Video 22: Präteritum vs. Partizip II, Komposita, and Fixed-Preposition Verbs

Source: Roughly 2 hours total. This class is noisier than usual — long stretches of attendance/ roll-call, near-silence, and screen-share fumbling are skipped. Approximate topic ranges:

• 00:00–11:30 — Opening roll call/attendance (skipped, pure logistics)
• 03:40–14:15 — Homework correction: Präteritum vs. Partizip II in past-tense sentences about a summer festival — extracted below
• 14:15–16:20 — Distinguishing a verb with a fixed preposition from an adjective with a fixed preposition (interessiert sein an) — extracted below
• 16:20–27:00 — Dialogue reading/cloze exercise: apology/excuse vocabulary, a name-confusion (verwechseln) scenario, and reflexive verbs sich merken/merken, sich erinnern — extracted below
• 29:26–37:30 — Komposita (compound nouns): identifying whether a compound is built from a verb, adjective, or noun stem, with a long vocabulary drill (Arbeitsplatz, Arbeitslosigkeit, Großeltern, Lernmethode, etc.) — extracted below
• 37:30–1:24:40 — Spontaneous speaking practice: a paired debate "e-books vs. classic books," with the teacher giving live corrections on verb position, modal verbs, adjective endings, and fixed prepositions afterward — extracted below (corrections only; debate content itself is largely student small talk)
• 1:24:40–1:51:50 — Reading/listening text: "Was ist besser für die Umwelt?" — a true/false + discussion exercise contrasting dishwasher vs. hand-washing, shower vs. bath, plastic vs. glass bottles, e-books vs. printed books — extracted below, this is the richest vocabulary section
• 1:51:50–1:59:16 — Homework assignment and a rapid-fire recap drill of ~25 verbs with fixed prepositions (no new content, but the verb list itself is recorded below) — extracted below
• 1:59:16–end — Closing/goodbyes (skipped, pure logistics)

Topics Covered

• Präteritum vs. Partizip II: when each is preferred, and how to add zu correctly with separable verbs in Partizip II constructions
• Verb with fixed preposition vs. adjective with fixed preposition (interessiert sein an)
• Apology/excuse vocabulary and reflexive verbs: sich merken vs. merken, sich erinnern, verwechseln
• Komposita: deriving compound nouns from verbs, adjectives, and nouns
• Fixed-preposition verb corrections from a graded speaking exercise (e-books vs. classic books debate)
• Reading text vocabulary: environmental/eco-balance comparisons (Geschirrspüler, duschen/baden, Einweg-/Mehrwegflasche, E-Book vs. gedrucktes Buch)
• Recap list of ~25 verbs with fixed prepositions

Präteritum vs. Partizip II in Past-Tense Homework Sentences

Homework sentences about a past event (der letzte Sommerfest, last summer festival) were reviewed to decide between Präteritum and Partizip II (Perfekt).

• Rule stated: the sentence is in the past and refers to a completed past event (last summer's festival), so Präteritum is used. For a handful of common verbs (e.g. sein → war), the class prefers the Präteritum form over the Perfekt/Partizip II form even in speech — this was emphasized as a recurring exception: "with [certain] verbs we prefer to use the Präteritum form of the verb rather than the Partizip II."
• Example reconstructed from the drill: Es war lustig gewesen. / more naturally Es war lustig. — "It was fun." When Partizip II is applied to sein, the helping verb is sein itself and the participle is gewesen: lustig gewesen ist (...es lustig gewesen ist).
• Separable verbs + zu in a Partizip II/infinitive construction: when the main verb is a trennbares Verb, zu is inserted between the prefix and the stem. The class worked through ein Auto verkaufen → einen Aufruf werden-type constructions and confirmed the conjugated helping verb (wird/werden) must agree with the grammatical subject — a student's mistake was not conjugating the verb to match the subject (corrected to wird, third-person singular).
• Correction on a homework sentence: a student wrote a sentence using a form of schließen (to close) where the meaning required verlassen (to leave) — pointed out that verlassen doesn't fit if the subject can't "leave" in that sense; the verb actually intended in the original text was schließen/verschlossen, and the class confirmed the correct Partizip II form rather than incorrectly substituting a near-synonym.
• A student's sentence used gearbeitet (Partizip II of arbeiten) where Präteritum would have been the expected form for that exercise; the teacher confirmed gearbeitet is correct if the meaning calls for it, but flagged that arbeiten does not denote movement, so certain alternate verbs the student considered (suggesting movement) would not fit.

Verb vs. Adjective with a Fixed Preposition

A homework item used interessiert sein an ("to be interested in"), which a student assumed was another verb-with-fixed-preposition pattern.

