Video 13: Präteritum Practice & Temporal Prepositions

Source: Roughly 2 hours 25 minutes total. Approximate topic timestamp ranges (many stretches are silence/dead air or pure logistics and are skipped):

• Warm-up vocabulary roll-call and a short reading text on work/school/healthcare changes over time, used as Präteritum-spotting practice and matching-headings exercise (00:00–13:05) — logistics/attendance chatter interspersed and skipped
• Präteritum review with a reading text about a person's recovery and return to an active life (modal verbs in Präteritum: durfte, wollte) (13:05–17:00)
• Reading text 1: a woman who quit her job, saved money, and traveled to Australia — Präteritum identification and verb choice based on context clues (sich zufällig vs. planned visits) (17:00–21:30)
• Reading text 2: biography of an actress (Jella Haase-style figure) — Präteritum forms in a life-story narrative, vocabulary or "junior actress," "lead role," "well-known" (21:30–28:10)
• Reading text 3: biography of a paralympic cyclist (Kristina Vogel-style figure) — accident, paralysis, wheelchair, comeback story; Präteritum spotting; multiple meanings of Fach (28:10–39:10)
• Continuation of text 3: fighting for independence, political engagement; comprehension true/false questions (A/B/C statement matching) (39:10–58:00)
• Fill-in-the-blank exercise (Übungsbuch) using verbs from yesterday's animal-protector text (58:00–1:09:50)
• Vocabulary list dictation/review (large batch of nouns/verbs from the course book, largely rapid-fire word-meaning pairs) (1:09:50–1:35:40) — long silent/inaudible stretches skipped
• True/false comprehension check on a short biographical paragraph (realisieren, Konjunktiv aside) (1:46:00–1:48:30)
• New grammar topic: temporal (time-related) prepositions — dative prepositions (seit, nach, ab), Wechsel prepositions defaulting to dative with time (in, an, vor, bis zu), the accusative-only preposition group, the bis vs. bis zu distinction, and adjective-ending review (1:48:30–2:09:00)
• Silent practice time / end of recording (2:09:00–2:25:00) — skipped, no usable audio

Topics Covered

• Präteritum identification and recall drilled across four different biographical reading texts
• New irregular Präteritum verb forms encountered in context
• Vocabulary: accident/injury, career milestones, politics/elections, and general B1 vocab list
• New grammar: Temporal prepositions — fixed dative, fixed accusative, and Wechsel prepositions that take dative when expressing time
• bis vs. bis zu — distinguishing "up to any point" from "all the way to the end point"

Präteritum Practice: New Irregular Verbs in Context

Building on video 12's irregular verb list, this class drilled more Präteritum forms by having students spot them inside four short biographical texts. New/confirmed irregular forms that came up:

• tun → tat (er/sie/es tat) — Was kann ich für Sie tun? (What can I do for you?) → In dem Bereich der Gesundheit hat sich viel getan used the Perfekt (getan, the Partizip II of tun), reviewed alongside the Präteritum form.
• erledigen (regular/weak, erledigte) — a more advanced synonym for machen: "to complete, finish, do." Example: Ich habe meine Hausarbeit erledigt. → I've completed my homework. Marked as a good upgrade word for day-to-day use.
• kündigen → kündigte — to quit/resign (a job).
• beginnen → begann — confirmed again from the previous list.
• fahren → fuhr.
• besuchen → besuchte — to visit (weak/regular).
• treffen → traf — to meet.
• bleiben → blieb.
• fliegen → flog.
• buchen → buchte — to book.
• sich entscheiden → entschied sich — to decide. Example: Susanna Bergner entschied sich an einem ganz normalen Tag im Herbst, ihr Leben zu ändern. → Susanna Bergner decided, on a completely normal autumn day, to change her life.
• sparen → sparte — sie begann, so viel Geld wie möglich zu sparen → she began saving as much money as possible.
• kommen → kam — die Schauspielerin kam 1992 in Berlin auf die Welt → the actress was born in Berlin in 1992 (literally "came into the world").
• stehen → stand — sie stand schon mit 17 Jahren vor der Kamera → she already stood in front of the camera at age 17 (i.e., was already acting on TV).
• spielen → spielte — 2011 spielte sie in ihrem ersten Kinofilm → in 2011 she acted in her first feature film.
• erhalten → erhielt — to receive. Sie erhielt den bayerischen Filmpreis als beste Nachwuchsschauspielerin. → She received the Bavarian Film Prize as best up-and-coming actress.
• bekommen → bekam — sie bekam die weibliche Hauptrolle → she got the female lead role.
• werden → wurde — durch diesen Film wurde sie sehr bekannt → through this film she became very well known.
• geben → gab, haben → hatte, sein → war — drilled again in this context.
• sich verletzen → verletzte sich — to injure oneself. Christina Vogel stürzte beim Training und verletzte sich an der Wirbelsäule. → Christina Vogel fell/crashed during training and injured her spine.
• sich ereignen → ereignete sich — to happen/occur (used for events/accidents). Als sie im Sommer 2018 auf dem Höhepunkt ihrer Karriere war, ereignete sich ein schrecklicher Unfall. → When she was at the peak of her career in summer 2018, a terrible accident happened (to her).
• stürzen → stürzte — two meanings: (1) to crash/collide with something, (2) to fall (e.g. off a bicycle). Both senses point to an accident.
• kämpfen → kämpfte — to fight. Sie kämpfte für ihre Selbstständigkeit. → She fought for her independence.
• brauchen — present tense braucht, not Präteritum (a deliberate trick item in the exercise: students had to recognize it does not fit the "find the Präteritum forms" task).
• gewinnen → gewann — sie gewann eine Lokalwahl → she won a local election.

