So friends, we are officially at the end of 2nd month learning a new language. If you’ve been following every single week’s guide, you should be able to talk about who you are and what you do or study, what you like to wear, how you normally spend your days, and what you usually buy at the market, to name a few. All of that lives in the present — but it has been a fairly static present so far. Today, tomorrow, this weekend, next year: the language of movement, plans, and future intentions is indispensible to sound genuine and expressive in a new language. This week’s 5-day language study plan is all about present and future talks:
“What are you doing right now?” vs. “What are you doing this weekend?”
‘What are you doing this weekend?” vs. “What do you usually do on weekends? How often do you do that?“
✨ Read Vietnamese version: [Bạn Đang Làm Gì Ngay Bây Giờ? Kế Hoạch Học Ngôn Ngữ 5 Ngày Về Thì Hiện Tại Và Tương Lai]
This chapter brings time fully into view through four everyday questions, each a different relationship with time: the weather right now, your daily commute, your sport and leisure habits, and your weekend plans.
There’s also one big conceptual shift waiting for you: if you are an English speaker, you have to unlearn something: English uses a special -ing form to say “right now,” while many languages simply don’t. This language study plan for the present and future shows you what they use instead.
Overview: What This Language Study Plan for the Present and Future Covers
This is Chapter 8 of the Language Essential Series — same five-day rhythm, each day building on the last until you can talk about what’s happening, what you usually do, and what you’re going to do.
Here is what this language study plan for the present and future covers across the five days:
1️⃣ Day 1 — The present tenses: different ways to mean “right now” in different languages, and apply that to describe the weather
2️⃣ Day 2 — Getting around: “being there” vs “going there” to give a sense of present vs. present continuous
3️⃣ Day 3 — Sport, hobbies, and how often you do things with adverbs of frequency
4️⃣ Day 4 — Plans, intentions, and how sure you are about future plans or predictions
5️⃣ Day 5 — Write and speak: weather, commute, hobbies, and weekend plans
After completing this chapter, you will be ready to answer these prompts from the 30-Day Language Journal Challenge:
- Prompt 17 — What is the weather like today?
- Prompt 18 — How do you usually get from home to work or school?
- Prompt 19 — How often do you do sport? What do you like doing in your free time?
- Prompt 20 — What are your plans for the weekend?
Let’s break it down — one day at a time.
Your 5-Day Language Study Plan for describing your Outfit
Each day focuses on one small learning goal. Go through all the building blocks of each day study plan and complete the Mini Challenge at the end of each day to unlock new language skills about Present and Future sentence structures.
Day 1: The Present Tense, “Right Now” & the Weather
By completing Day 1, you’d be able to write Prompt 17 and apply Simple Present Tense (applicable for English and German languages) into a fairly simple task: describe the weather and your favorite activities in that weather!
English makes a sharp grammatical split between “I play tennis” (a frequent habit) and “I am playing tennis” (an ongoing event). Many languages don’t — and how they fill that gap is fascinating:
EN: I play tennis every week. / I’m playing tennis right now.
DE: Ich spiele jede Woche Tennis. / Ich spiele gerade Tennis. (same verb — just with an adverb marking “now”)
VN: Tôi chơi tennis mỗi tuần. / Tôi đang chơi tennis. (a little word “đang” marking “now”, no verb changes)
Weather is the other natural home of the present tense — and it reveals each language’s “dummy” subject:
EN: It’s raining. / It’s cold today.
DE: Es regnet. / Es ist heute kalt. (es = an empty “it”)
VN: Trời mưa. / Hôm nay trời lạnh. (trời = “the sky” does the raining!)
📌 German learner note: German has no -ing form — one present tense covers both daily habit and activities in the moment of speaking, and adverbs (gerade, im Moment, momentan) do the signalling.
YOUR TURN:
👉 How does your target language say “right now”? A special verb form (English -ing), a little marker word (Vietnamese đang), or just an adverb (German gerade)?