• Correction: "this is actually not a verb with fixed preposition — this is an adjective with fixed preposition." In B1 the focus is on the ~70 verbs with fixed prepositions that must be memorized, but B2 level introduces adjectives and nouns with their own fixed prepositions as a separate category.
• Example given: Angst haben vor ("to be afraid of") — haben itself does not take a fixed preposition, but the fixed expression Angst haben vor does; the same logic applies to nouns with fixed expressions, and to adjectives like interessiert sein an.
• Drilled sentence: Jede Firma ist daran interessiert, professionelle Mitarbeiter zu finden. — "Every company is interested in finding professional employees." (interessiert sein an + Dativ /daran)

Dialogue Vocabulary: Apologies, Excuses, and Reflexive Verbs

A textbook dialogue exercise had students choose between near-synonym expressions that fit a conversation about missing a birthday celebration and mixing up someone's name.

• Entschuldigung vs. Bitte: when accepting/dismissing someone's apology for missing an event, the correct reply is "Ach, schon gut" ("It's all right" / "Never mind"), not Bitte. Bitte is used as a response to "thank you" or as "please," not as a response to an apology for a missed appointment.
• Das ist mir wirklich peinlich — "That is really embarrassing to me." Because the embarrassment is happening to the speaker (dative-affected experiencer), the dative pronoun mir is used, not the accusative mich.
• Das war nicht beabsichtigt — "That was not intended/on purpose." (beabsichtigen = to intend)
• Das ist schrecklich — "That is terrible/awful" — used as a sympathetic reply to someone's embarrassed apology.
• Das macht nichts / Das ist nicht so schlimm — "That doesn't matter" / "That's not so bad" — a reply used to downplay someone's apology.
• jedem Mal (used in a time expression, "every time"): a student asked why this uses the dative form jedem rather than jedes or jeden. Clarification: Mal is not a noun here — it's a fixed time expression, and whenever a phrase relates to time, German tends to put it in the dative form (cf. am Montag), which is why jedem Mal is correct.
• verwechseln — "to switch/mix up" (e.g. seats, or — as used here — someone's name): Sie müssen mich verwechseln, mein Name ist [Mader/Marder]. — "You must be confusing me [with someone else], my name is [Mader]." Common usage noted: verwechseln is frequently used specifically for mixing up a person's name.
• Das ist mir wirklich unangenehm — "This is really unpleasant for me [I didn't mean to]" — a reply pattern parallel to mir...peinlich.
• Das macht nichts / Das ist nicht so schlimm appeared again as the correct light-hearted reply to a name-mix-up apology, rather than the heavier Verzeihen Sie mir, bitte (which the class rejected here as too strong/inappropriate when the apology is for a minor mix-up rather than a serious offense).
• merken vs. sich merken: merken = "to notice," sich merken = "to memorize / commit to memory." A near-synonym, sich erinnern ("to remember"), was also raised as similar in meaning to sich merken.
• mir in a reflexive-dative construction (e.g. ...mir... in a sentence using a reflexive verb) was flagged as a dative reflexive form — noted as a preview: "this is also reflexive, you will see this in chapter 8... in A2 we were writing mich, in B1 we will also see reflexive in dative forms."

Komposita: Deriving Compound Nouns

Continuing a prior class's Komposita topic, the drill focused on identifying which word class the first part of a compound noun comes from — a verb, an adjective, or a noun — before assigning the gender (which is always that of the last element).

• Bewerbungstraining — application training. Base: Bewerbung (a noun) + Training.
• Freundschaft — friendship. Base: Freund (a noun, not adjective/verb).
• Krankheit — illness. Base: krank (an adjective).
• Arbeitsplatz — workplace. Base: derived from the verb arbeiten, not from the noun "Park."
• Hochschule — university/college. Base: hoch (an adjective).
• Computerkurs — computer course. Noun + noun.
• Arbeitslosigkeit — unemployment. From arbeitslos (jobless/unemployed, itself an adjective compound of arbeiten + los).
• Großeltern — grandparents. From groß (adjective) + Eltern.
• Großstadt — big city. Großartig — excellent/wonderful (idiomatic compound, not literally "big art"). Großmutter/Großvater — grandmother/grandfather.
• Lernmethode — learning method. Lernplan — study/learning plan. Lernmaterial — learning material. All derived from the verb lernen.
• General rule restated: a Komposita's gender always follows its final/base noun, regardless of whether the modifying first part came from a noun, verb stem, or adjective.

