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.
