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and years
I. Time Expressions
- Where English uses the preposition "at" (e.g. at eight o'clock), German uses the preposition
"um" (um acht Uhr):
(2) Er kommt um acht Uhr. (He's coming at eight o'clock.)
→ "Um" is used to indicate exact time.
1. Full hours:
(3) Es ist acht Uhr. (It is eight o'clock.)
Note 1: "Um" is not used in telling a Person the time of day, i.e. in answering the question "Wie spät
ist es?" This corresponds to English usage: English does not use the preposition "at" in such cases.
2. Half hours:
- In English the half hour always refers back to the last full hour:
(4) 7:30 = It's half past seven.
In German, however, it refers to the next full hour:
(5) 7:30 = Es ist halb acht. --> it's half (of the way to) eight.
3. Quarter hours:
- The most common way to telling time is to use the prepositions "nach" (after the hour) and
"vor" (before the hour):
(6) 8:15 = Es ist Viertel nach acht. (It is quarter after eight.)
(7) 7:45 = Es ist Viertel vor acht. (It is quarter to eight.)
4. Minutes
- Expressions referring to minutes require the preposition "nach" or "vor":
(8) 3:10 = Es ist zehn (Minuten) nach drei.
(9) 3:25 = Es ist fünfundzwanzig (Minuten) nach drei.
3:30 = halb vier
3:25 = fünf (Minuten) vor halb vier
(10) 3.35 = Es ist fünfundzwanzig (Minuten) vor vier.
= fünf nach halb vier
Note 2: "Nach" and "vor" are used like their English equivalents "after" ("past") and "before" ("to")
Note 3: Like the word "minutes", the "Minuten" is often omitted.
- "AM"
- All time expressions referring to days and parts of days may be used with "am" - with the
exception of "Nacht" and "Mitternacht":
(11) Er kommt am Donnerstag (am 23. Mai, am Abend).
He is coming on Thursday (on the twenty-third of May, in the evening).
- EXCEPTIONS:
(12) in der Nacht; (13) um Mitternacht
3. Years ("im”)
- In naming a specific year, German either uses (18), the full phrase "im Jahr(e)" plus the
year or (19), it uses the year alone, without a preposition. You can't refer to years the way
we do in English: *in 1985.
- Both "im Jahr(e) 1985" and “1985” are correct, but the shorter form is far more common in
everyday speech.