Video 29: Future Vocabulary, Picture Description, and Plusquamperfekt

Source: Roughly 1 hour 52 minutes total, but teaching content is concentrated in a few stretches with long silences/filler ("Thank you") in between. Approximate topic ranges:

• 00:00–03:30 — Silence/opening (skipped, pure logistics)
• 03:30–09:30 — Vocabulary drill on future-related words from a textbook exercise (translating German verbs, marking which words relate to the future) — extracted below
• 09:30–20:00 — Futur I homework review: students reading out their own "New Year's resolution" style sentences (werde ich...), with corrections on prepositions, reflexive pronouns, and noun vs. verb endings — extracted below (selected corrections only; most lines are repetitive student-by-student readout)
• 20:00–30:00 — Continued Futur I sentence practice (leisure/holiday context: am Strand liegen, Zeit verbringen) plus a brief skip of an N-Deklination categorization exercise (skipped at students' request) — extracted below
• 30:00–58:00 — Spontaneous picture-description speaking exercise (Bildbeschreibung) with the teacher correcting prepositions, verb agreement, and word choice live — extracted below (key corrections only; the bulk is students narrating pictures)
• 58:00–1:21:00 — Main grammar topic: review of the German tense system (Präsens, Futur, Präteritum, Perfekt) leading into Plusquamperfekt (past perfect) — formation, usage, and haben-vs-sein auxiliary review — extracted below, this is the most substantive grammar segment
• 1:21:00–end (~1:52:00) — Almost entirely silence/filler ("Thank you") with no further teaching content; skipped

Topics Covered

• Future-related vocabulary (time expressions and verbs used for talking about the future)
• Futur I practice: resolutions/plans with corrections (prepositions, reflexive verbs, noun endings)
• Bildbeschreibung (picture description) vocabulary and corrections: transport prepositions, family/plural agreement, time-of-day prepositions
• German tense-system overview: Präsens, Futur, Präteritum, Perfekt
• Plusquamperfekt (past perfect): formation and usage
• Review of haben vs. sein as auxiliary verbs (movement/change-of-state verbs vs. others)

Future-Related Vocabulary

A rapid vocabulary drill matching German words to their English meaning, with a focus on identifying which ones relate to the future (Zukunft) versus the past (Vergangenheit):

• die Vergangenheit — the past
• bald — soon
• später — later
• übermorgen — the day after tomorrow
• in einem Jahr — in a year
• vorhaben — to plan (something) / to have something planned
• damals — back then, at that time (past-referring, not future)
• die Prognose — the prognosis/forecast
• erwarten — to expect
• sich freuen auf — to look forward to
• im Augenblick / im Moment — at the moment (present-referring, not future)

Other verbs drilled in the same exercise (translating infinitives, used later in sentences about a fictional future city/Mars colony):

• bezahlen — to pay
• fliegen — to fly
• herstellen — to produce/manufacture
• leben — to live (also used idiomatically as "to become/reach [an age]" — e.g. einhundertfünfzig Jahre alt leben, both readings ("to live to 150" and "to live for 150 years") were confirmed as acceptable)
• übernehmen — to take over/undertake
• werden — to become
• übernehmen — to adopt/take on

Futur I Practice (Resolutions/Plans)

Students read aloud their own Futur I sentences (werde + Infinitiv), describing future intentions/resolutions. Selected corrections and clarifications from the teacher:

