Periods of Time in German and Time-Related Words
Periods of Time in German
If you want to express certain periods of time in German , but it doesn’t have a specific name , like Nachmittag , you can do it like this :
- von (starting time)
- bis (ending time)
This is the same as from … till … in English .
This can also apply with dates . For example, “Wir haben Schule (school) von Montag bis Freitag” .
Exceptions: “Wir haben frei vom fünfundzwanzigsten Dezember bis zum zweiten Januar” .
How often ?
| How often ? | Wie oft ? |
There are many ways to answer this question . Two are “once/twice/three times in a …”, or “always/often/never” .
A Number or Times :
To say , “once a month”, or “four times a week” , add “mal” to the end of the number and say “in the …”. Here are the translations for “in the …” :
| Day | am Tag |
| Week | in der Woche or die Woche |
| Month | im Monat |
| Year | im Jahr |
| Weekend | am Wochenende |
| Morning | am Morgen or morgens |
| Evening | am Abend or abends |
| Afternoon | am Nachmittag or nachmittags |
| Night | in der Nacht or nachts |
For example , “We bowl twice a week” is “ Wir kegeln zweimal in der Woche ” .
Often Adverbs :
| always | immer |
| most of the time | meistens |
| often | oft |
| sometimes | manchmal |
| seldom | selten |
| never | nie |
| only | nur |
To apply these words , put them in the sentence , after the verb and subject , but before the sport/activity . You can also use ‘nur’ to say things like , “Sie spielt nur manchmal Tennis” . Note that if this is translated word-for-word , it becomes , “She plays only sometimes tennis.”, not “She only sometimes plays tennis” or “She only plays tennis sometimes” . That’s just the way German is .
Time-Related Words :
| Time | die Zeit |
| Free time | die Freizeit |
To say you have time , ignore the ‘die’ . To say when , insert other phrases you have learned this lesson . For example , “Ich habe am Samstagabend Zeit” . Note that the word order is the same as that of birthdays . You can use Freizeit in the same way .
Note that while “die Zeit” means “the time” , the phrase “Hast du die Zeit?” (“Do you have the time?”) is not used to inquire about what time it is . You can , however , use the phrase to inquire as to whether or not someone has time to do something .
