Table of Contents
Talking about time in the past
In this chapter you learn how to say when something happened. You will see the most common German time expressions that you need together with past tenses. Do not worry about verb forms here, focus on the words that tell you “when”.
Today, yesterday, tomorrow
First, learn the basic time words that you use all the time:
| English | German |
|---|---|
| today | heute |
| yesterday | gestern |
| tomorrow | morgen |
| the day after tomorrow | übermorgen |
| the day before yesterday | vorgestern |
Notice that “morgen” means “tomorrow”. For “in the morning” you need a different form, which you will see later in this chapter.
You can usually put these words at the beginning of the sentence or after the verb.
Example:
“Heute habe ich viel Arbeit.”
“Gestern war er krank.”
Important rule:
A time expression can stand at the beginning of the sentence. Then it takes position 1 and the finite verb must stand in position 2.
Time expressions with “this”, “last”, “next”
To say “this week” or “last year” you need special adjectives.
| English | German |
|---|---|
| this morning | heute Morgen |
| this evening | heute Abend |
| this week | diese Woche |
| this month | diesen Monat |
| this year | dieses Jahr |
| last night | gestern Abend |
| last week | letzte Woche |
| last month | letzten Monat |
| last year | letztes Jahr |
| next week | nächste Woche |
| next month | nächsten Monat |
| next year | nächstes Jahr |
You already see that “diese, letzte, nächste” change their endings. The exact grammar belongs to adjectives and cases, so here you only learn to recognize and use the most common fixed combinations.
Example:
“Letzte Woche war ich krank.”
“Nächstes Jahr mache ich Urlaub in Italien.”
For “this morning / this evening / tonight” German often uses “heute” plus a part of the day: “heute Morgen”, “heute Abend”, “heute Nacht”. This is very natural and common.
Days, months, and years in the past
You already know days and months from an earlier chapter. Now combine them with prepositions and adverbs to talk about past events.
Very often German uses only the time word without a preposition:
“Am Montag war ich im Kino.”
“Im Juli war es sehr warm.”
“2005 war ich in Berlin.”
However, with “vor” and “seit” you can show distance in time.
“vor” with a time period
“vor” tells you how long ago something happened. It only refers to the past.
Pattern:
Formula:
vor + time expression in Dative = X time ago
Example: vor zwei Tagen = two days ago
Common periods:
| English | German |
|---|---|
| one hour ago | vor einer Stunde |
| two hours ago | vor zwei Stunden |
| three days ago | vor drei Tagen |
| a week ago | vor einer Woche |
| two weeks ago | vor zwei Wochen |
| a month ago | vor einem Monat |
| six months ago | vor sechs Monaten |
| a year ago | vor einem Jahr |
| many years ago | vor vielen Jahren |
Use it like this:
“Vor einem Jahr habe ich Deutsch gelernt.”
“Vor zwei Tagen war ich beim Arzt.”
“vor” always places the whole event in the past. The action is finished.
“seit” with a time period
“seit” tells you when an action started, and usually it continues until now.
Pattern:
Formula:
seit + time expression in Dative = since / for (from past until now)
Example: seit zwei Jahren = for two years / since two years ago
Examples of periods:
| English | German |
|---|---|
| for two weeks | seit zwei Wochen |
| for three months | seit drei Monaten |
| for five years | seit fünf Jahren |
| since last year | seit letztem Jahr |
| since Monday | seit Montag |
| since 2018 | seit 2018 |
In German you normally use the present tense with “seit”, even if English often uses past.
“Seit zwei Jahren wohne ich in Berlin.”
“Seit Montag bin ich krank.”
The action started before and is still true now.
Time of day: morning, afternoon, evening
To talk about the time of day in a general way you use the preposition “am” plus the part of the day.
| English | German |
|---|---|
| in the morning | am Morgen |
| in the afternoon | am Nachmittag |
| in the evening | am Abend |
| at night | in der Nacht |
For past events:
“Am Morgen war ich müde.”
“Am Abend habe ich ferngesehen.”
“In der Nacht hat es stark geregnet.”
If you want to be precise and say “yesterday morning”, you often combine “gestern” with the part of the day:
“Gestern Morgen hat es geschneit.”
“Gestern Abend war ich im Theater.”