• In Zukunft werde ich das ganze Jahr studieren. — "In future I will study the whole year."
• In Zukunft werde ich weniger arbeiten. — "In future I will work less."
• In Zukunft werde ich mich auf die Prüfungen vorher vorbereiten. — "In future I will prepare for the exams beforehand." Correction: sich vorbereiten auf + Akkusativ ("to prepare for") — one student wrote Prüfungsvorbereitung (a noun) instead, which the teacher accepted since used correctly as a noun phrase.
• In Zukunft werde ich mich mehr erholen. — "In future I will rest/recover more." Correction point: since the subject is ich, the reflexive pronoun must be mich, not sich — sich is only correct with er/sie/es.
• In Zukunft werde ich gesünder essen. — "In future I will eat healthier." Clarification: gesünder here is an adverb modifying the verb essen, not an attributive adjective before a noun, so it takes no adjective ending — it stays as the comparative adverb form.
• In Zukunft werde ich weniger Fast Food essen und mehr Sport machen. — "In future I will eat less fast food and do more sport."
• In Zukunft werde ich nicht mehr arbeiten und mehr Freizeit verbringen. — "In future I will no longer work and spend more free time."
• In Zukunft werde ich aktiver als früher sein. — "In future I will be more active than before."
• In Zukunft werde ich ein großes Sofa kaufen. — "In future I will buy a big sofa."
• In Zukunft werde ich mehr im Haushalt helfen und aufräumen. — "In future I will help more with the household and tidy up."
• In Zukunft werde ich meine Wohnung aufräumen. — "In future I will tidy my apartment." (A student initially said meine Wohnung sauber machen with an unnecessary preposition; corrected to drop it — aufräumen takes a direct object with no preposition needed.)
• In Zukunft werde ich meine Wohnung aufräumen und Mülltrennung machen. — "In future I will tidy my apartment and do waste-separation [recycling]." (Mülltrennung — waste sorting/recycling.)
• In Zukunft werde ich mein Haus aufräumen, bevor meine Freunde kommen. — "In future I will tidy my house before my friends come." (Corrected from bevor meine Freunde kommt — the verb must agree with plural Freunde → kommen, not kommt.)
• In Zukunft werde ich vorsichtiger packen und weniger Sachen mitnehmen. — "In future I will pack more carefully and take fewer things."

Holiday/leisure-themed continuation

• Am Strand liegen — "to lie on the beach." A student had tried a literal phrase for "lying in front of the sea," corrected to the idiomatic am Strand liegen.
• In Zukunft werde ich länger am Strand Zeit verbringen. — "In future I will spend more time at the beach." (Zeit verbringen — to spend time.)
• Baden is the correct verb for "to sunbathe/bathe" — a student asked about a literal compound for "sun-bathing," and the teacher confirmed there's no such separate verb; German just uses baden (or sonnenbaden as one word) for that meaning, not a separately invented compound.
• Infinitiv mit zu recap: Ich beginne, länger spazieren zu gehen — "I'm starting to go for longer walks." The class revisited why "zu" appears here but not after modal verbs or with double-infinitive constructions: zu + Infinitiv is used when a separate main verb (like beginnen) is followed by another verb in infinitive form; it is not used after modal verbs, and not used when a "double infinitive verb" (like spazieren gehen) is itself attached directly to another main verb without an intervening structure requiring zu.
• Ich habe mir vorgenommen, mehr Freundlichkeit zu zeigen. — "I have decided/resolved to show more friendliness." (sich vornehmen — to resolve/decide to do something, + zu-Infinitiv.)
• Ich wünsche mir, weniger Stress zu haben. — "I wish for myself to have less stress." Note: wünschen is treated like a werden-type/modal-like construction here in that no "zu" is used directly after it when combined with certain reflexive constructions, and importantly there is no comma before it (unlike the zu-Infinitiv constructions above, which do take a comma) — the teacher pointed out this is treated as a single clause, similar to modal-verb sentence structure, not a separated infinitive clause.

Bildbeschreibung (Picture Description) — Corrections

Students described a series of practice pictures aloud; the teacher corrected vocabulary, case, and word order in real time.

