Reading Practice: Comprehension and Translation into English - My Neighbourhood
In German you cannot translate as you read. The verb may be waiting at the end of the clause, the prefix may change it when it gets there, and bekommen does not mean what it looks like.
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You cannot translate as you read 📖
This module assumes the vocabulary and the grammar. What it teaches is the habit German forces on you and French does not. In German, **the important word is often at the end**. The verb of a subordinate clause waits there. A separable prefix waits there, ready to change the verb you already translated. So a left-to-right pass, which usually survives in French, will quietly ruin a German sentence. Everything below works on one short paragraph written for this module.
Where the verb goes ↔️
English keeps its verb near the subject and leaves it there. German moves it, and the move is grammatical rather than stylistic.
Four things to watch for 🗂️
Each one appears exactly once in the passage you are about to work on:
Match each phrase to its English
- weil es zu wenige Besucher gab
- kaufe ich ... ein
- bekommen wir ein Eis
- Letztes Jahr hat das Kino geschlossen
- because there were too few visitors
- I go shopping
- we get an ice cream
- last year the cinema closed
Where is the verb hiding? 🔚
An interactive activity.
Which verb is not finished? 🧩
An interactive activity.
Which translation is correct? ❓
How should "danach bekommen wir immer ein Eis" be translated?
- afterwards we always get an ice cream
- afterwards we always become an ice cream
- afterwards we sometimes get an ice cream
- afterwards we got an ice cream
Which would lose marks? ✅
Select the TWO that would cost you marks in a translation.
- Translating bekommen as "become"
- Translating kaufe as "buy" because the ein at the end was missed
- Writing "town centre" rather than "inner city"
- Putting the English verb in its normal English place rather than copying the German order
The words that look helpful 🪤
German gives an English speaker a great deal for free, which is why the handful that look free and are not do so much damage. **bekommen** is to **get** or receive. To become is **werden**. **das Gift** is **poison**. A gift is **das Geschenk**. **der Chef** is the **boss**. A chef is **der Koch**. **The check that saves you**: read your English back. "We become an ice cream" is not something anybody would write, and that is the signal to look the word up rather than trust the resemblance. A false friend is caught by the sentence around it, not by staring at the word.
Order the method 🪜
An interactive activity.
In the exam 🧭
An interactive activity.
Complete the translation 📝
I live in a small town _____ the station. There is a library and two shops, but _____ swimming pool. Last year the cinema _____ because there were too few visitors. At the weekend I _____ in the town centre with my mother, and afterwards we always _____ an ice cream.
Your turn 📄
An interactive activity.