A2-52 · Connect your experience with your plans

Looking ahead

Review past and future forms, modal verbs and clause order while describing your next goals.

About 5 minutes to read · 12 quiz questions

A learner compares an earlier notebook with a fuller current notebook and completed practice cards.

Look back on your progress

Use the Perfekt to describe completed learning: Ich habe viel gelernt. Use war or hatte for past situations. A time phrase first still leaves the finite verb in second position.

Ich habe viel gelernt.

I have learned a lot.

Am Anfang war ich unsicher.

At the beginning I was unsure.

Letztes Jahr habe ich einen Kurs besucht.

Last year I attended a course.

Wir sind nach Berlin gefahren.

We went to Berlin.

Der Fortschritt means progress and das Ziel goal. Name something you learned before describing what you want to do next.

An adult plans a future language course and trip with a calendar, notebook and suitcase.

Describe a plan or prediction

A present-tense sentence can describe a plan when a future time is clear: Nächste Woche beginne ich einen Kurs. Werden plus an infinitive can also express the future.

Nächste Woche beginne ich einen Kurs.

Next week I am starting a course.

Ich werde nächstes Jahr mehr reisen.

I will travel more next year.

Mara wird in Deutschland arbeiten.

Mara will work in Germany.

Wir möchten besser Deutsch sprechen.

We would like to speak better German.

A wish with möchte or a plan with will also ends in an infinitive. Keep the finite verb second and the other verb at the end.

A learner explains future goals to a friend using a notebook with pictures of work, travel and study.

Explain the goal and the obstacle

Use weil for a reason, obwohl for an obstacle, and deshalb for a result. Verb-final clauses and verb-second main clauses keep their different patterns.

Ich lerne weiter, weil ich hier arbeiten möchte.

I keep learning because I would like to work here.

Obwohl ich wenig Zeit habe, übe ich jeden Tag.

Although I have little time, I practice every day.

Ich möchte hier arbeiten. Deshalb lerne ich Deutsch.

I would like to work here. Therefore I learn German.

Ich habe ein Ziel, aber ich brauche Zeit.

I have a goal, but I need time.

You can combine a past achievement, a future goal and a reason in a short account. Check the finite verb in every clause when you reread it.

Ready to try it?

Check what you remember with 12 short questions.