• Transport + mit, not um: When describing someone riding a bicycle, correct phrasing is Eine Frau fährt mit dem Fahrrad im Park — "A woman rides a bike in the park," not um dem Fahrrad. Rule given: whenever referring to a means of transport, use mit — e.g. mit dem Auto, mit dem Fahrrad.
• die Taube — pigeon (vocabulary given in passing: "these pigeons we call Tauben").
• Es gibt zwei Tauben, die fressen. — "There are two pigeons that are eating." Clarified: animals use fressen (not essen) for "to eat" — essen is for humans, fressen is for animals (taught here in Präteritum/relative-clause context: die fressen — relative pronoun die is plural nominative since wer (who) questions are always nominative).
• Auf dem Bild... not Im Bild... for "in the picture" — correction: the fixed expression is auf dem Bild, e.g. Auf dem Bild sehe ich einen Mann und eine Frau.
• Es gibt ein Kind / es gibt Kinder — correction: Kinder is plural, so ein Kind must be singular if using ein; a student's es gibt ein Kinder was flagged as wrong (mismatched article and plural noun).
• die Bank has two distinct meanings: die Bank (financial bank) and die Bank (a bench to sit on) — same spelling, different meaning, both feminine; clarified when describing people sitting on a park bench: Auf einer Parkbank sitzen drei Menschen und unterhalten sich — "Three people are sitting on a park bench and talking with each other" (sich unterhalten — to converse/chat).
• No "mit" needed before family terms acting as subject: correction of Auf dem Bild sitzt man mit Familie → should be Auf dem Bild sehe ich eine Familie, die etwas essen is also wrong (verb-subject mismatch) — corrected fully to Auf dem Bild sehe ich eine Familie. Sie isst vielleicht im Restaurant oder zu Hause — "In the picture I see a family. Maybe they are eating at a restaurant or at home." Key correction: Familie is a singular collective noun, so the verb must be singular (isst, not essen), and the pronoun referring back to it should be sie (since die Familie is feminine), not es.
• Time-of-day prepositions recap: am Abend (in the evening), am Morgen (in the morning), in der Nacht (at night) — fixed prepositions with time-of-day nouns.
• General feedback pattern: several students were praised for full, accurate picture descriptions with "no mistakes," reinforcing that the exam-relevant skill is producing fluent, grammatically correct continuous description rather than single isolated sentences.

Plusquamperfekt (Past Perfect)

The main grammar topic, introduced via an English-tense walkthrough before mapping to German.

Setting up the tense system

• I eat an apple / I am eating an apple → both map to the same German sentence, since German has no present continuous tense — Ich esse einen Apfel covers both. Tip emphasized: never try to translate "am/is/are" as a separate continuous-tense marker in German.
• I will eat an apple → Futur I.
• I ate an apple → Präteritum: Ich aß einen Apfel. (Noted as the "proper" simple-past answer, though Ich habe einen Apfel gegessen — Perfekt — is also fine in casual speech; the distinction matters only when a question specifically asks for Präteritum.)
• I have eaten an apple → Perfekt (also called Partizip II construction): Ich habe einen Apfel gegessen.
• I had eaten an apple → introduces Plusquamperfekt, used to describe something that happened even before another past event — i.e., the "past of the past."

Why/when to use it

• Plusquamperfekt is used when two events both happened in the past, and one happened before the other. Example walkthrough: After I had come back from Germany, I enrolled myself in a university — coming back from Germany happened first, so it's expressed with the "had" form (Plusquamperfekt), while enrolling (the more recent past event) is expressed with Perfekt.
• Explicit reassurance: using Plusquamperfekt is not strictly mandatory — if a learner expresses both past events in Präteritum, or both in Perfekt, that is "completely normal" and not marked wrong on its own. The teacher noted this topic is being taught mainly because a connector (to be covered in the next class) requires it — so Plusquamperfekt's main classroom purpose here is preparing for that upcoming connector lesson, not because it's heavily tested standalone.

Formation

• Perfekt rule (recap): Subject + haben/sein (conjugated) + rest of sentence + Partizip II at the end.
• Plusquamperfekt rule: Identical structure, but the auxiliary haben/sein is changed to its Präteritum form: haben → hatte(n), sein → war(en). Everything else (Partizip II at the end, word order) stays the same.
• Ich hatte einen Apfel gegessen. — "I had eaten an apple."
• Ich war im September nach Deutschland gefahren. — "I had gone to Germany in September." (fahren = movement verb → sein, Präteritum form war.)

