German translation: free time

A. Starter

Match these time phrases by writing the letters in the grid below.
1= 2= 3= 4= 5= 6= 7= 8= 9= 10 = 11 = 12 =

German English
1. gestern a. in the summer
2. vorgestern b. in the year 2005
3. letzte Woche c. on Saturday
4. am Wochenende d. as a child
5. am Samstag e. on Monday
6. als Kind f. at the weekend
7. am Montag g. last week
8. letztes Jahr h. last year
9. im Jahr 2005 i. yesterday
10. im Sommer j. the day before yesterday

B. Translation warm-up

Translate these perfect tense (past) sentences, using the first letter of each German
word in brackets to help you.

1. As a child I played tennis. (A. K. h. i. T. g.)

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2. Yesterday I visited some chatrooms. (G. h. i. e. C. b.)

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3. On Saturday I surfed the internet. (A. S. h. i. i. I. g.)

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4. At the weekend I played my trumpet. (A. W. h. i. m. T. g.)

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5. The day before yesterday I watched a film. (V. h. i. e. F. g.)

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6. Last week I read a book. (L. W. h. i. e. B. g.)

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 German translation: free time
C. Translate into English (Foundation)

1. Gestern habe ich ein paar E-Mails geschickt.

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2. Am Wochenende bin ich ins Kino gegangen.
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3. Als Kind habe ich im Schulchor gesungen.
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4. Im Sommer habe ich Fußball mit meinen Freunden gespielt.
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5. Am Sonntag habe ich meine Großmutter besucht.
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D. Translate into German (Foundation)

1. The day before yesterday I played table tennis.

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2. As a child I played the piano.
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3. On Friday I visited my mum.
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4. Yesterday I read a newspaper.
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5. On Friday I sang in the choir.
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E. Checklist

1. Have you formed the perfect tense with ‘haben’ and the past participle?
2. Is your word order correct (verb as ‘second idea’)?
3. Is the past participle at the end of each sentence?
4. Check your spellings.
5. Have you remembered that all nouns need a capital letter?

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 German translation: free time
C. Translate into English (Higher)

Ich bin sehr musikalisch. Als Kind habe ich im Chor gesungen und ich habe Klarinette

gespielt. Ich habe auch Geige gespielt. Jetzt spiele ich kein Instrument aber gestern

habe ich Musik gehört und ich habe Videoclips gesehen. Ich habe auch neue Lieder

heruntergeladen.

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D. Translate into German (Higher)

I love sport and yesterday I played tennis. I won! The day before yesterday I played

table tennis and golf. At the weekend I played computer games and I also played on my

phone. My phone is really important to me.

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E. Checklist

1. Have you used the correct tense?

2. Is your word order correct (verb as ‘second idea’)?
3. Is the past participle at the end of each sentence?
4. Check your spellings.
5. Have you remembered that all nouns need a capital letter?

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 German translation: free time
Teaching notes

This resource is designed to develop translation skills with a focus on grammatical accuracy and contains
similar tasks to the new GCSE exam questions for all boards. The resource is differentiated: all students
complete the tasks on p.1 and then you can give Foundation students p.2 while Higher students move
straight onto p.3.
Translations below are suggestions only – there may be other possible correct translations. By using the
mark scheme suggested below, students can track their progress as they practise their translation skills
using our other similar worksheets on different topics.
For Foundation translations (individual sentences), allow two marks per sentence: one for communicating
the key message and one for grammatical accuracy, giving a total out of 10.
For Higher translations (short paragraphs), the answers are broken into six sections. Each section can be
given one mark for communication and one mark for grammatical accuracy, to give a total out of 12.

Answers

A. Starter

1=i 2=j 3=g 4=f 5=c 6=d 7=e 8=h 9=b 10 = a

B. Translation warm-up

1. Als Kind habe ich Tennis gespielt.

2. Gestern habe ich einige Chatrooms besucht.
3. Am Samstag habe ich im Internet gesurft.
4. Am Wochenede habe ich meine Trompete gespielt.
5. Vorgestern habe ich einen Film gesehen.
6. Letzte Woche habe ich ein Buch gelesen.

C. Foundation translation into English

1. Yesterday I sent a few emails.

2. At the weekend I went to the cinema.
3. As a child I sang in the school choir.
4. In the summer I played football with my friends.
5. On Sunday I visited my grandmother.

D. Foundation translation into German

1. Vorgestern habe ich Tischtennis gespielt.

2. Als Kind habe ich Klavier gespielt.
3. Am Freitag habe ich meine Mutter besucht.
4. Gestern habe ich eine Zeitung gelesen.
5. Am Freitag habe ich im Chor gesungen.
OR

C. Higher translation into English

I am very musical. / As a child I sang in the choir and I also played the clarinet. / I also played the violin.
/ Now I do not (don’t) play an instrument / but yesterday I listened to music and I watched video clips. / I
also (in addition) downloaded some new songs.

D. Higher translation into German

Ich liebe Sport und gestern habe ich Tennis gespielt. / Ich habe gewonnen. / Vorgestern habe ich
Tischtennis und Golf gepielt. / Am Wochenende habe ich Computerspiele gemacht (gespielt) / und ich
habe auch (auch habe ich) auf meinem Handy gespielt. / Mein Handy ist mir wirklich wichtig.

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