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📅 Study Log — August 11, 2026

Complete study record — a summary of the full journey so far.

• Learner: Ajeet
• Goal: A1 German exam preparation, then A2
• Study started: July 27, 2026
• Current date: August 11, 2026
• Current level: A1 foundation / A1 exam preparation
• Main focus: Reading, vocabulary, sentence formation, grammar, speaking, and exam-style practice

1. Study Timeline

July 27 — German Learning Started

Started German from the absolute beginner level.

Initial goals

• Learn German from the basics, similar to learning English from the beginning
• Reach A1 first
• Eventually reach A2
• Build vocabulary gradually
• Learn grammar through actual sentences
• Improve reading and sentence formation
• Prepare eventually for an A1 exam

2. German Pronunciation & Basics

Learned the German alphabet/pronunciation basics, including:

• German ß
• Long vowels
• Diphthongs
• ei
• au
• Umlauts: ä, ö, ü

Examples practiced:

Because of keyboard limitations, ss was sometimes used instead of ß.

3. Personal Pronouns

German	English
ich	I
du	you
er	he
sie	she / they
es	it
wir	we
ihr	you plural
Sie	you formal

A recurring point of confusion:

• ihr can have different meanings depending on context
• sie can mean she or they

4. Important Basic Verbs

Infinitive	Meaning	Past	Participle
sein	to be	war	gewesen
haben	to have	hatte	gehabt
gehen	to go	ging	gegangen
kommen	to come	kam	gekommen
sehen	to see	sah	gesehen
sprechen	to speak	sprach	gesprochen
essen	to eat	aß	gegessen
trinken	to drink	trank	getrunken
nehmen	to take	nahm	genommen
geben	to give	gab	gegeben

5. Verb Conjugation

Practiced basic present-tense conjugation.

A recurring mistake was mixing:

6. Daily Routine Vocabulary

German	English
aufstehen	to get up
aufwachen	to wake up
frühstücken	to have breakfast
arbeiten	to work
lernen	to learn/study
schlafen	to sleep
essen	to eat
trinken	to drink
einkaufen	to shop
nach Hause gehen/kommen	go/come home

7. Separable Verbs

Learned that some verbs split in normal sentences.

aufstehen

einkaufen

This became an important A1 grammar topic.

8. Time Vocabulary

German	English
die Zeit	time
der Tag	day
die Woche	week
das Wochenende	weekend
die Stunde	hour
die Minute	minute
der Morgen	morning
der Abend	evening
die Nacht	night
der Nachmittag	afternoon

Important distinction:

Noun	Adverb
der Morgen	morgens
der Abend	abends
der Nachmittag	nachmittags

9. Time Expressions

• jeden Tag — every day
• jeden Morgen — every morning
• nachmittags — in the afternoon
• abends — in the evening
• nachts — at night
• um 8 Uhr — at 8 o'clock
• eine Stunde — one hour
• jede Woche — every week
• am Wochenende — on the weekend

10. Days of the Week

Review score: 7/7

German	English
Montag	Monday
Dienstag	Tuesday
Mittwoch	Wednesday
Donnerstag	Thursday
Freitag	Friday
Samstag	Saturday
Sonntag	Sunday

11. Months

Important months specifically tested — review score: 8/8

German	English
Januar	January
März	March
Mai	May
Juni	June
August	August
September	September
November	November
Dezember	December

12. Numbers

Practiced numbers 0–20. Review score: 9/10

One recurring spelling mistake:

13. Dates

Learned the basic German date structure:

Important structure:

14. gestern / heute / morgen

German	English
gestern	yesterday
heute	today
morgen	tomorrow

One spelling mistake to remember:

15. Family Vocabulary

Learned these nouns together with their articles. Test: 10/10 after corrections

German	English
die Mutter	mother
der Vater	father
der Bruder	brother
die Schwester	sister
die Familie	family
der Sohn	son
die Tochter	daughter
die Eltern	parents
das Kind	child
das Familienmitglied	family member

16. German Articles

Learned that German nouns should be memorized together with their articles.

