How to determine the time in German. german times

Tenses of German verbs

German verbs not only change in numbers and persons, but also change in tenses. The tenses of German verbs are quite comparable with Russian ones - there are present, past and future tenses, only the German language provides for a much richer content and complex formation of some temporary forms. There are six tenses in German, of which one reflects the present tense, two represent the future and three represent the past. Tenses of German verbs can be simple (Präsens and Präteritum, also called Imperfekt) and complex (past tense forms - Perfekt, Plusquamperfekt, future forms - Futur I, II).

The present tense of Präsens displays processes, states or actions that are taking place, existing or taking place at a given moment in time. Präsens is a simple tense in form, that is, it consists of one verb in the corresponding form of person and number, and in almost all cases is formed by adding a personal ending to the stem of the semantic verb. Naturally, the German language cannot do without a number of exceptions to the general rule, since the stem of the verb can end in different letters (such as -t, -d, -tm, -dm, -chn), and then an additional vowel “e” is inserted after them in the second person of both numbers and in the third person Singular (singular), which is dictated by the facilitation of the pronunciation of these words; strong verbs, the three main forms of which are to be memorized, may show the acquisition of an umlaut by the vowel in the second and third person Singular; and the verbs werden, haben, sein, which are very widely used in German, generally conjugate without any rules.

For example:

Dein Trainer hat mir gesagt, dass du im Wasser richtig atmest. - Your trainer told me that you breathe correctly in the water. (In the verb "atmest", an additional vowel "e" is added due to the peculiarity of the stem).

Du rechnest sehr gut, aber zu langsam. Die Ziffern schreibst du richtig. - You think very well, but too slowly. You write the numbers correctly. (In the first case, an additional vowel appears in "rechnest", and in the second, everything happens according to the standard scheme - nothing is added).

Du lässt mir überhaupt keine Hoffnung. You leave me no hope at all. (In the strong verb "lassen", the second and third person Singular are characterized by the acquisition of the vowel "a" of the umlaut).

Du hast eine sehr schöne Mütze, sie hat aber eine, die noch viel schöner ist. You have a very beautiful hat, but her hat is even more beautiful. (Here we see a peculiar formation of the verb "haben - to have" forms of the second and third person Singular).

Duwirst Lehrer, und wird Mechaniker. You will become a teacher, and he will become a mechanic. (The formation of the verb "werden - to become" forms of the second and third person Singular).

Dein Kleid ist ein absoluter Hinguker—ich bin begeistert. Bist du endlich zufrieden? - Your dress is so eye-catching - I'm delighted. Are you finally satisfied? (All three personal forms of the Singular verb "sein" are represented here.)

Wir sind heute im Theater, ihr seid morgen im Theater und sie sind bestraft. - We are going to the theater today, you are going to the theater tomorrow, and they are punished. (Three personal forms of the verb "sein" in the plural (Plural) are also not formed according to the rule).

A feature of the present tense of German verbs is the ability to convey the future tense. In the latter case, the orientation of the action to the future is often emphasized by the corresponding phrases and adverbs (bald - soon, danach - then, später - later, morgen - tomorrow, etc.).

For example:

Ich lese die Zeitschrift, welche mein Mann gestern gekauft hat. I am reading a magazine that my husband bought yesterday. (Here reflects the process of reading, which is happening at the present time).

Morgen spielen wir wieder Schach. Tomorrow we will play chess again. (In this case, the form Präsens conveys an action that is destined to happen in the future).

The tenses of German verbs boast another simple form, consisting of one semantic verb without auxiliary words - this is the past tense Präteritum (Imperfekt). This form is used in German mainly in monologue speech. Weak verbs form Präteritum according to the general, standard scheme for all of them (by adding the ending -te to the stem of the infinitive of a particular verb), and strong verbs form it according to rules that are no longer used in modern German, and therefore must be memorized. The conjugation of verbs in Präteritum is also accompanied by the addition of a personal ending to the stem, but not an infinitive, as happens in Präsens, but the second of the main forms of the verb. A feature of Präteritum is the absence of personal endings in the first and third person Singular, in other cases they coincide with the endings in Präsens).

