Telling what happened

A2 is the level where you stop producing single sentences and start producing short connected stretches. Three or four sentences that hang together is the target — and it needs almost no new vocabulary, just a handful of joining words and a steady tense.

Set the scene with war / hatte, then move it along with dann, danach, zuerst and the Perfekt.

• Letztes Wochenende war ich in Köln.

  Last weekend I was in Cologne.

  the scene — sein, so Präteritum

• Zuerst habe ich meine Freunde getroffen.

  First I met my friends.

• Danach sind wir ins Restaurant gegangen.

  After that we went to a restaurant.

  Danach is position 1, so sind comes next

• Es war ein schöner Abend.

  It was a lovely evening.

  ein schöner — masculine nominative after ein

Watch what those joining words do to the word order. Dann, danach and zuerst occupy position 1, which pushes the subject behind the verb: Dann habe ich…, not Dann ich habe…. It is the same rule you learned in Lesson 1, now doing real work.

One tense decision runs through the whole account, and you already know it: sein, haben and the modals in the Präteritum; everything else in the Perfekt. Mixing them inside one paragraph is not sloppy, it is correct.

• Ich hatte am Samstag frei. Deshalb bin ich nach Köln gefahren.

  I had Saturday off. That is why I went to Cologne.

  hatte → Präteritum · fahren → Perfekt

• Als ich angekommen bin, hat es geregnet.

  When I arrived, it was raining.

• Das Wetter war schlecht, aber es hat trotzdem Spaß gemacht.

  The weather was bad, but it was fun anyway.

Written messages work the same way, with a greeting and a sign-off wrapped around them. Keep them short: two to four sentences is a completely normal German message.

• Hallo Anna, leider konnte ich gestern nicht kommen. Ich war krank. Können wir uns nächste Woche treffen? Liebe Grüße, Ayoub

  Hi Anna, unfortunately I could not come yesterday. I was ill. Can we meet next week? Best wishes, Ayoub

  apology · reason · proposal — the standard three moves

leider (unfortunately) and trotzdem (anyway, nevertheless) are the two words that make a short message sound German rather than translated. Both can take position 1, with the verb straight after.