Vocabulary highlights from the biography texts

• die Diagnose — diagnosis; die Konkurrenz — competition; die Disziplin — discipline; die Strafe — penalty/punishment/fine; die Tätigkeit — activity/task.
• erledigen — to complete/finish/do (advanced synonym of machen).
• die Note — (school) grade/mark; schlechte Noten → bad grades.
• das Fach has four distinct meanings, all seen in these texts:
  1. subject (school subject) — Was ist dein Lieblingsfach? → What's your favorite subject?
  2. pocket — e.g. a shirt pocket.
  3. compartment — e.g. a compartment in a cupboard/drawer.
  4. as part of an adverb of multiplication: -fach = "times" — zweifach (twice/two times), dreifach (three times), elffach (eleven times). Kristina Vogel ist zweifache Olympiasiegerin und elffache Weltmeisterin (Bahnradfahrerin). → Kristina Vogel is a two-time Olympic champion and eleven-time world champion (track cyclist).
• die Siegerin — (female) winner/champion, from siegen (to win).
• schrecklich — terrible (here used in a comparative-like intensified sense: "more terrible accident").
• die Wirbelsäule — spine/backbone.
• vom Oberkörper abwärts — from the upper body downwards; gelähmt — paralyzed (an adjective here, not yet covered as a Partizip II-as-adjective — that's a later chapter).
• der Rollstuhl — wheelchair (literally "rolling chair").
• radikal — drastically/radically; von einem Tag auf den anderen — "from one day to the next" (idiom for a sudden, complete change).
• die Selbstständigkeit — independence/self-reliance.
• mittlerweile — in the meantime, meanwhile.
• der Termin — appointment.
• beruflich / privat — professionally / privately.
• die Heldin — heroine; bewundern — to admire.
• engagiert (politically engaged/committed) and das Engagement (commitment, dedication) — flagged as having irregular pronunciation (borrowed from French): pronounced roughly "ongajiert" / "ongajemo," not following normal German pronunciation rules.
• die Wahl — election/choice; im Stadtrat (Erfurt) — on the city council (of Erfurt).
• neben — usually "next to/nearby," but also means "besides/in addition to" — Neben ihrer Karriere als Polizistin ist sie auch politisch engagiert. → Besides her career as a police officer, she is also politically engaged.
• die Auskunft — information (synonym of die Information); schützen — to protect — Sie schützt ihr Privatleben. → She protects her private life.
• bekannt — well-known/famous (adjective).

Comprehension/grammar asides during the texts

• Genitive flagged again in passing: am Höhepunkt ihrer Karriere → at the peak of her career (genitive ihrer Karriere).
• sich verschwenden vs verschwinden — minimal-pair warning: these two verbs differ only by e vs. i in the stem. verschwinden (with i) = to disappear; verschwenden (with e) = to waste (e.g. Papier verschwenden → to waste paper). The teacher stressed paying close attention to i vs. e when reading or listening (Lesen/Hören) since the words look and sound similar but mean opposite-ish things.
• Modal verbs in Präteritum reviewed via a worked example about someone recovering after an accident: durfte (was allowed to) vs. wollte (wanted to) — the teacher noted modal verbs are "never wrong," they simply shift the nuance of the sentence (e.g. "he was already allowed to drive again" vs. "he wanted to be active in a club again").

Temporal (Time-Related) Prepositions

A new grammar topic introduced near the end of class: which case (accusative, dative, or Wechsel) to use with prepositions that express time, as distinct from the same prepositions' rules for location/movement.

Recap: three preposition categories

• Always accusative: für, um, durch, bis, ohne, gegen, entlang — these never change case, regardless of context.
• Always dative: aus, bei, mit, nach, von, zu, seit — fixed dative, no exceptions.
• Wechsel (two-way) prepositions: an, auf, in, hinter, neben, über, unter, vor, zwischen — can be accusative (movement/direction — "wohin?") or dative (location/no movement — "wo?") depending on context.

Key new rule: Wechsel prepositions default to dative for time expressions

When a Wechsel preposition (an, in, vor, bis zu, etc.) is used to express a point or duration in time rather than physical location, German always uses dative, even though there may appear to be "movement" in the sentence. The usual stationary-vs-movement (wo? vs. wohin?) test does not apply to time expressions — time itself has no physical "movement," so the question is moot and the dative is simply the fixed rule for temporal use.