For example:

Mein Kind wiederholte das Gedicht gestern. - My child repeated this poem yesterday. (The weak verb "wiederholen" forms Präteritum in the standard pattern.)

Gestern verbrachte ich zwei Stunden in der Schwimmhalle. - Yesterday I spent two hours in the pool. (The second form of the strong verb "verbringen" - "verbrachte" - must be remembered).

Du machtest keine Fehler in deinem Aufsatz. You didn't make any mistakes in your essay.

All other tenses of German verbs are complex and are formed using semantic and corresponding auxiliary verbs. In addition to Präteritum, the past tense is expressed by Perfect and Plusquamperfekt. There are no rigid boundaries for the use of the three past tenses; here we can only talk about the frequency of their use.

The next representative of the tenses of German verbs is Perfect, which is formed using one of the auxiliary verbs - sein or haben - and Partizip II (the third of the main forms of the verb).

When conjugated, only the auxiliary verb is changed, which is taken to form Perfect in the present tense. The main areas of application of this tense are dialogic speech and short messages. The choice of an auxiliary verb is dictated by the meaning conveyed by the verb. Thus, verbs denoting the process of transition from one state to another or movement directly form Perfect (and Plusquamperfekt) with the help of the verb "sein". Always form Perfekt (and Plusquamperfekt) with the verb "sein" the verbs folgen - to follow, begegnen - to meet, bleiben - to stay, geschehen - to occur, gelingen - to succeed, werden - to become, sein - to be. With “haben”, a complex structure Perfekt (and Plusquamperfekt) is formed by transitive, reflexive, modal verbs, as well as those that convey a long state (such as schlafen - sleep, warten - wait, stehen - stand, etc.). Due to the lack of form in German verbs, Perfect can convey both completed and incomplete actions in the past, and can also be used to convey actions in the future (a possible, but rare use in speech).

For example:

Ich habe viele verschiedene Kuchen für meine Gäste gebacken. — I baked many different pies for my guests.

Gestern hat er sich endlich rasiert. He finally shaved yesterday.

Wir haben auf euch ewig lange gewartet. We've been waiting for you for ages.

Wir sind mit einem sehr komfortablen Bus gefahren. - We went on a very comfortable bus.

Ich bin gespannt, was dir gelungen ist. - I'm very interested in what you did.

Bis Freitag ist es mir gelungen. I'll be able to do it by Friday.

Plusquamperfekt is another representative of the tense system of German verbs - like Perfekt, it is formed using one of the auxiliary verbs - sein or haben - and Partizip II (the third of the three main forms of the verb). However, here, instead of the Präsens of the corresponding auxiliary verb, as happens in the formation of Perfekt, its Präteritum is taken. In fact, this is its only significant difference from Perfect. At its core, Plusquamperfekt represents an action that precedes Perfect, some call it “prepast”. Unlike the other two German past tenses, Plusquamperfekt denotes a relative action, that is, an action that took place in the past before any other. Most often, the ratio of actions is performed in a pair of Präteritum - Plusquamperfekt. In colloquial speech, this time is rarely used, much more often it can be found in fiction.

For example:

Wir hatten wahnsinnigen Durst, weil wir innerhalb von 10 Stunden nichts getrunken hatten. We were terribly thirsty as we hadn't had anything to drink for 10 hours. (In the colloquial part, it would not be a mistake at all to replace the verb "hatten" with "haben").

Als es zu regnen begann, war sie aus dem Bus bereits ausgestiegen. By the time it started to rain, she had already got off the bus.

