Here is a German word with thirty-four letters: Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaft. It looks terrifying at first. It is several ordinary words holding hands.
Listen once together, then look at the pieces on the board:
Joined up, they mean something like “Danube steamship journey company”. In modern German, Schiff + Fahrt is written with three fs: Schifffahrt.
Today we will pull long furniture words apart, hunt the short pieces in a German grid, and invent our own long English word the same way.
We will hear each furniture word in five languages. Listen, then say the German one back together.
German sticks short words together like building bricks. Look hard at the German column: can you spot the bricks inside each longer word?
You are word detectives. The grid is on the board and it is German only.
First look at today’s six targets and their short pieces beside the grid. Then help the class find each word in the letters. When one is found, everyone whispers the short pieces inside it.
Open your copy. Build your own long word by joining three English words, and write what it would mean. Have fun: make something useful, silly, or both.
Here are some of today’s furniture words to keep beside you while you invent:
Furniture bingo! Sketch a small grid in your copy and write today’s German furniture words in the squares (you can repeat some). Listen as each German word is called from the board, and cross it out when you hear it. First full line calls out!
Listen for the short pieces inside each long word as it is called: Schreib-, -tisch, Kleider-, -schrank.
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