Worked examples

• Er hatte gestern zu viel gegessen. — "He had eaten too much yesterday." (essen → no movement → haben → hatte.)
• Ich war um 8 Uhr zu Hause angekommen. — "I had arrived home at 8 pm." Correction reasoning: ankommen ("to arrive") is a movement verb (Bewegung), so it takes sein, not haben → war (not hatte).
• Sie hatten gut gespielt. — "They had played well." Note: in Perfekt this would be sie haben gut gespielt; in Plusquamperfekt only the auxiliary changes to hatten (Präteritum of haben), the participle gespielt stays the same.
• Sie hatte sich auf ihre Präsentation vorbereitet. — "She had prepared for her presentation." (sich vorbereiten — no movement → haben → hatte.)
• Ich hatte meinen Stift verloren. — "I had lost my pen." (verlieren → haben → hatte.)
• Ich war gestern zu Hause geblieben. — "I had stayed at home yesterday." Correction: a student initially used hatte; corrected to war, because bleiben ("to stay") is one of the classic sein-exceptions even though it shows no movement (alongside passieren — to happen — also taking sein).
• Ich war vorgestern im Park spazieren gegangen. — "I had gone for a walk in the park the day before yesterday." (spazieren gehen → movement → sein → war.)
• Ich war im Park gewesen. — "I had been in the park." Noted that both im Park and in den Park could be argued depending on context, but since the underlying meaning here is location ("was in the park"), im Park fits.
• Nina war mit Dominic zusammengezogen. — "Nina had moved in together with Dominic." Confirmed correct with war (not hatte) since zusammenziehen (to move in together) is a movement verb.

Review: haben vs. sein as auxiliary (recap triggered by student question)

A student asked for a trick to remember when to use sein vs. haben; the teacher recapped the rules from A1/A2:

1. Verbs showing movement take sein — e.g. gehen, kommen, fahren, abfahren, schwimmen. Exception: spielen (to play) takes haben even though it can superficially seem movement-related.
2. Verbs showing a change of state take sein — e.g. sterben (to die), geboren werden (to be born), einschlafen (to fall asleep). Contrast: schlafen (to sleep, no change of state, just an ongoing state) takes haben, but einschlafen (the moment of falling asleep, a change of state) takes sein.
3. Some verbs are simply exceptions and must be memorized: bleiben (to stay), passieren (to happen) — both take sein despite showing no movement and no obvious change of state.

Notes & Tips

• No present continuous in German: never translate English "am/is/are + -ing" as a separate tense — simple present (Präsens) covers both "I eat" and "I am eating."
• gesünder essen type adverbs modifying a verb take no adjective ending — only attributive adjectives before a noun decline.
• Reflexive pronoun must match the subject: ich → mich, not sich (sich is only for er/sie/es/sie-plural) — a common mistake flagged in this class.
• fressen vs. essen: animals "fressen," humans "essen" — a small but exam-relevant distinction that came up in a relative clause about pigeons.
• auf dem Bild, not im Bild, is the fixed phrase for describing a picture in speaking exam tasks like Bildbeschreibung.
• Collective singular nouns like Familie take a singular verb and the pronoun sie (not es), since die Familie is grammatically feminine singular — easy to mistakenly pluralize when thinking about "a family" as multiple people.
• Plusquamperfekt formation is mechanical once Perfekt is known: only swap haben/sein for their Präteritum forms (hatte/war); the Partizip II and word order don't change.
• bleiben and passieren are sein-exceptions worth memorizing directly, since they don't fit the "movement" or "change of state" rules of thumb.
• The teacher flagged that Plusquamperfekt is being taught now specifically because the next class's connector lesson depends on it — students should expect to see it reused immediately in the following session.