The future tenses of German verbs are represented by the commonly used Futur I and Futur II, which is practically not used at all in the modern language. Futur I is formed using the auxiliary verb "werden", which changes in numbers and persons, and the infinitive (Infinitiv I) of the semantic verb. Futur I is often replaced by the simple present Präsens, one of the functions of which is to convey an action that will happen in the future. The construction Futur II consists of the conjugated verb "werden" and the Infinitiv II semantic verb. Futur II conveys the relativity of action, namely the completion of one action in the future before another (also in the future).

For example:

Im nächsten Jahr werde ich an das Schwarze Meer fahren. — Im nächsten Jahr fahre ich an das Schwarze Meer. - Next year I will go to the Black Sea. (Futur I - Präsens)

Wenn wir eine neue Arbeit schreiben, werden wir alle Fehler berücksichtigt haben. - When we write a new work, we will take into account all the mistakes.

Tenses in German - examples of usage

In complex temporary constructions, auxiliary verbs are used along with semantic ones. The meaning of the semantic verb dictates the choice of the auxiliary - it will be haben or sein. Verbs of movement, a quick change of state form complex constructions using sein, and transitive, reflexive, modal verbs and verbs that convey any long state (sleep - schlafen, stand - stehen, etc.) require you to stop the choice on the verb haben , For example:
Unser Kind ist heute sehr schnell eingeschlafen. - Our baby fell asleep very quickly today (quick change of state = sein).
Ich habe einen sehr interessanten Auftrag für Ihre Firma gefunden. - I found a very interesting order for your company (transitive verb = haben).
Mein Mann hat sich fünf Monate lang nicht rasiert. - My husband has not shaved for five months (reflexive verb = haben).
Er ist gegen meinen Willen in me Auto eingesprungen! - He jumped into my car against my will (movement verb = sein).

Tenses in German (regular verbs)

In this way, as shown in the table, tenses in German are formed by the main part of the verbs called regular. However, German also has irregular verbs. To form tenses with such verbs, you will have to get acquainted with their main forms Präteritum and Partizip II, which are impossible to do without. The basic forms of irregular verbs show characteristic root alternations. For example:
regular verbs: zerlegen (disassemble, butcher (carcass)) - zerlegte - zerlegt; vergrössern (increase) - vergrösserte - vergrössert; lösen (release, release, terminate (agreement, etc.), decide, dissolve) - löste - gelöst;
irregular verbs: hingehen (to go there, in a given direction) - ging hin - hingegangen; zerbrechen (break, break) - zerbrach - zerbrochen; entnehmen (take away, borrow, take out) - entnahm - entnommen, etc.

As already mentioned, the existing six German grammatical tense forms are distributed unevenly over real tenses (past, future, present). The present tense is expressed with Präsens, the future with Präsens and Futurum I, and the past with Perfekt, Präteritum or Plusquamperfekt. The tense form Futurum II is specific and is used only when it is necessary to express the precedence of one action in the future to any other. The three forms that reflect the past tense do not differ from each other in any specific temporal shades, but are only inherent in different types of speech activity. So, Perfekt is an integral part of dialogues and, accordingly, colloquial speech, Präteritum mainly finds use in monologues and lengthy descriptions, and Plusquamperfekt (which in such cases can be replaced by the form of Perfekt) helps to convey the precedence of an action to another action transmitted using Prateritum.

Past tense Plusquamperfekt and conjunction nachdem

In life, situations often arise when, when describing some action in the past, there is another action that took place somewhat earlier than it. Accordingly, to reflect this earlier action in the past, an earlier past tense is also necessary. Just such a case of an earlier action in the past is the German Plusquamperfekt. Plusquamperfekt predates German Perfekt in its meaning. Consider simple speech examples:
Petra hat den Pullover gestrickt. - Petra knitted a pullover.
Petra ist aus dem Urlaub zurückgekehrt. Petra is back from vacation.