👉 Day 1 goal: Write 3-5 sentences to describe today’s weather, then what you’re doing because of it.
Example sentences
| English | German | Vietnamese |
|---|---|---|
| Today it’s cloudy and cool. | Heute ist es bewölkt und kühl. | Hôm nay trời nhiều mây và mát. |
| It’s currently 15 degree. | Es sind momentan 15 Grad. | Trời bây giờ đang là 15 độ. |
| It’s raining right now, so I’m staying home. | Es regnet gerade, also bleibe ich zu Hause. | Trời đang mưa, nên tôi ở nhà. |
Day 2: Getting Around — “Being There” vs “Going There”
By completing Day 2, you’d be able to write Prompt 18 to talk about your daily commute and learn how different languages signal the present times using not just verb conjugations or adverbs of time.
To describe a commute, you need transport words and one deceptively deep distinction in the German language that not all language would have: the difference between being somewhere and going somewhere.
First, let’s learn the vocabulary for the most essential and frequently use modes of transportation:
| English | German | Vietnamese |
|---|---|---|
| by bus / by car | mit dem Bus / mit dem Auto | bằng xe buýt / bằng ô tô |
| by train | mit der Bahn | bằng tàu |
| on foot | zu Fuß | đi bộ |
📌 German learner note: There are prepositions (for example, in, an, auf, neben, zwischen, etc.) take the Dative case for location (wo? → im Park) and the Accusative for direction (wohin? → in den Park). Same word, different cases, changing meaning and subtle sense of movement.
VN: I’m in the park. / I’m going into the park.
DE: Ich bin im Park. / Ich gehe in den Park. (look, the article changes!)
VN: Tôi ở công viên. / Tôi đến công viên.
Learn all 9 prepositions of this kind in German through example sentences and learn the full logic with E-Book Dear Deutsch. Click to find out more:
YOUR TURN:
👉Does your language mark the difference between being somewhere and going somewhere? German flips a case; Vietnamese swaps the word (ở vs đến); English sometimes changes it (in vs into) and often doesn’t. Which strategy does yours use?
👉 Day 2 goal: Write 3-5 sentences to describe your commute door to door — transport, route, how long it takes.
Example sentences
| English | German | Vietnamese |
|---|---|---|
| I go to work by train every morning. | Ich fahre jeden Morgen mit der Bahn zur Arbeit. | Mỗi sáng tôi đi làm bằng tàu. |
| First I walk to the station, then I board the train. | Zuerst gehe ich zu Fuß zur Station, dann steige ich in den Zug ein. | Đầu tiên tôi đi bộ ra ga, rồi lên tàu. |
| On the train I always learn some German with podcasts. | Im Zug lerne ich immer ein bisschen Deutsch mit Podcasts. | Trên tàu tôi luôn học tiếng Đức cùng với podcast. |
Day 3: Sports, Hobbies & How Often You Do Things
By completing Day 3, you’d be able to write Prompt 19 and apply Simple Present Tense for another important usage: daily habits, hobbies, repeated activities, etc.
Talking about free time asks what you do, how often, and how much you enjoy it. First, notice that languages pair activities with different verbs:
EN: play tennis / go swimming / do yoga
DE: Tennis spielen / schwimmen gehen / Yoga machen
VN: chơi tennis / đi bơi / tập yoga
Then learn adverbs to describe the frequency scale, and the “how much you like it” ladder:
5 Levels of Frequency:
| English | German | Vietnamese |
| always | immer | luôn luôn |
| oft | oft | thường thường |
| sometimes | manchmal | thỉnh thoảng |
| rarely | selten | hiếm khi |
| never | nie | không bao giờ |
3 Levels of Preferences:
| English | German | Vietnamese |
|---|---|---|
| I like | gern | thích |
| I prefer | lieber | thích hơn |
| I like most | am liebsten | thích nhất |
Claim your FREE list of 1000+ Must-Know Vocabulary to kick start your language learning FASTER & MORE EFFECTIVELY with.
