‘Erdbeben’ is German for an earthquake, and it’s put together exactly like the English word: earth plus a shaking. English and German got there separately, each joining its own two pieces.
You get 10 black-and-white cards on ‘Erdbeben’, a sources page and summary pages at the end. The cards laminate and go on a ring as a deck, and the summary pages print and are ready to use.
What’s included
The old fear - what the verb behind ‘beben’ could mean besides shaking, and how much of that German still uses.
Der, die or das? - which half of ‘Erdbeben’ settles its gender, and a way of picturing it that works for other compounds too.
The headline - a phrase English and German share for a shock that has nothing to do with the ground.
A sources page and a short guide for the adult.
For personal use in home education and tutoring only.
Who it’s for
KS3 and KS4 German learners on topics about the world, the environment or the news
Learners who find long German nouns hard to break apart
Anyone who has wondered how German decides between ‘der’, ‘die’ and ‘das’
Dyslexic learners and those in specialist tuition, for whom a long word is easier once it splits into parts
Home-educated children learning German
Parents and adults learning German alongside a child
Why this exists
‘Erdbeben’ is eight letters long and looks like nothing an English speaker knows. Once a learner sees ‘Erd’ and ‘Beben’ as two pieces, it turns out to be the same idea as ‘earthquake’, and the gender stops being one more thing to guess. It’s a good first compound for showing how German builds long nouns out of short ones.
I first made these for my dyslexic son.
How it prints
Each of the 10 cards and the sources page prints single-sided. Laminate and trim them, punch the top-left corner and thread them onto a binder ring. You’ll need a printer, a laminator and a ring, and you put the deck together yourself. On the ring it stays together in a bag or on the dinner table, and the carpenter’s card is one to pull out on its own whenever gender comes up. The summary pages need no laminating and can be printed and kept with the homework.
Available now as a PDF download.
‘Erdbeben’ is German for an earthquake, and it’s put together exactly like the English word: earth plus a shaking. English and German got there separately, each joining its own two pieces.
You get 10 black-and-white cards on ‘Erdbeben’, a sources page and summary pages at the end. The cards laminate and go on a ring as a deck, and the summary pages print and are ready to use.
What’s included
The old fear - what the verb behind ‘beben’ could mean besides shaking, and how much of that German still uses.
Der, die or das? - which half of ‘Erdbeben’ settles its gender, and a way of picturing it that works for other compounds too.
The headline - a phrase English and German share for a shock that has nothing to do with the ground.
A sources page and a short guide for the adult.
For personal use in home education and tutoring only.
Who it’s for
KS3 and KS4 German learners on topics about the world, the environment or the news
Learners who find long German nouns hard to break apart
Anyone who has wondered how German decides between ‘der’, ‘die’ and ‘das’
Dyslexic learners and those in specialist tuition, for whom a long word is easier once it splits into parts
Home-educated children learning German
Parents and adults learning German alongside a child
Why this exists
‘Erdbeben’ is eight letters long and looks like nothing an English speaker knows. Once a learner sees ‘Erd’ and ‘Beben’ as two pieces, it turns out to be the same idea as ‘earthquake’, and the gender stops being one more thing to guess. It’s a good first compound for showing how German builds long nouns out of short ones.
I first made these for my dyslexic son.
How it prints
Each of the 10 cards and the sources page prints single-sided. Laminate and trim them, punch the top-left corner and thread them onto a binder ring. You’ll need a printer, a laminator and a ring, and you put the deck together yourself. On the ring it stays together in a bag or on the dinner table, and the carpenter’s card is one to pull out on its own whenever gender comes up. The summary pages need no laminating and can be printed and kept with the homework.
Available now as a PDF download.