DER

DIE

DAS

Important learning rule:

Do not memorize Vater = father. Memorize:

17. How to Learn German Articles

English usually cannot tell you whether a German noun is der, die, or das. There are some patterns, but they are not completely reliable.

For now, the preferred strategy is:

18. Possessives — mein / meine

Learned basic forms of my.

Masculine / neuter

Feminine

19. Possessives — sein / seine

Introduced basic forms of his.

Masculine / neuter

Feminine

20. Singular vs. Plural

Learned that die Eltern is plural.

Important principle:

21. Basic Word Order

A major recurring grammar pattern:

When a time expression starts the sentence, the verb remains in position 2.

22. Danach

When danach starts a sentence, the verb follows immediately.

23. A1 Akkusativ — ein / eine / einen

Gender	Nominative	Akkusativ
Masculine	der / ein	den / einen
Feminine	die / eine	die / eine
Neuter	das / ein	das / ein

Most important beginner rule: only masculine changes in this basic pattern.

Akkusativ exercise: 8/8

24. kein / keine / keinen

Positive	Negative
ein Bruder	kein Bruder
eine Schwester	keine Schwester
ein Kind	kein Kind
einen Bruder	keinen Bruder
eine Schwester	keine Schwester
ein Kind	kein Kind

Important pattern:

Exercise: 8/8

25. nicht vs. kein

kein

Used to negate a noun.

nicht

Used to negate an action/sentence.

Quick test: 5/5

26. W-Fragen

German	English
wer	who
was	what
wo	where
woher	where from
wohin	where to
wann	when
wie	how
wie alt	how old
warum	why

27. Ja/Nein-Fragen

Yes/no questions put the verb first.

Question formation exercise: 8/8

28. Speaking Practice

Practiced answering basic A1 questions about yourself.

29. Family Speaking

30. Daily Routine Writing

Produced sentences such as:

31. Separable Verb Practice

Correct structure:

32. Reading 5

Worked on daily routine reading. Themes included:

• getting up
• waking up
• breakfast
• drinking water
• working
• learning German
• going home
• evening activities
• daily routine

This helped establish the basic A1 routine vocabulary.

33. Reading 6 — Meine Woche

Reading 6 combined daily routine, days, dates, times, months, heute/morgen/gestern, aufstehen, einkaufen, modal verbs, and basic family vocabulary.

Reading 6 comprehension

Score: 19/20

Main errors: date structure, danach word order, am Abend, remembering all information in a sentence, will + infinitive, aber, separable verbs.

34. Reading 7 — Meine Familie

Read an A1 family passage containing Ajeet, Nepal, mother, father, brother, sister, parents, morning, evening, German learning, working, and family together.

Comprehension: 9/10

Main difficulty: constructing a sentence with am Wochenende ... mit seiner Familie zusammen. The vocabulary was understood, but the grammar required for the sentence had not yet been fully learned.

35. Reading 8 — Meine Familie und mein Alltag

Read an A1 passage combining family and daily routine. Themes: family, parents, siblings, work, German learning, morning, afternoon, evening, weekend, shopping, family activities.

New vocabulary introduced:

German	English
manchmal	sometimes
mehr	more

These two words are officially considered new vocabulary.

Reading 8 comprehension

Score: 12/15

Main corrections:

36. Vocabulary Development

Time

Family

Daily routine

Basic connectors / words

German	English
und	and
aber	but
oder	or
auch	also/too
nicht	not
zusammen	together
danach	after that
manchmal	sometimes
mehr	more
zu Hause	at home

37. Vocabulary Learning Strategy

A major change was made. Instead of learning nouns without articles:

learn:

Instead of:

learn:

This is now the standard vocabulary-learning method.

