School Rules and the German Education System

Understanding school rules and the structure of the German education system is important for GCSE German, particularly for reading and listening exams where texts often describe school life in Germany. This lesson covers vocabulary for school rules, modal verbs, the German education system and how to discuss education in different tenses.

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1. School Rules (Schulordnung)

Expressing Rules with Modal Verbs

German uses modal verbs to express rules, permissions and prohibitions:

Modal Verb	Meaning	Example
müssen	must / have to	Man muss pünktlich sein. (You have to be punctual.)
dürfen	may / be allowed to	Man darf im Unterricht nicht essen. (You may not eat in lessons.)
sollen	should	Man soll respektvoll sein. (You should be respectful.)
können	can / be able to	Man kann in der Pause draußen spielen. (You can play outside at break.)
nicht dürfen	must not	Man darf nicht rennen. (You must not run.)

Common School Rules