YOUR TURN:
👉 Find out how to describe your top 3-5 hobbies, sports, weekend activities, etc. + how to describe the level of frequency and how much you like doing them in your target language (use the freebie vocab list above to quickly translate the words). Make sure you have the essential vocab you need for Prompt 18.
👉 Day 3 goal: Write 3-5 sentences to describe your sport habits and free-time preferences, try adding in the frequency scale and the preference ladder.
Example sentences
| English | German | Vietnamese |
|---|---|---|
| I go to the gym three times a week. | Ich gehe dreimal pro Woche ins Fitnessstudio. | Tôi đi phòng gym ba lần một tuần. |
| I like tennis, but what I love most is hiking. | Ich spiele gern Tennis, aber am liebsten gehe ich wandern. | Tôi thích tennis, nhưng thích nhất là đi bộ đường dài. |
| In my freetime I like to read and play with my dog. | In meiner Freizeit lese ich und spiele ich gerne mit meinem Hund. | Khi rảnh rỗi tôi thích đọc và chơi với chú cún của mình. |
Day 4: Talking About the Future — Plans, Intentions & Certainty
By completing Day 4, you’d be able to write Prompt 20, the last one of this study week and switch gear from Present to Future tense to talk about your weekend plans!
Here’s the surprise: many languages, like German, barely bother with a special future form for near, concrete plans — a present-tense verb plus a time word does the job.
EN: Tomorrow I’m going to the cinema.
DE: Morgen gehe ich ins Kino. (present tense + “tomorrow” — no future form!)
VN: Ngày mai tôi đi xem phim. (present + “tomorrow” — same trick)
A dedicated future form is saved for predictions and emphasis:
EN: It will rain tomorrow.
Es wird morgen regnen. (werden + verb)
VN: Ngày mai trời sẽ mưa. (sẽ = a future marker)
📌 German learner note: For near, concrete plans German prefers present tense + a time word (Morgen gehe ich…). There are more structures to mean Future, which you can find out more in Chapter 8 of Dear Deutsch: Dear Deutsch: The Journal-Study Method Designed to Help You Reach German A2 and Speak with Confidence in 90 Days For example:
- Futur I (werden + infinitive) for predictions, promises, and the distant future.
- Shades of intention come from modal verbs — wollen (decided), möchten (a softer wish).
- Special structures like vorhaben (Ich habe vor, … zu …).
- Make plans with someone using these structures
When talking about future plans, it’s a must to learn some adverbs of certainty, such as these commonly used ones:
| English | German | Vietnamese |
|---|---|---|
| certainly | bestimmt | chắc chắn |
| probably | wahrscheinlich | có lẽ |
| maybe | vielleicht | có thể |
| definitely not | auf keinen Fall | không đời nào |
YOUR TURN:
👉 Does your language have a fully separate future tense, or lean on present + a time word like German — with an optional marker (Vietnamese sẽ, English will) for emphasis or prediction? When does it bother marking the future at all?
👉 Day 4 goal: Write 3-5 sentences mentioning your weekend plans, try to include one suggestion to a friend (“Shall we…?”).
Example sentences
| English | German | Vietnamese |
|---|---|---|
| It will rain on Saturday so I stay home and bake. | Es wird regen am Samstag, also bleibe ich zu Hause und backe. | Trời sẽ mưa vào thứ Bảy nên là tôi sẽ ở nhà và nướng bánh. |
| On Sunday I’d like to go hiking in the mountains. | Am Sonntag möchte ich in die Berge wandern gehen. | Chủ Nhật tôi muốn đi leo núi. |
| Shall we go to the cinema tomorrow? | Wollen wir morgen ins Kino gehen? | Ngày mai chúng ta đi xem phim nhé? |
Day 5: Put It All Together
This is your production day! Over four days you have built the full present-and-future toolkit — the “right now” system, transport and location-vs-direction, frequency and preference, and the future in all its shades.