In both examples, the perfect is used (past tense, perfect). However, if we combine the events into one text, it turns out that first one action took place, and only after it another: Petra first returned from vacation, and then knitted a pullover. In order to correctly reflect this in German, it is necessary to construct statements as follows:
Petra war aus dem Urlaub zurückgekehrt. Petra hat den Pullover gestrickt.

Now the time sequence of actions is observed, however, the proposals are not completely interconnected. To establish this relationship, it is necessary to link these simple sentences into one complex one. This will require a German alliance "after this; after - nachdem. It is this union that most often links complex sentences with the forms of the past and pre-past tenses. At the same time, when using Plusquamperfekt as the past tense, the past in a complex sentence will be the simple past Präteritum (this is a grammatically perfect agreement of tenses). The use of perfect forms in such situations (instead of Präteritum) also seems quite possible and is not erroneous, for example:
Nachdem Petra aus dem Urlaub zurückgekehrt war, strickte sie den Pullover. = Nachdem Petra aus den Urlaub zurückgekehrt war, hat sie den Pullover gestrickt. - After Petra returned from vacation, she knitted a pullover.

From the above examples, it can be seen that if for the formation of perfect forms auxiliary verbs are put in the Präsens forms, then for the formation of pluperfect forms they are put in the Präteritum forms, but in practice Perfect is also widely used.

The Plusquamperfekt forms can also be used in the passive voice, for example:
Nachdem der Bankräuber von der Bezirkspolizei festgenommen worden war, konnten sie nach Hause fahren. - After the bank robber was caught by the regional police, they could go home.
Nachdem diese leckere Pilzsuppe zubereitet worden war, wurden wir alle zum Mittagessen eingeladen. - After this delicious mushroom soup was prepared, we were all invited to dinner.

In general, the past tense form Plusquamperfekt is used very infrequently in German speech, and is especially rare in its colloquial variant.

Ways of expressing time in German

There are different ways to express time in German. If some event or action took place only once in the past, then the German union "als" is used, for example:

Als Thomas Sarah sah, war sie schon zu einer Tasse Kaffee eingeladen. - When Thomas saw Sarah, she was already invited for a cup of coffee (a one-time action in the past).
Als unser Vater nach Hause kam, war das Abendessen schon fertig. - When our father came home, dinner was already ready (in the past, a single action).

When actions or phenomena are not inherent in a single character, and they occur repeatedly, the German union "wenn" is used, for example:
Immer wenn Thomas Sarah sah, war sie schon zu einer Tasse Kaffee eingeladen. - Whenever Thomas saw Sarah, she was already invited for a cup of coffee (a multiple action in the past).
Jeweils wenn unser Vater nach Hause kam, war das Abendessen schon fertig. - Every time our father came home, dinner was already ready (in the past - multiple action).
Wenn er eine günstigere Lösung findet, muss er sich bei uns melden. - When he finds a better solution, he must inform us (in the future - a single action).
Wenn er Fehler findet, muss er uns sofort darüber informieren. - When he finds errors, he must immediately inform us about this (in the future - multiple action).
Wenn du das erforderliche Spielzeug findest, sage mir Bescheid. - If you find the right toy, tell me (in the future, a single action).
Wenn Barbara in der Schule frühstücken wird, müßt ihr das bezahlen. - If Barbara eats breakfast at school, you have to pay for it (multiple action in the future).

There are such speech situations when a thought can be expressed without using a subordinate clause. In such situations, clauses are replaced by the words "meanwhile - inzwischen" or "then - dann", which, as a rule, take on the functions of secondary members and require the use of reverse word order in sentences (otherwise, they take places after the main members inside statements), for example:
Zuerst kam Holger an, danach kann sein Neffe. - Holger arrived first, and then his nephew arrived.
Zunächst hat unser Chef diese Entscheidung getroffen, dann verstand er seinen Fehler. - At first, our boss made this decision, and then he realized his mistake.
Seine Kollegen führten alle Versuche durch, inzwischen bekam unsere Vertriebsabteilung neue Vorschriften. - His colleagues have already carried out all the tests, and in the meantime our sales department has received new regulations.
Alle Familienangehörigen waren gerade beim Abendessen, da klopfte jemand an der Tür. All family members were just having dinner when someone knocked on the door.

