Activities for Kling Glöckchen, klingelingeling
Practice some of the vocabulary from this song and its imperative and separable verbs using these flashcards, games and exercises.
Did you miss the analysis for this song? Find it here!
Activities
Vocabulary Excercises
Due to this song’s limited vocabulary, we have only chosen 10 terms out of this song’s lyrics to form our vocabulary list, which can be found below. You can use the following activities to learn and practice this vocabulary.
Vocabulary Flashcards – Learn the vocabulary from this song with our sets of German to English and English to German flashcards, then test yourself with our interactive flashcards.
Vocabulary Games – Practice the vocabulary for this song using our memory and matching games and our word search puzzle.
Vocabulary Exercises – Fill in the missing vocabulary with drag and drop and fill in the blanks exercises.
Grammar Exercises
Many of the verbs in this song are in the imperative mood. Plus, as a bonus, two of these verbs are also separable verbs. Full conjugations of these verbs can be found below. You can use the following activities to learn and practice these verbs.
Imperative Verb Flashcards – Practice the imperative verbs in this song with our sets of German to English and English to German flashcards, then test yourself with our interactive flashcards.
Imperative Verb Games – Practice the imperative verbs in this song using our memory and matching games.
Imperative Verb Exercises – Practice the imperative verbs in this song using our drag and drop, fill in, and highlighting exercises.
Resources
Vocabulary List
| Term | Meaning | P of S | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| aufmachen | to open, undo, loosen; open up; feature; put up, hang up; open the door | reg sep verb | macht |
| einlassen | to let in, to admit | irreg sep verb | Lasst |
| erfrieren | to freeze to death | irreg verb | erfrieren |
| fröhlich | merrily, happily | adv | fröhlich |
| Gabe (pl Gaben) | gift, present; donation | fem noun | Gaben |
| Herz (pl Herzen) | heart | neut noun | Herzen |
| hören | to hear, listen to | reg verb | hört |
| kalt | cold | adj | kalt |
| Kerze (pl Kerzen) | candle | fem noun | Kerzen |
| Tür (pl Türen) | door, doorway | fem noun | Türen |
Imperative
The imperative is a grammatical mood used to give instructions or orders. As such, not all pronouns have an imperative form, just the pronouns that translate as you: ‘du’, ‘ihr’, and ‘Sie’. First person plural ‘wir’ also has an imperative form, though this is typically more of a suggestion than a command and is usually translated with ‘let’s’. For example “trinken wir” meaning “let’s drink”.
The imperative is formed by adding the endings in the chart below to the verb stem.
| Pronoun | Form of Imperative |
| du (singular) | verb stem (+ e) |
| wir (plural) | verb stem + en + wir |
| ihr (plural) | verb stem + t |
| Sie (polite singular and plural) | verb stem + en + Sie |
Some notes about the imperative:
- The only personal pronouns used with the verbs in the imperative are ‘wir’ and ‘Sie’.
- The ‘-e’ ending of the ‘du’ form is often dropped, with the exception of verb stems ending in some letter combinations, such as chn-, fn-, or tm-. In such cases, the ‘-e’ is kept to make pronounciation easier. We see this below with the verb ‘öffnen’.
- Vowel changes in the present tense also occur in the ‘du’ form of its imperative and the ‘-e’ is generally not added. However, if this vowel change involves adding an umlaut, the umlaut is NOT added to the ‘du’ form of the imperative.
- As with the present tense, an extra ‘-e’ is sometimes added before the ‘-t’ ending of the ‘ihr’ form. This happens if the verb stem ends in ‘-d’ or ‘-t’, or if it ends in ‘-m’ or ‘-n’ preceded by a consonant other than ‘l’ or ‘r’. This is seen below in ‘öffnen’.
Separable Verbs
Two of the verbs in this song that appear in the imperative are also separable verbs. In German, some verb prefixes separate from the verb when it is conjugated. The prefix then moves to the end of the main clause. In this song we see the verbs ‘einlassen’ and ‘aufmachen’:
Lasst mich ein, ihr Kinder
Let me in, you children
Bübchen, macht mir auf das Stübchen
Little boys, open the little room for me
Note there are three types of verb prefixes: inseparable, always separable, and sometimes separable. The prefixes ‘ein’ and ‘auf’ are both always separable.
Conjugations
The following charts show the full conjugations of the imperative verbs found in this song.
klingen: to sound, ring, clink, clang
| Singular | Plural | |
| First person | – | klingen wir |
| Second person | kling(e) (du) | klingt (ihr) |
| Third person | – | klingen Sie |
einlassen: to let in, to admit
| Singular | Plural | |
| First person | – | lassen wir … ein |
| Second person | lass(e) (du) … ein | lasst (ihr) … ein |
| Third person | – | lassen Sie … ein |
öffnen: to open
| Singular | Plural | |
| First person | – | öffnen wir |
| Second person | öffne (du) | öffnet (ihr) |
| Third person | – | öffnen Sie |
lassen: to let, allow, permit; to have something done; to leave, let remain; to stop, quit; cease, desist
| Singular | Plural | |
| First person | – | lassen wir |
| Second person | lass(e) (du) | lasst (ihr) |
| Third person | – | lassen Sie |
hören: to hear, listen to
| Singular | Plural | |
| First person | – | hören wir |
| Second person | hör(e) (du) | hört (ihr) |
| Third person | – | hören Sie |
aufmachen: to open, undo, loosen; open up; feature; put up, hang up; open the door – ihr
| Singular | Plural | |
| First person | – | machen wir … auf |
| Second person | mach(e) (du) … auf | macht (ihr) … auf |
| Third person | – | machen Sie … auf |
