At the Doctor's: Grammar & Phonics (AQA GCSE German): Revision Note

To talk about health and illness in German, you need to be able to use reflexive verbs both in the present tense and in the past tense. Higher-tier students also need to use the imperative to give health advice and seit + present tense to say how long a condition has been going on.

Reflexive verbs

• Reflexive verbs are verbs where the action refers back to the subject - in other words, you are doing something to yourself

• In German, they are identified by the pronoun sich in the infinitive, e.g. sich fühlen - to feel

• These reflexive verbs are especially useful for this topic:

  • sich fühlen - to feel

  • sich verletzen - to injure oneself

Accusative reflexive pronouns

• Accusative reflexive pronouns change depending on the subject of the sentence

• Here is sich fühlen as an example:

• The reflexive pronoun comes directly after the verb in a main clause, and after the subject in a question:

  • ich fühle mich krank

  • Fühlt er sich besser?

Reflexive verbs in the perfect tense

• To describe how you felt or how you injured yourself in the past, use the perfect tense

• All reflexive verbs in this topic take haben as the auxiliary

• The reflexive pronoun stays in the same position, directly after haben:

• In the perfect tense, haben is in second position and the past participle goes to the end of the clause:

  • Ich habe mich drei Tage lang krank gefühlt. I felt ill for three days.

Dative reflexive pronouns

Higher tier only

• At Higher tier, you also need to use dative reflexive pronouns

• If a reflexive verb has a direct object (a body part), the reflexive pronoun becomes dative, not accusative

• It appears when you mention a specific body part in the same sentence, for example: Ich habe mir den Arm gebrochen - I have broken my arm

• Think of it this way: the body part (den Arm) is already the main object of the sentence, so the reflexive pronoun takes a different form to show it plays a different role

• The only forms that change between accusative and dative are ich and du:

• For all persons except ich and du, the accusative and dative reflexive pronoun are identical: sich

• The dative reflexive pronoun is used when there is also a direct object (the body part) in the sentence:

The imperative

Higher tier only

• The imperative is used to give an instruction or order

• In a health context, it is useful for giving advice, for example, a doctor telling a patient what to do

• There are two forms relevant here: the informal singular (du) and the formal (Sie)

• This is how you form the imperative:

• If a verb changes its vowel in the du present tense (e.g. nehmen → du nimmst), this vowel change carries into the du imperative: Nimm das Medikament! Take the medication!

• This does not apply to the ihr or Sie forms

• Sein has an irregular imperative form:

• Here are a few example sentences using the imperative in a health context:

  • Ruh dich aus! Rest! (informal)

  • Nimm die Medikamente regelmäßig! Take the medication regularly! (informal)

  • Trinken Sie viel Wasser und bleiben Sie zu Hause! Drink lots of water and stay at home! (formal)

  • Seien Sie geduldig - es wird besser! Be patient - it will get better! (formal)

Seit + present tense

Higher tier only

• In German, use seit (since / for) with the present tense to describe a situation that started in the past and is still ongoing

• This is different from English, which uses the perfect tense in the same situation

• The key rule is that if the situation is still ongoing now, use seit + present tense in German

• Only use the perfect tense if the situation has finished

• Compare: Ich fühle mich seit zwei Tagen krank (still ill now) vs. Ich habe mich krank gefühlt (no longer ill)

• Here are a few example sentences using seit + present tense:

  • Ich habe seit zwei Tagen Bauchschmerzen. I have had stomach ache for two days

  • Meine Mutter fühlt sich seit letzter Woche nicht gut. My mother has not been feeling well since last week

  • Er schläft seit dem Unfall sehr schlecht. He has been sleeping very badly since the accident

At the Doctor's: phonics

• The letter z is never pronounced like the English 'z' sound (as in "zoo"). It is always pronounced as a sharp 'ts' sound, like the end of the English word "cats" or "bits"

Arzt
Herz
Schmerzen
Medizin

• The hard -ch occurs after the vowels a, o, u and the diphthong au

Bauch
schwach
rauchen
gebrochen
untersuchen