This exam tips covers Exam Tips & Common Errors within The environment and where people live for GCSE German. Revise The environment and where people live in Theme 3: Communication and the World Around Us for GCSE German with 10 exam-style questions and 15 flashcards. This topic shows up very often in GCSE exams, so students should be able to explain it clearly, not just recognise the term. It is section 4 of 4 in this topic. Treat this as a marking guide for what examiners are looking for, not just a fact list.
💡 Exam Tips & Common Errors
- Use die Umwelt schützen and Energie sparen — these fixed phrases earn lexical-range marks.
- Contrast town and country: auf dem Land (in the countryside) vs in der Stadt (in the city).
- With a modal verb such as müssen, the infinitive goes to the END of the clause.
- Predicate adjectives (after ist) take no ending: Die Stadt ist laut.
❌ Common error: Wir müssen schützen die Umwelt.
✓ Correct: Wir müssen die Umwelt schützen.
Why it costs marks: with a modal verb (müssen), the infinitive (schützen) goes to the END of the clause — the verb bracket. Writing Wir müssen schützen die Umwelt puts the infinitive in the middle, a word-order error that costs AO3 marks.
Practice questions for The environment and where people live
What does 'die Umwelt' mean in English?
What is the German word for 'rubbish / waste'?