38. A1 Exam Preparation Strategy

The study direction has shifted from simply learning German to preparing specifically for an A1 exam.

Speaking

Practice: self-introduction, name, age, country, city/home, family, work/studies, daily routine, hobbies, food/drinks, shopping, time/date, weekend, friends, home, transportation, weather, making/accepting/refusing plans.

Reading

Focus on extracting: Who? Where? When? What? How much? Yes/no information, important names, times, dates, prices, locations.

Listening

Important information to catch: numbers, names, times, dates, prices, locations, phone numbers, yes/no information, key nouns and verbs.

Writing

Planned A1 writing practice: emails, invitations, cancellations, asking for information, appointments, thank-you messages, short personal messages.

Useful phrases to learn:

39. Planned 4-Week A1 Exam Structure

Period	Main focus
Aug 11–17	Grammar + vocabulary consolidation
Aug 18–24	Lesen + Hören
Aug 25–31	Schreiben + Sprechen
Sep 1–7	Full mock exams

The goal is to become fast and automatic with existing A1 knowledge rather than rushing into A2.

40. Recorded Performance

Quick Review — August 10

Area	Score
Days	7/7
Months	8/8
Numbers	9/10
gestern/heute/morgen + basic sentences	6/6
Dates	5/5
Total	35/36 — 97%

Only notable mistakes: zwonzig → zwanzig, gesten → gestern.

Other results

Exercise	Score
Reading 6	19/20
Reading 7	9/10
Reading 8	12/15
Akkusativ ein/eine/einen	8/8
kein/keine/keinen	8/8
nicht/kein	5/5
Yes/No question formation	8/8

41. Recurring Mistakes to Keep Practicing

1. Verb position

2. Time-first sentences

3. Plural verbs

4. will + infinitive

5. Separable verbs

6. ich vs. er/sie

7. nicht vs. kein

8. Masculine Akkusativ

Pattern: einen → keinen

9. Articles

Always learn:

rather than learning the noun without its article.

10. Spelling

Words that have caused mistakes:

42. Current Speaking Ability

You can now answer basic A1 questions such as:

Question	Answer
Wie heißt du?	Ich heiße Ajeet.
Wo wohnst du?	Ich wohne in Nepal.
Woher kommst du?	Ich komme aus Nepal.
Wann arbeitest du?	Ich arbeite morgens.
Was lernst du?	Ich lerne Deutsch.
Wie alt bist du?	Ich bin 24 Jahre alt.
Hast du Geschwister?	Ja, ich habe Geschwister.
Hast du einen Bruder?	Ja, ich habe einen Bruder.
Lernst du Deutsch?	Ja, ich lerne Deutsch.

43. Current A1 Status

Solid foundation in:

• basic vocabulary
• family
• daily routine
• time
• days
• months
• dates
• numbers 0–20
• basic present tense
• articles
• possessives
• basic Akkusativ
• kein
• nicht
• W-questions
• yes/no questions
• separable verbs
• basic word order
• reading comprehension
• basic speaking

Still needing systematic practice:

• full personal introduction
• more A1 vocabulary
• listening
• writing
• speaking interaction
• prepositions
• modal verbs in greater depth
• full plural system
• accusative beyond the basic ein/eine/einen pattern
• imperative
• common A1 situations
• exam-style Lesen
• exam-style Hören
• exam-style Schreiben
• exam-style Sprechen
• Perfekt recognition/basic use if required by the specific exam

44. Next Study Direction

The immediate focus should be:

1. Continue A1 speaking questions
2. Practice answering questions automatically
3. Strengthen today's grammar
4. Build A1 vocabulary by situation
5. Continue short A1 readings
6. Start exam-style listening
7. Start A1 writing templates
8. Gradually introduce full mock exams

The goal is not complicated German.

is more important for A1 than complicated sentences.

45. Current Milestone

By the end of August 11, the progression has moved from:

The next major goal is to make these structures automatic enough to use under exam pressure.