Now you bring it into four personal entries. Rather than copy a finished example, build each one yourself with the frameworks below and enhance/correct your writings.
Today’s Weather: Prompt 17’s Writing Framework
Today it’s ___, and it’s about ___ degrees.
The weather is ___, so I’m ___ right now.
In summer it’s usually ___; in winter ___.
Your Daily Commute: Prompt 18’s Writing Framework
I usually get to work by ___.
From home to ___ takes ___.
First I ___, then I ___.
On the way I ___.
Sports & Free Time Hobbies: Prompt 19’s Writing Framework
I do sport about ___ a week.
I usually ___.
In my free time I like ___, but what I love most is ___.
Weekend Plans: Prompt 20’s Writing Framework
On Saturday I’m ___.
On Sunday I’d like to ___.
I’m probably ___ — it will ___.
How about we ___ together?
Fill each blank with your own life, and you’ll have four complete, natural entries — every structure from Days 1–4 has a place to land.
👉 Day 5 goal: Use the frameworks to write your own Prompts 17–20. Then read them aloud, and try describing a friend’s or family member’s week using he/she forms.
📘 Inside Dear Deutsch: complete worked Sample Writing for all four prompts — full German model entries (a weather report, a door-to-door commute, a sport-and-leisure portrait, and a weekend plan) with English translations, plus “write it for another person” versions and a fill-in-the-blank self-check. The frameworks above get you writing; the e-book shows you exactly what a polished, natural German entry looks like.
Dear Deutsch E-Book: The Journal-Study Method Designed to Help You Reach German A2 and Speak with Confidence in 90 Days
Chapter 8 Completion Checklist
Before moving on, check that you can do each of the following without looking at your notes:
- ✅ Say “right now” the way your language does — special verb form, marker word, adverb or what else?
- ✅ Talk about the weather with your language’s “dummy” subject
- ✅ Say how you travel, with the correct transport words
- ✅ Mark the difference between being somewhere and going somewhere (especially for German language)
- ✅ Pair each activity with its correct verb (play / go / do)
- ✅ Use the full frequency scale, not just “often” and “sometimes”
- ✅ Climb the preference ladder: like → prefer → love most
- ✅ Talk about near plans (present + time word) and predictions (future form)
- ✅ Say how sure you are, from “certainly” to “definitely not”
- ✅ Write and speak all four journal prompts in full
If you can tick every box, you have completed this language study plan for the present and future — wonderfully done.
What’s Next?
You’ve built a complete toolkit for saying where you are, where you’re going, how often you do things, and what you’re planning — the language that makes you sound like someone genuinely living your life in a new tongue, not just reciting facts about it.
In Chapter 9, time turns around: we move from the present and future into the past — how to talk about what you did yesterday, last weekend, and years ago, and when each language reaches for its everyday past tense versus its more formal, written one.
Stay tuned and stay informed via MyA5Letter — subscribers always hear about new chapters first!
Until next time — Happy Language Learning!
Suani 💕
Want to join the Language Essential Series from the beginning? Start with:
- Chapter 1: Introduce Yourself in Any Language: A Simple 5-Day Study Plan
- Chapter 2: Essential Vocabulary to Describe Things and People in Any Language
- Chapter 3: What Do You Like to Eat? A 5-Day Language Study Plan to Build Questions and Conversations
- Chapter 4: What Do You Do for a Living? A 5-Day Language Study Plan for Work and Study
- Chapter 5: How to Journal about Your Daily Routine in a New Language: A 5-Day Study Plan
- Chapter 6: How to Journal about Your Favorite Outfit in a New Language: A 5-Day Study Plan
- Chapter 7: How to Journal about Your Shopping and Cooking Guide in a New Language: A 5-Day Plan for Beginners