Speaking Practice: E-Books vs. Classic Books Debate — Corrections

Students were paired up for a spontaneous debate (one in favor of e-books, one in favor of classic/printed books), then given live feedback. The debate content itself was casual improvised speech; the substantive grammar/vocabulary corrections given afterward are recorded here:

• Verb position with das: a recurring mistake was using English-style word order after das (e.g. das ist... followed by verb in the wrong slot). Correction: if you know you keep making mistakes with das, simply don't use das in the sentence at all — start the sentence plainly instead (e.g. just Ich finde... rather than Das ist interessant, weil...).
• sich interessieren für — "to be interested in" (not sich interessieren in — that preposition is incorrect). Contrast: Das ist interessant. / Ich interessiere mich dafür.
• Punkt is masculine (der Punkt), not neuter — a student incorrectly assumed das Punkt.
• tragen, not "traegen" — a student repeated a mis-conjugated form of tragen (to carry) twice; corrected to the proper verb stem.
• riechen ("to smell") was the word a student was reaching for (mis-remembered as "raishin") when describing the sensory experience of a physical book.
• modal verb + separable/second verb position: repeated correction that when using a modal verb (e.g. kann), the second verb (infinitive) goes to the end of the clause — students were copying English word order ("one can read while driving") instead of man kann ... lesen, with lesen pushed to the end. This happened multiple times in one student's turn.
• stören, not "steorben" — corrected verb, stören takes the Akkusativ (Es stört mich nicht.), so the case of the following pronoun must be accusative, not dative.
• kein, not "nie," for negating a noun phrase (e.g. kein Problem) — a student substituted nie (never) where kein (no/not any) was grammatically required.
• Adjective ending correction: Es hat besseres Licht — the adjective besser needed the neuter nominative ending -es (besseres Licht), which the student had initially omitted.
• fühlen sich / general reflexive-verb usage was reinforced again in context of describing how pages of a book "feel."
• sich entscheiden as a synonym for eine Wahl treffen ("to make a choice") was raised as related vocabulary (carried over from the reading text discussed next).
• The teacher's overall observation: students tended to give one-sided "presentation" style answers rather than genuinely engaging with the debate partner's points — a tip for the Sprechen exam part: acknowledge the other person's point before continuing with phrases like Ich habe eine andere Meinung ("I have another opinion") or Das stimmt, aber... rather than only restating one's own three points.

Reading/Discussion Text: "Was ist besser für die Umwelt?"

A true/false and discussion exercise comparing everyday environmentally-friendly choices. Rich in verbs with fixed prepositions and comparative vocabulary.

• eine Wahl treffen — "to make a choice" (an alternative, more natural phrasing for wählen, "to choose"). Synonym: sich entscheiden ("to decide").
  • Im Alltag kann man viel für die Umwelt tun, wenn man die richtige Wahl trifft / wenn man sich richtig entscheidet. — "In everyday life one can do a lot for the environment if one makes the right choice."
• eine Öko-Bilanz vergleichen — "to compare an eco-balance [environmental footprint]" — used throughout as the comparison metric between options.
• Geschirrspüler vs. von Hand spülen — dishwasher vs. washing by hand:
  • Moderne Maschinen sind effizienter geworden — "modern machines have become more efficient" — they use weniger Wasser und Energie als früher ("less water and energy than before").
  • Wichtig ist, die Maschine erst dann anzuschalten, wenn sie voll ist — "it's important to only turn the machine on once it's full," because bei gleicher Geschirrmenge braucht man beim Spülen von Hand mehr Wasser — "for the same amount of dishes, hand-washing needs more water."
  • Conclusion: the Geschirrspüler generally comes out ahead of hand-washing in eco-balance, though hand-washing was noted by students as saving electricity at the cost of more personal time/energy.
• duschen vs. baden — showering vs. bathing:
  • Beim Baden braucht man ungefähr 150 Liter Wasser — "while bathing one needs around 150 liters of water," versus roughly 50 Liter for a five-minute shower.
  • Das Erwärmen des Wassers kostet viel Energie — "heating the water costs a lot of energy."
  • Imperative tip given in the text: Wenn du gerne badest, dann nicht länger als 10 Minuten — "if you like to bathe, then not longer than 10 minutes" — so spart man Wasser und ist umweltfreundlicher ("this way you save water and are more environmentally friendly").
  • Rule of thumb stated: a shower longer than 10 minutes loses its eco-advantage over a bath; a shorter shower (5–7 minutes) remains the better choice.
• Einwegflasche vs. Mehrwegflasche — single-use bottle vs. reusable/returnable bottle:
  • Hier muss man unterscheiden: Kauft man eine Flasche, die man nur einmal verwenden kann (Einwegflasche), oder eine Flasche, die man mehrmals benutzen kann (Mehrwegflasche)? — "Here one must distinguish: does one buy a bottle that can only be used once, or one that can be used multiple times?"
  • Egal ob Plastik oder Glas, in jedem Fall sind Mehrwegflaschen besser — "Regardless of plastic or glass, in every case reusable bottles are better" — especially wenn das Produkt aus der Region kommt und keinen langen Transportweg hat ("if the product comes from the region and doesn't have a long transport route") — long-distance transport was explicitly named as an added environmental cost (e.g. shipping between distant cities).
  • Glasflaschen kann man fast doppelt so oft verwenden wie Plastikflaschen — "glass bottles can be used almost twice as often as plastic ones" — aber sie sind schwerer und haben deshalb eine schlechtere Öko-Bilanz beim Transport — "but they are heavier and therefore have a worse eco-balance in transport."
• E-Book vs. gedrucktes Buch:
  • Der E-Book-Reader spart mehr Papier und Energie — "the e-book reader saves more paper and energy" — wenn man mehr als 10 Bücher pro Jahr liest und das Gerät mindestens 3 Jahre lang benutzt — "if one reads more than 10 books a year and uses the device for at least 3 years" — only then is the e-reader on the "ecologically correct side." Below that usage threshold, printed books come out ahead.
  • Eine Ausnahme: Bücher aus der Bibliothek ausleihen — "an exception: borrowing books from the library" — described as die umweltfreundlichste Art zu lesen ("the most environmentally friendly way to read"), because ein Buch wird von vielen Menschen gelesen ("one book is read by many people"), spreading its environmental cost.
• True/false review answers from the exercise:
  • Duschen ist für die Umwelt schlechter als Baden. — Falsch (showering is better, not worse, than bathing).
  • Heute kann man effizientere Geschirrspüler kaufen als früher. — Richtig.
  • Von Hand spülen ist am umweltfreundlichsten. — Falsch.
  • Gedruckte Bücher haben immer eine bessere Öko-Bilanz als E-Books. — Falsch (depends on usage volume/duration, as above).
  • Am besten kauft man das Getränk mit dem kürzesten Transportweg. — Richtig.

