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Time expressions, days and parts of days, weeks, months, seasons

and years

I. Time Expressions

- The two common ways of asking the time of day are:


(1) "Wie spät ist es?" and "Wie viel Uhr ist es?" (What time is it?)

- 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.

II. Days and parts of days


- The parts of the day are all masculine with the exception of "die Nacht" und "die
Mitternacht".

- der Morgen (morning)


- der Vormittag (forenoon/ morning)
- der Mittag (noon/ midday)
- der Nachmittag (afternoon)
- der Abend (evening)
- die Nacht (night)
- die Mitternacht (midnight)

- All expressions referring to whole days are masculine. These include:


1. the word 'day': der Tag
2. the days of the week: der Montag, der Dienstag, der Mittwoch, der Donnerstag, der
Freitag, der Samstag, der Sonntag
3. dates: der 25. Mai

- "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

III. "Weeks, months, seasons and years".


-The months and the seasons are all masculine:
- Months: der Januar, der Februar, der März, der April, der Mai, der Juni, der Juli, der
August, der September, der Oktober, der November, der Dezember
- Seasons: der Frühling (spring), der Sommer (summer), der Herbst (autumn, fall), der
Winter (winter)

- The word for "week" is feminine: die Woche, -n.


- The word for "year" is neuter: das Jahr, -e.

1. Months and seasons ("im")


"IM" (the contraction of "in dem") is used with the names of the months and seasons:

(14) Er war im März hier. (He was here in March.)


(15) Sie kommt im Herbst. (She is coming in the fall.)

2. Weeks ("in der", "in"):

(16) In der zweiten Woche. (In the second week.)


(17) In einer Woche, in zwei Wochen. (in a week, in two weeks, etc.)
→ These expressions are also always in the dative case.

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.

(18) Er ist im Jahr(e) 1985 nach Frankfurt gezogen.


(19) Er ist 1985 nach Frankfurt gezogen.
(He moved to Frankfurt in 1985.)

- Both "im Jahr(e) 1985" and “1985” are correct, but the shorter form is far more common in
everyday speech.

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