Healthy Lifestyles: Grammar & Phonics (AQA GCSE German): Revision Note

To talk about 'Healthy lifestyles', you need to know some important grammar - modal verbs, the perfect tense and adverbs of frequency. Let's look at these grammar points in more detail.

Modal verbs

Man muss viel Wasser trinken und man soll regelmäßig Sport treiben.
You have to drink lots of water and you should do sport regularly.

The modal verbs müssen, sollen and dürfen are used to say what you have to, should or are allowed to do. They are very useful for giving health advice.

• Modal verbs are followed by an infinitive, which goes to the end of the sentence

• The three most useful modal verbs for this topic are müssen (must), sollen (should) and dürfen (allowed to)

• Using man (you in general) is a useful way to give general health advice without referring to a specific person

Here are the present tense forms of müssen, sollen and dürfen:

Note how the infinitive goes to the end of the sentence:

• Man muss viel Wasser trinken. You have to drink lots of water.

• Du sollst nicht rauchen. You should not smoke.

• Man darf nicht zu viel Zucker essen. You are not allowed to eat too much sugar.

Using müssen - must

Use müssen to say what is necessary for a healthy lifestyle:

• Ich muss mehr Sport treiben. I have to do more sport.

• Wir müssen genug schlafen. We have to sleep enough.

• Man muss jeden Tag Obst und Gemüse essen. You have to eat fruit and vegetables every day.

Using sollen - should

Use sollen to give advice about what someone ought to do:

• Du sollst mehr Wasser trinken. You should drink more water.

• Er soll weniger Fastfood essen. He should eat less fast food.

• Man soll regelmäßig joggen. You should jog regularly.

Using dürfen - allowed to / are not allowed to (in the negative)

Use dürfen in the negative (darf nicht) to say what is not allowed or what you should not do. It is particularly useful for talking about unhealthy habits:

• Man darf nicht rauchen. One must not smoke.

• Du darfst nicht so viel Zucker trinken. You are not allowed to drink so much sugar.

• Sie darf keine Zigaretten kaufen. She is not allowed to buy cigarettes.

Healthy lifestyles: the perfect tense

Gestern habe ich viel Obst gegessen und bin ins Fitnessstudio gegangen.
Yesterday I ate lots of fruit and went to the gym.

The perfect tense is the main way of talking about the past. Use it to talk about what you ate, drank or did, or other past actions related to your health and lifestyle.

• The perfect tense is made up of two parts: an auxiliary verb (haben or sein) + a past participle

• The auxiliary verb changes to match the subject, just like in the present tense

• The past participle goes to the end of the sentence

• Many common verbs have irregular past participles that you need to learn

Haben or sein as an auxiliary verb

• Most verbs use haben as the auxiliary

• However, verbs that describe movement from one place to another or a change of state use sein

• Some useful verbs in this topic that take sein are gehen, laufen, schwimmen, joggen and spazieren

• Here is a reminder of the forms of haben and sein:

Key irregular past participles

• These are the most important irregular past participles you need to know for this topic

• Note that regular past participles follow the pattern ge- + stem + -t (e.g. gemacht, gekocht)

• The ones below are different and need to be learned:

Examples with haben

• Ich habe heute viel Obst gegessen. I ate lots of fruit today.

• Er hat zu viel Fastfood gegessen. He ate too much fast food.

• Wir haben Wasser getrunken. We drank water.

• Sie hat gut geschlafen.She slept well.

• Du hast gesund gekocht. You cooked healthily.

Examples with sein

• Ich bin ins Fitnessstudio gegangen. I went to the gym.

• Er ist jeden Morgen gelaufen. He ran every morning.

• Wir sind im Meer geschwommen. We swam in the sea.

• Sie ist nach der Schule gejoggt. She jogged after school.

Adverbs of frequency

Ich gehe oft ins Fitnessstudio, aber ich esse manchmal Fastfood.
I often go to the gym but I sometimes eat fast food.

• Adverbs of frequency are used to say how often you do something.

• They are useful across the whole topic to talk about how often you exercise, you eat healthily, or you engage in unhealthy habits

• Adverbs of frequency usually come directly after the verb

• They do not change their form - they always stay the same regardless of the subject

• Using a range of frequency adverbs in your writing and speaking shows variety and helps you pick up marks

Position in the sentence

In a main clause, the adverb of frequency comes after the verb:

• Ich treibe oft Sport. I often do sport.

• Er isst manchmal Fastfood. He sometimes eats fast food.

• Sie schläft immer gut. She always sleeps well.

• Wir rauchen nie. We never smoke.

• Du gehst selten ins Fitnessstudio. You rarely go to the gym.

When combined with the perfect tense, the adverb comes after the auxiliary verb:

• Ich habe oft Obst gegessen. - I often ate fruit.

• Er ist nie joggen gegangen. - He never went jogging.

• Wir haben manchmal gesund gekocht. - We sometimes cooked healthily.

Healthy Lifestyles: phonics

• The letters sch in German are always pronounced like the English sh sound in shop
  schlafen
  schwimmen
  schwach

• When sp appears at the beginning of a word or syllable in German, it is pronounced shp, not like the English sp in sport
  Sport
  sportlich
  spielen
  spazieren