Days and Months in German

Days and months in German are very similar to English months . Look at the table below and listen to the pronunciation of the words :

Note the order of the days of the week . The German week begins on Monday .
To say “on Monday” , say “🔊 Listen am Montag ” or whatever applies . To say “in January” , say “🔊 Listen im Januar ” or whatever applies . This is the same for all of the days and months .
You can also combine the times of day from earlier with the days of the week . But they’re both nouns .
To do this , therefore , we must combine the two words into one , as in “Dienstagnacht” (Tuesday night) .

Dates in German :

If you want to say , for example “on the 25th of December” , simply say “🔊 Listen am fünfundzwanzigsten Dezember .” , in other cases you say “fünfundzwanzigster Dezember” or “der fünfundzwanzigste Dezember” .

In Germany , dates are written out in the logical order Day . Month . Year, instead of the American Month / Day / Year. For example , vierzehnter August is written as 14.8. Please note that German uses a dot instead of a slash. Do not use the slash in dates , as it is unusual and confusing because you cannot tell if “4/6” means 4th of June (4.6) or 6th of April (6.4) .

Birthdays :

To say, “My birthday is on July 20th”, say “🔊 Listen Ich habe am zwanzigsten Juli Geburtstag ” . Note the order ; it translates back literally as “I have on the 20th of July birthday” . This kind of thing is common in German .

To celebrate someone’s birthday in German , there are two common phrases . Simply “Happy Birthday” is “🔊 Listen Alles Gute zum Geburtstag! ” (lit. Everything good to the birthday) and “Best wishes on your birthday! ” is “🔊 Listen Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag !” (hearty congratulation to the birthday) . If you were sending a card , you would most likely use the second one .