You can also say:
“Heute Morgen” for “this morning”
“Heute Nachmittag” for “this afternoon”
Time and date together
German usually goes from the most general information to the most specific. A very common natural order is:
Time (day / date) + time of day + time on the clock
Example:
“Am Freitagabend um 8 Uhr war ich im Restaurant.”
“Gestern Nachmittag um 3 Uhr hatte ich einen Termin.”
You can also put the time expression at the beginning and then keep the verb in position 2.
“Gestern um 9 Uhr bin ich aufgestanden.”
“Am 3. Mai 2020 habe ich geheiratet.”
If you do not need the exact time on the clock, you can use only the day or date.
Frequency and repetition in the past
Sometimes you want to say how often something happened in the past. For this you use adverbs of frequency. They work in present and in past.
| English | German |
|---|---|
| always | immer |
| usually | meistens |
| often | oft |
| sometimes | manchmal |
| rarely / seldom | selten |
| never | nie |
You can also say how many times:
| English | German |
|---|---|
| once | einmal |
| twice | zweimal |
| three times | dreimal |
| many times | viele Male / oft |
Typical sentences about the past:
“Früher bin ich oft ins Kino gegangen.”
“Als Kind war ich immer müde.”
“Letztes Jahr habe ich zweimal Urlaub gemacht.”
The detailed rules for “früher” and “als” belong to other chapters about the past, but you can already recognize them as time expressions.
Position of time expressions in the sentence
German likes the order: “time, manner, place”. Time often comes early in the sentence. You have two very common positions.
- At the beginning of the sentence:
“Gestern habe ich meine Freunde getroffen.” - After the conjugated verb or after the subject:
“Ich habe gestern meine Freunde getroffen.”
Both are correct. In spoken German, you will hear both often.
Important rule:
If a time expression is at the beginning of the sentence, it is in position 1. The conjugated verb must still stay in position 2. The subject then usually comes directly after the verb.
Example:
Heute (1) habe (2) ich Deutschunterricht.
Do not put too many different time expressions together when you start. Use one or two, for example:
“Letzte Woche habe ich meine Oma besucht.”
“Vor zwei Jahren war ich in Spanien im Urlaub.”
At A2 level this is completely fine and clear.
Summary
With “gestern”, “heute”, “morgen”, “letzte Woche”, “vor zwei Jahren”, and “seit drei Monaten” you can already tell a lot of stories about your life. In your own sentences, always ask: “When did it happen?” and try to add at least one time expression.
At this level, do not worry about every small case ending. Focus on using the correct word and the basic formula with “vor” and “seit”. Accuracy will come with practice.
Vocabulary list
| German | English |
|---|---|
| heute | today |
| gestern | yesterday |
| morgen | tomorrow |
| übermorgen | the day after tomorrow |
| vorgestern | the day before yesterday |
| heute Morgen | this morning |
| heute Nachmittag | this afternoon |
| heute Abend | this evening |
| heute Nacht | tonight / this night |
| diese Woche | this week |
| diesen Monat | this month |
| dieses Jahr | this year |
| letzte Woche | last week |
| letzten Monat | last month |
| letztes Jahr | last year |
| nächste Woche | next week |
| nächsten Monat | next month |
| nächstes Jahr | next year |
| am Morgen | in the morning |
| am Nachmittag | in the afternoon |
| am Abend | in the evening |
| in der Nacht | at night |
| vor | ago (with time expression) |
| vor einer Stunde | one hour ago |
| vor zwei Tagen | two days ago |
| vor einer Woche | a week ago |
| vor einem Monat | a month ago |
| vor einem Jahr | a year ago |
| seit | since / for (from past to now) |
| seit zwei Wochen | for two weeks |
| seit drei Monaten | for three months |
| seit fünf Jahren | for five years |
| seit Montag | since Monday |
| seit 2018 | since 2018 |
| am Freitag | on Friday |
| am Wochenende | at the weekend |
| immer | always |
| meistens | usually |
| oft | often |
| manchmal | sometimes |
| selten | rarely / seldom |
| nie | never |
| einmal | once |
| zweimal | twice |
| dreimal | three times |
| viele Male | many times |
| früher | earlier, in the past |
| Termin | appointment |
| Urlaub | vacation / holiday |