GCSE German: School and Education Revision Guide

Key vocabulary

• die Schule — the school
• das Fach (die Fächer) — the subject(s)
• Mathe — maths
• Englisch — English
• Erdkunde — geography
• Geschichte — history
• Kunst — art
• Sport — PE
• die Pause — the break
• die Hausaufgaben — homework
• der Lehrer / die Lehrerin — the male/female teacher

Classroom objects

Common items include das Heft (exercise book), das Buch (book), der Kugelschreiber (pen), der Bleistift (pencil) and der Schulranzen (school bag).

Giving opinions on subjects

Use Ich mag... (I like...) or Ich mag ... nicht (I do not like...). To sound more advanced, use Meiner Meinung nach ist... (In my opinion,... is...) followed by an adjective such as interessant (interesting), langweilig (boring), schwer (hard) or leicht (easy). For example: Meiner Meinung nach ist Mathe schwer, aber Kunst ist leicht. (In my opinion, maths is hard, but art is easy.)

Describing your school day

You can describe your timetable using time expressions like Um acht Uhr habe ich Englisch (At eight o'clock I have English) and In der Pause esse ich einen Snack (In the break I eat a snack). Use weil (because) to give reasons: Ich mag Erdkunde, weil der Lehrer nett ist. (I like geography because the teacher is nice.)

Common mistakes

• Forgetting that "weil" sends the verb to the end of the clause.
• Mixing up "der Lehrer" (male teacher) and "die Lehrerin" (female teacher).
• Using English word order instead of German word order after opinion phrases.