Making Plans: Grammar & Phonics (AQA GCSE German): Revision Note

• To make plans in German, you need to be able to use modal verbs to say what you can, want or have to do, and to give and understand times

• You have already met modal verbs in the topics 'Relationships' and 'Healthy Lifestyles' but this section gives you a focused recap in the context of making plans, and introduces the imperfect of modal verbs

Modal verbs

• Modal verbs are used to say what you can, want, need or have to do

• They are always followed by a second verb in the infinitive, which goes to the end of the sentence

• The five most useful modal verbs for making plans are können (can), wollen (to want to), müssen (to have to), möchten (would like to) and dürfen (allowed to):

Notice how the infinitive always goes to the end of the sentence:

• Ich kann am Samstag ins Kino gehen. I can go to the cinema on Saturday.

• Ich will dich morgen treffen. I want to meet you tomorrow.

• Ich muss um acht Uhr nach Hause kommen. I have to come home at eight o'clock.

• Ich möchte am Wochenende ausgehen. I would like to go out at the weekend.

• Ich darf mit meinen Freunden in den Park gehen. I am allowed to go to the park with my friends.

This also applies in negative sentences and questions:

• Ich kann leider nicht kommen. Unfortunately I can't come.

• Kannst du am Freitag ausgehen? Can you go out on Friday?

Giving times

• To answer the question Wann? (When?) or Um wie viel Uhr? (At what time?), use um + a time + Uhr

• The 24-hour clock is common in German, so you will often encounter times such as 20 Uhr rather than 8pm

• You can combine times with days and modal verbs to make natural, fluent sentences about plans:

  • Ich möchte am Samstag um halb acht ins Restaurant gehen.
    I would like to go to the restaurant on Saturday at half past seven.

  • Kannst du am Donnerstag um siebzehn Uhr kommen?
    Can you come on Thursday at five o'clock?

A conversation to make plans might look something like this:

Here's another conversation, but this time the invitation isn't accepted:

Imperfect of modal verbs

• You also need to be able to use modal verbs in the imperfect tense (also called the simple past) to talk about what you could, wanted to or had to do in the past

• The three most useful for this topic are können, wollen and müssen:

• The same word order rule applies - the infinitive goes to the end of the sentence:

  • Ich konnte leider nicht kommen.
    Unfortunately I couldn't come.

  • Ich wollte ins Kino gehen, aber ich musste zu Hause bleiben.
    I wanted to go to the cinema, but I had to stay at home.

  • Er konnte nicht kommen.
    He couldn't come.

Making plans: phonics

• The ö sound has no direct equivalent in English

• To make it, round your lips as if to say o, then try to say e instead
  können
  möchten
  mögen