Recap List: Verbs with Fixed Prepositions

A rapid-fire end-of-class recap (no new explanation, just prompting students for the correct preposition + case) produced this list of fixed-preposition verbs:

Verb	Preposition + Case
sich interessieren	für + Akkusativ
klicken	auf + Akkusativ
sich einigen	mit ... auf + Akkusativ
sich erkundigen	nach + Dativ
führen	auf + Akkusativ
gehören	zu + Dativ
sich freuen	auf/über + Akkusativ
sich einsetzen	für + Akkusativ
sich irren	in + Dativ (to be mistaken about)
kämpfen	für/gegen + Akkusativ
bestehen	aus + Dativ
sich konzentrieren	auf + Akkusativ
sich heranwagen	an + Akkusativ
sich handeln	um + Akkusativ
sich bedanken	bei + Dativ
sich beschweren	über + Akkusativ
sich beschäftigen	mit + Dativ
bestehen	aus + Dativ
sich ärgern	über + Akkusativ
basieren	auf + Dativ
sich auskennen	mit + Dativ
sich beteiligen	an + Dativ
sich gewöhnen	an + Akkusativ

Note: some entries above (e.g. bestehen aus) appeared twice in the drill and a few prepositions were spoken too unclearly in the recording to transcribe with full confidence — students were told this whole list is homework to memorize by heart, continuing the running ~70-verb fixed-preposition list from earlier classes.

Notes & Tips

• Präteritum vs. Partizip II: for past-tense narration of a completed event, Präteritum is often preferred in speech for common/irregular verbs (especially sein → war), even though Partizip II/Perfekt is also grammatically valid.
• zu with separable verbs: always inserted between the prefix and the stem (e.g. aus-zu-geben), a rule repeated again in this class.
• Verb vs. adjective vs. noun with fixed prepositions: B1 focuses on the ~70 fixed-preposition verbs; fixed-preposition adjectives (e.g. interessiert sein an) and nouns (e.g. Angst haben vor) are flagged as a B2-level expansion of the same idea, but a few high-frequency examples surface earlier.
• das + verb-position mistake: if you consistently get verb position wrong after starting a sentence with das, the teacher's practical workaround is to simply avoid leading with das and start the sentence with the real subject/verb instead.
• Acknowledge the other speaker in Sprechen/debate tasks: examiners reward genuine engagement with a partner's argument (Ich habe eine andere Meinung, das stimmt, aber...) over a one-sided list of pre-prepared points — call out that you understand the opposing point, then pivot.
• Modal verb + separable/second verb: the second (infinitive) verb always goes to the end of the clause with a modal verb — this was the single most repeated correction in the speaking section, suggesting it's a common, exam-relevant error for English-first speakers.
• Eco-balance reading vocabulary (Geschirrspüler, Einweg-/Mehrwegflasche, Öko-Bilanz, eine Wahl treffen, Transportweg) is a good model set for Lesen/Schreiben topics about environment and sustainability, a recurring telc B1 theme.