Numbers and time expressions in German

Numbers and time expressions in German

Gender of Ordinals

Ordinal numbers are adjectives, and therefore have forms for each of the three genders in German. The forms are derived from the feminine form by adding an ‘r’ (masculine) or an ‘s’ (neuter). Thus: erste (feminine), erster (masculine), and erstes (neuter).

Examples:

*erster Mann (‘first man’); letzter Mann (‘last man’); siebter Himmel (7th heaven)

*zehnte Frau (‘tenth woman’); zweite Woche (‘second week‘)

*drittes Mädchen (‘third girl‘)

Expressions of Time

Idioms used in Telling Time

As in English, there are a number of idiomatic phrases associated with giving or telling time. For example, note that the half hour is given as approaching the next hour. The German preposition, um, is used to mean “at” a given time.

Es ist halb elf.                                                            It is half past ten (10:30).
Er kommt um sieben Uhr.                                          He is coming at seven o’clock.
Sie kommt immer ungefähr um acht Uhr.                She always comes around eight o’clock.
Wir essen gegen sieben Uhr.                                     We eat about seven o’clock.
Sie gehen nach Hause auf eine Stunde.                        They go home for an hour.
Es ist viertel zehn1                                                               It is a quarter past nine

1This idiom (Es ist viertel zehn) is used especially in the eastern parts of Germany, but is becoming popular among young Germans throughout the Country.

Periods of the Day

There are a number of adverbial phrases used in German to denote time periods during the day. Common ones are listed here:

English German
in the morning; also as morgens2 or des Morgans am Morgen
at noon, midday; also as mittags or des Mittags2 am Mittag
in the afternoon; also as nachmittags or des
Nachmittags2
am Nachmittag
in the evening; also as abends or des Abends2 am Abend
in the daytime am Tage
at night in der Nacht
towards evening gegen Abend
towards morning gegen Morgen

2 Forms like morgens and des Nachmittags would tend to be used to indicate customary or
habitual actions, as in this sense:

Morgens spiele ich. = In the morning I (usually) play.

However, these forms are not much used anymore.

Additional Notes

The first sentence uses Beim Ballspielen in the sense of “during the ball game” or
“while playing ball”. Beim is a contraction of bei dem or “at the”. However, das Ballspiel is a noun that represents an action (“playing with a ball”), so it is correct to use beim in the sense intended here. It is not the most beautiful way of saying this—but is correct. With the infinitive of a verb you can use beim too: Beim spielen means “while playing”. This form is more common in modern German language.

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