Which preposition goes with the time?
Use um for a clock time, am for a weekday, and im for a month or season. These familiar combinations tell the listener when an event happens.
Am Freitag beginnt der Kurs um sieben Uhr.
On Friday the course starts at seven.
What about parts of the day?
Learn am Morgen, am Nachmittag and am Abend, but in der Nacht. A word such as heute stands alone: do not add a preposition to it.
Heute bleiben wir zu Hause.
Today we are staying at home.
A range has two endpoints
Use von … bis … for the beginning and end of a schedule. This differs from a duration such as drei Stunden, which says how long.
Die Bibliothek ist von zehn bis sechzehn Uhr geöffnet.
The library is open from 10:00 to 16:00.
How often is not the same as when
Immer means always, oft often, manchmal sometimes, selten rarely and nie never. The middle terms are approximate descriptions, not fixed percentages.
Im Winter fahren wir oft mit dem Bus.
In winter we often travel by bus.
The time phrase can come first
In a short statement, keep the conjugated verb in the second slot. The whole opening phrase counts as one unit, even when it contains several words.
Am Freitag spiele ich Tennis.
On Friday I play tennis.
Practise time phrases and frequency
The A1 block includes a frequency reference, explanations, controlled practice, a block check and spaced review. It requires course access or an eligible seven-day trial. The first 10 blocks of each language remain free.
Explore this grammar blockKeep building your sentences
First, review numbers, clock times and dates. Then review German sentence order or separable verbs for daily routines. New to German? Begin with the free starter blocks.
Source and scope
Original examples. See the IDS explanation of time points, ranges, duration and frequency and the Goethe-Institut Start Deutsch 1 inventory, time expressions inventory. These selected patterns are part of beginner learning; this guide does not establish full A1 proficiency.