Temporal adverbs dealing with the

day
Adverb
vorgestern

Meaning
the day before
yesterday

Adverbs of Frequency
Adverbs of Absolute Frequency
Adverb

Meaning

gestern

yesterday

immer

always

heute

today

fast immer

almost always

morgen

tomorrow

meistens

most of the time

bermorg
en

the day after

tomorrow

hufig

frequently

oft

often

ab und zu

once in a while

manchmal

sometimes

selten

rarely

fast nie

almost never

nie

never

Subjective Temporal Adverbs

Adverb

Meaning

damals

then

frher

earlier

jetzt

now

sofort

immediately

gleich

immediately

bald

soon

morgens

in the morning

spter

later

nachmittags

in the afternoon

dann

after/then

abends

in the evening

nachts

during the night

Temporal adverb gerade

The adverb gerade is used to make the
present continuous in German:
Ich lese gerade die Zeitung
I am reading the newspaper

Adverbs of daily frequency

Adverb

Meaning

Adverbs of weekly frecuency

Adverb

Meaning

montags

on Mondays

dienstags

on Tuesdays

mittwochs

on Wednesdays

donnerstags

on Thursdays

freitags

on Fridays

samstags

on Saturdays

sonntags

on Sundays

Other adverbs of frequency

Adverb

Meaning

tglich

daily

wchentlich

weekly

monatlich

monthly

jhrlich

yearly/annually

Forming temporal adverbs by

adding an -s
Often, temporal adverbs of frequency
are formed from nouns with an "s"
added on. At first, this construction
creates a bit of confusion among
students of German.
Noun

Adverb

der Abend
the evening

abends
in the evenings

der Halbtag
half a day

halbtags
half-day

der Feiertag
the holiday

feiertags
every holiday

Locative Adverbs

Komm heraus!
Come outside!

Locative adverbs of place

Adverb

Meaning

vorn / vorne

in front

hinten

behind

links

on the left

rechts

on the right

oben

up

unten

down

innen

inside

auen

outside

hier

here

da

there

dort

there

berall

everywhere

nirgends

nowhere

Locative adverbs with the particles

"hin" and "her". The particles "hin" and
"her" denote the direction of
movement with respect to the person
that is speaking. These particles are
used often to make adverbs.
Here are some examples so that you
understand better:

herein
If I am inside the house and my son is
playing in the garden and I want him to
come in (for example, to eat), Id say:
Komm herein!
Come inside!

hinein
If my child and I are outside of the house
and I want to tell him to go inside (for
example, to do his chores), Id say:
Geh hinein!
Go inside!

hinaus
If my child and I are inside the house and I
want to tell him to go out (for example, to
play in the garden), Id say:
Geh hinaus!
Go outside!

heraus
If I am outside of the house and my child is
inside and I want him to come out (for
example, to cut the grass), Id say:

Locative adverbs that indicate

movement
Adverb

Meaning

aufwrts

upwards

abwrts

downwards

vorwrts

forwards

daher

rckwrts

backwards

heimwrts

homeward

westwrts

to the west

bergauf

uphill

bergab

downhill

Causal adverbs serve as a connection

between two sentences, given that
theyre Konjunktionaladverbien
Ich mchte in Deutschland
leben, deshalb lerne ich gerade
Deutsch
I would like to live in Germany,
therefore I am learning German
It must be emphasized that adverbs
occupy a position and by placing them
at the beginning of a sentence, they
move the subject to the 3rd position.
Main Article: Sentence structure

Construction of locative adverbs by

adding an -s
In German, locative adverbs are also
formed by adding an "s" to nouns.
Noun

Locative adverb

therefore

Adverbs of manner
Adverb

Meaning

die Linke
left

links
to the left

ebenfalls

as well

ansonsten

otherwise

auerdem

in addition

darum

therefore

deswegen

therefore

folglich

thus/consequently

hardly

gern / gerne
The adverb "gern" is used often in
German and its equivalent is "gladly".
The construction "Ich htte gern" is
very common in German and means "I
would like to" and is used to politely
order something.
gern or gerne are exactly the same
but gern is used more often.

Pronoun Adverbs

Adverbs "da-" + preposition

also

therefore

kaum

secondly

auch

deshalb

very

zweitens

thirdly

Meaning

sehr

firstly

drittens

Adverb

Meaning

erstens

rechts
to the right

Causal adverbs indicate the reason or

origin of an action.

Adverb

Pronoun adverbs are the combination

of a preposition and a pronoun and are
used only to refer to things (not for
living things).

das Rechte
right

Causal Adverbs

Adverbs of quantity

Restrictive adverbs
Adverb

Meaning

The adverbs "da-" + preposition are

used very often and their translation
depends greatly on the context:
Ich habe nicht daran gedacht
I didnt think about that
Adverb

Meaning

daran (or dr
an)

at it (preposition an)

nur

only

darauf (or
drauf)

on it (preposition
auf)

wenigstens

at least

daraus

hingegen

on the other hand

from it (preposition
aus)

dabei

present (preposition

bei)
dagegen

against it
(preposition gegen)

darin

in it (preposition in)

damit

with it (preposition
mit)

darber

about it (preposition
ber)

darum

therefore
(preposition um)

dazu

additionally
(preposition zu)

The prepositions are not exactly the

same in German and English and thus
the translation is not exact. Check out
prepositions to get the best translation
in every case.

Adverbs hier + preposition

The adverbs "hier-" + preposition have
practically the same meaning as
adverbs da + "preposition" though
they are used much less often. Their
meaning depends greatly on the
context.

Adver
b

Meaning

hieran

at this (preposition an)

hierauf

on this (preposition auf)

hieraus

from this (preposition

aus)

hierbei

with this or at this

(preposition bei)

hiergeg
en

against this (preposition

gegen)

hierin

in this (preposition in)

hiermit

with this (preposition

mit)

hierbe
r

about this (preposition

ber)

hierzu

for this (preposition zu)

Interrogative adverbs
Main article: Interrogative particles
The most important interrogative adverbs are:

Wann (when)

Wie (how)

Wo (where)

Wie alt (how

Warum (why) old)

Woran
(whereof)

Worber
(what
about)

Wieso (why)

Worauf
(where
upon)

Worum
(what
about)

Wie viel (how

much/many)

Wie lange (how

long)
Woraus
(what from)
Wie oft (how
often)
Wobei (in
which/
Wie teuer (how whereat)
expensive)

Wozu
(what for)

Wohin
(where

Wie weit (how

far)

Wogegen
(against
what)
Worin
(wherein)

to)
Woher
(from
where)

Womit
(where by)

Comparative and superlative with adverbs

Some adverbs can make comparatives and superlatives like adjective. This is the case with "bald", "gern", "oft", and "wohl".
Adverb

Comparative

Superlative

bald
soon

eher
sooner

am ehesten
soonest

gern
gladly

lieber
preferably

am liebsten
most preferably

oft
often

fter
more often

am hufigsten
most often

wohl
well

wohler
better

am wohlsten
best