Starting Grammar

In line with my plan, I began learning German by improving my grammar. As a result of my progress in grammar, I plan to make rapid progress in listening, reading and writing. I focused on A1 topics first. It took me about a month to complete the A1 grammar, and I learnt a great deal.

I began by learning the nominative, accusative and dative cases. I then learnt about articles and whether they are definite or indefinite, and how they function in definite forms. After covering these topics, I decided to learn a few more words. I learnt a few words about fruit and vegetables, a few verbs related to nature, and a few more verbs. Although the fact that each word has its own article seemed daunting at first, I gradually got used to it. In addition to these, I learnt the auxiliary verbs. Of course, as German is a language with a great deal of grammar at A1 level, my work didn’t stop there. Whilst learning the times, I realised that although the fact that there are so many different ways to express a time in this language surprised me, I memorised each one. I counted about nine different methods. I learnt a few separable verbs. To improve my understanding of different tenses, I learnt the present and Future 1 forms. To understand comparative sentences, I learnt the Superlative and Comparative tenses. Before finishing the A1 topics, I also learnt the subjunctive mood (Konnjuktiv 2) and, although it was a bit of a struggle, I learnt all the uses of around 30 prepositions.

Although the A1 topics aren’t particularly difficult, it took me about a month to learn them all properly. As this process marked my introduction to German, I was a bit extra excited about learning, and I feel I’ve learnt these topics in considerable detail, really getting to the heart of them. Although there were moments during the process that proved challenging, I’m really pleased to have laid a solid foundation in German. See you in the next blog post!