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 :

• 🔊 Listen von (starting time)
• 🔊 Listen 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 ?

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 …” :

For example , “We bowl twice a week” is “🔊 Listen Wir kegeln zweimal in der Woche ” .

Often Adverbs :

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 :

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 .