form of address used for a person, either du for friends and family or Sie for adults and strangers. Getting this wrong in a speaking or writing task changes the level of politeness and can lose marks.

To say who you are, giving your name, age, where you live and often your hobbies. This is a standard opening task in the speaking assessment and appears in short listening and reading texts about new classmates.

The place where someone lives, given with a preposition such as in or bei. You need it to answer questions about where a speaker comes from and to describe your own home town in writing.

Parents, siblings and other relatives. Reading and listening passages often give a family tree or describe household members, and you may be asked who is older, married or still at school.

Brothers and sisters of the same parents. Texts frequently specify how many siblings a person has and whether they are older or younger, so you must read the number and comparative forms correctly.

Whether a person is single, married, divorced or widowed, expressed with words like ledig, verheiratet or geschieden. Forms and short profiles in reading tasks often include this detail and questions check that you understood it.

The time of day, said either in the formal twenty-four-hour style or with the everyday half past and quarter past pattern. Listening tasks about timetables and appointments depend on hearing these numbers accurately.

An arranged appointment with a fixed day and time, for example at the doctor or the dentist. Listening texts often involve changing or confirming one, and the question asks when the new appointment is.

One of the seven days of the week, from Montag to Sonntag. These appear constantly in timetables, opening hours and invitations, and you must match the day named in the recording to the correct option.

The hours a shop, office or swimming pool is open, usually printed as a list by weekday. Reading tasks ask you to work out whether you can visit at a given moment, so watch for closed days and lunch breaks.

The number words needed for prices, ages, times and quantities. German numbers above twenty are said with the unit before the ten, which makes listening for prices and phone numbers a specific skill to practise.

How much something costs, given in euros and cents. In listening and reading tasks about shopping you often compare two prices or check whether a discount applies, so listen for words like Euro, Cent and kostet.

A shop or place of business where goods are sold. Short dialogues set in shops test vocabulary for asking for an item, asking the price and paying, and reading tasks may show a simple advertisement.

A means of transport such as bus, train, tram or bicycle. Listening tasks about getting to school or planning a trip ask which one is used, and reading tasks test understanding of a timetable or ticket.

A printed or online list of departure and arrival times for buses or trains. You must read across a row to match a destination with a platform and time, which is a common reading task format.

The ticket that allows you to travel on public transport. Dialogues at a counter or machine test phrases for asking for a single or return ticket and for the destination.

Directions given to help someone find a place, using phrases like links abbiegen or geradeaus gehen. Listening tasks ask you to follow a short route and decide where the speaker ends up.

A town or city, and the setting for most places named in the exam such as the station, the library or the market. Describing your town is also a common topic in speaking and writing tasks.

Time free from school or work, spent on hobbies and sport. This is one of the most frequent topics in all four domains, so you need vocabulary for activities and for saying how often you do them.

An activity someone does for pleasure, such as reading, gaming or playing an instrument. Questions ask which hobby a speaker has or when they do it, and you should be able to name several in a speaking task.

Physical activity done for fitness or competition, including team games and individual training. Listening texts mention clubs, training days and results, and you must pick out the sport and the day it takes place.

A club that people join for a shared activity, especially sport or music. Texts often mention joining a club, its meeting day and its fee, and questions check these details.

The place where pupils are taught, together with the subjects and timetable that belong to it. School life is a core topic in reading and listening texts and in writing about your own week.

A subject taught at school, such as Mathe, Deutsch or Biologie. You need to recognise subject names in timetables and to say which ones you like or find difficult in speaking and writing.

The weekly grid showing which subject is taught in each period. Reading tasks ask you to locate a subject on a particular day or time, so scan the row and column headings before reading the entries.

What someone thinks about a topic, introduced with phrases like ich finde or meiner Meinung nach. Both reading and listening tasks ask you to identify a speaker's view, and speaking tasks require you to give reasons.

The reason given to support an opinion, usually introduced by weil or denn. In speaking and writing you gain marks for adding a reason, and in listening you may need to identify why a speaker prefers something.

A statement that sets two things side by side, using forms like größer als or lieber als. Tasks often ask which of two options a speaker prefers, so you must hear the comparative ending and the word als.

A describing word such as groß, billig or interessant. In German it takes endings before a noun and has comparative forms, so you must recognise both the base and the inflected shape in texts.

A joining word such as und, aber, weil or dass that links clauses. Knowing which conjunctions send the verb to the end helps you follow longer sentences in reading and build accurate ones in writing.

The order of words in a sentence, especially the rule that the verb comes second in a main clause and last after weil or dass. Errors here are among the most visible in writing and are worth checking before you submit.

The action or state word in a sentence, which changes form for person and tense. You must conjugate regular, irregular and modal verbs correctly in writing and recognise their spoken forms in listening.

The past tense used mainly in speech, formed with haben or sein plus a past participle. Listening texts about what someone did at the weekend rely on it, and writing tasks expect you to use it accurately.

The form of a verb used with haben or sein to make the perfect tense, such as gemacht or gefahren. You need to recognise regular and irregular participles and place them at the end of the clause.

A printed or online page with blank fields to be filled in with personal details. Reading tasks may show one and ask you to find a specific entry, and writing tasks may ask you to complete one correctly.

A short written message sent electronically, often used as the writing task prompt. You must open and close appropriately, answer each bullet point and keep the register consistent with the person addressed.

How words are spoken, including sounds such as ü, ö and the ich sound. Clear pronunciation matters in the speaking assessment, and recognising these sounds is equally important when listening to recordings.

The stress placed on a syllable or word in speech, which in German often falls on the first syllable of a word but shifts in words borrowed from other languages. Correct stress makes your speaking easier to follow.