All About Me: Grammar & Phonics (AQA GCSE German): Revision Note

Summary

• Introducing yourself in German requires two key verbs: sein (to be) and haben (to have)

• In the first person, these are ich bin (I am) and ich habe (I have)

• Adjectives are used to describe yourself and their form depends on where they appear in the sentence

Verbs

• Use the verbs sein and haben to describe yourself

• Use ich bin to give your name, age, physical appearance and personal qualities

• Use ich habe to describe physical features

Adjectives

• Adjectives that follow ich bin stay in their base form and take no ending: ich bin nett (I am nice), not ich bin nette; ich bin klein (I am small), not ich bin kleine

• Adjectives that come directly before a noun must take an ending. For hair and eyes, both nouns are plural in German (Haare, Augen), and the adjective ending is always -e

All about me: phonics

• ß always follows a long vowel sound or diphthong
  heiße
  groß

• the vowel combination ei is always pronounced like the English word 'eye'. Don't confuse it with ie
  heiße
  weiß
  klein

• soft -ch sound
  ich
  nicht
  freundlich

• a final -e is always pronounced as a soft -uh sound (like the a in sofa). It is never silent as it often is in English
  Jahre
  Haare
  Name