• Ich gehe in die Schule. (accusative — physical movement into the school building) vs. Ich gehe am Montag ins Kino. — even though "going to the cinema" sounds like movement, when the focus is the time (an + Montag), that part of the sentence takes dative: an dem Montag → am Montag.
• Months/seasons (already known from A1/A2) take im: im September, im Januar, im Sommer, im Winter (im = in + dem, dative).
• Days of the week take am: am Montag (an + dem, dative).
• Example: Ich habe am Montag einen Termin. → I have an appointment on Monday.
• Example: Ich gehe im Juli in den Urlaub. → I'm going on vacation in July. Note the contrast within the same sentence: im Juli (dative, time) but in den Urlaub (accusative, because "going into the vacation" still has a sense of movement/direction toward an event/state — optionally you could even insert "to" in English: going (in)to the vacation).

Fixed dative prepositions used for time

• seit — since. Ich lerne seit einem Jahr Deutsch. → I've been learning German for a year. (seit is always dative: einem Jahr)
• nach — after. Nach der Schule gehe ich zur Party. → After school I'm going to the party. (der Schule — feminine dative)
• ab — from/onwards. Ab nächster Woche habe ich Ferien. → From next week onwards I have holidays. (nächster Woche — feminine dative; die Woche → dative der Woche, with adjective ending -er for the unbestimmter/no-article-style ending on nächst-)
• These three are already fixed dative prepositions in general (not just for time), so no Wechsel-style reasoning is needed — they are dative everywhere.

Wechsel prepositions that become dative for time

• in → im (in + dem) for months/seasons: im Juli, im Winter.
• an → am (an + dem) for days: am Montag.
• vor — before (time). Ich habe vor einer Woche ein Buch gelesen. → I read a book a week ago/before a week. (einer Woche — feminine dative, because vor here expresses time, not location)
• bis zu — until/up to (a point in time), always takes dative because of the zu: Ich habe meinen Urlaub bis zum September. (bis zum = bis + zu + dem)

bis vs. bis zu

• bis (alone, accusative, no article) is used for a general endpoint that could be anywhere along a path/timeline — e.g. directions: "go straight until/up to the school" — there might still be more road or time beyond that point.
• bis zu (dative) is used when the endpoint is the actual end — nothing continues beyond it (e.g., the road literally ends at the school, so you must turn left or right there).
• Time example: Ich habe meinen Urlaub bis zum September. → My vacation lasts until September (the vacation truly ends there).

Adjective endings reviewed alongside the prepositions

• The teacher re-displayed the bestimmter Artikel (definite article) adjective-ending table (masculine / neuter / feminine / plural × nominative / accusative / dative) to explain why nächster Woche and dieser Woche-type phrases take the ending they do:
  • Dative column: -en for all genders in the definite-article style table; plural dative is also -en.
  • For phrases without a definite article (like nächster Woche), the adjective takes the unbestimmter-article-style ending appropriate to feminine dative.
• Students requested and were promised a clean copy of this table and the vocabulary lists via WhatsApp/PDF, since handwriting on screen was hard to read during class.

Notes & Tips

• When scanning a text for Präteritum forms, watch out for present-tense lookalikes used as deliberate distractors (e.g. braucht looks like it could be a verb form to mark, but it's present tense, not Präteritum — the Präteritum would be brauchte).
• Context clues can disambiguate near-synonym verb choices in cloze exercises: zufällig (accidentally) signals treffen/traf (you can meet someone by chance) rather than besuchen/besuchte (visiting requires planning, so it can't be "accidental").
• i vs. e spelling pairs matter: verschwinden (to disappear) vs. verschwenden (to waste) — a single vowel changes the meaning; read carefully in Lesen and Hören exam sections.
• das Fach is a high-yield multi-meaning word for the exam: subject, pocket, compartment, and (as a suffix -fach) "times" (zweifach, dreifach, elffach, etc.) — note the suffix use requires capitalization rules of normal adjectives/adverbs, not nouns.
• Modal verbs in Präteritum are never strictly "wrong" answers in a fill-in exercise — they shift nuance (ability vs. desire vs. permission), so always check the surrounding context/timeline of the story before picking between konnte/durfte/wollte/musste, etc.
• For temporal prepositions: don't try to apply the literal wo?/wohin? (stationary vs. movement) test to time expressions — it doesn't really apply. Instead, memorize that Wechsel prepositions default to dative whenever they're attached to a time reference (am Montag, im Sommer, vor einer Woche, bis zum September).
• Distinguish bis (a general "up to" point, accusative, no article) from bis zu (the definitive end point, dative) — useful both for directions and for expressing the true end of a time period.
• Pronunciation flag for the exam's spoken portion: engagiert and Engagement are pronounced in the French style ("ongajiert," "ongajemo"), not with standard German phonetics — a common mispronunciation trap.