In addition to the aforementioned unions, "wann" - an interrogative pronoun, can also be used to express temporary relations, for example:
Wann bekomme ich meinen Stempel? - When will I receive my seal?
Jennifer weiß nicht, wann sie ihren Koffer bekommt. Jennifer doesn't know when she will get her suitcase.

There is a definite difference between "wann" and "wenn" and should not be confused. When the moment at which the event will occur is unknown, "wann" is used, for example:
Die Kinder wissen nicht, wann der Spiel beginnt. - The children do not know when the game will start.
Wisst ihr, wann wir die nächste Lieferung bekommen? - Do you know when we will receive the next shipment?

Historical and futuristic presence

Starting to learn German, the student first of all encounters simple forms of words and expressions that are used in the present tense. This is because it is difficult for a beginner to remember basic information about the construction of sentences, about the ending of verbs, about such an interesting part of speech in German as the article. At first, many lose it, forget about it, because it has no analogue in Russian. Therefore, it is methodically correct to build your knowledge gradually, as they say, brick by brick.

The simplest tense form is the present tense Präsens. But at the very beginning, only its main meanings are studied:
An indication of an event that occurs at the moment of speech.

Z. B: Ich gehe in die Bibliothek. - I'm going to the library.
An action taking place at the moment of speech, which has an indefinite duration.
Z.B.: Wir besuchen die Schule nur ein Jahr. - We attend school for only a year.
Everyone knows the facts, for example, the titles of books.

Z. B.: Kerstin Gier „Robinrot. Liebe geht durch alle Zeiten.“

But, unfortunately, the additional meanings of Präsens are always skimmed over. These include:

The present tense of historical events, the so-called historical Präsens,

And the events that have taken place in terms of the future are a futuristic presence.

Historical presence is used to make historical events more real or to introduce the reader to that period so that he feels part of what is being said.

Z. B.: Der letzte preußische Posten ist passiert; der kleine Trupp marschiert über baumlose Landstraße, vorbei an den Feldern, auf denen Inseln mit Unkraut wuchern. (bredel)

That is, the reader is directly transferred to the time in which the events take place. It turns out that historical time lives in the present and there is a reduction in time frames.

Die Londoner Literatur des 19. Jahrhunderts fängt an mit Charles Dickens (1812-1870); aber der gehört doch eher schon in die nächste, die viktorianische Epoche. (Die Zeit, 07/03/1992, Nr. 28)

Of course, the use of presence in this case is optional, it can be replaced by the simple past tense, but then the vivid sense of perception of past events is lost. And also the transfer of the reader to the thick of things disappears.

There are such forms of historical presentation:
"reporting presence" is different in that it is used to convey events that have just happened. If such information is transmitted using the preterite, then it will be necessary to indicate additional explanatory words that would clarify the period of what is happening in the recent past. This form describes events in a clear sequence.
The "imagined" presence is used to describe imaginary events that cannot be connected by any time. For example, the titles of paintings or remarks in plays.
Approximation of real past events to real time:

Z. B: Gestern gehe ich die Einkaufsstraße hinunter, da sehe ich, wie zwei bewaffnete maskierte Männer aus der Bank gelaufen kommen.

With regard to futuristic presence, it must be taken into account that in German there is some blurring between the present and the future tense in conversation. Therefore, the present tense is often used in the sense of the future when there are well-defined words indicating an action that will happen soon (morgen, bald, in einer Zeit). In addition, most often this form refers to a text that semantically refers to a planned action.

Of course, futuristic presence can be used without the above adverbs, then the context itself indicates the future of the action:

Wir halten Sie auf dem Laufenden. - We will keep you updated [“Stern”, 2004].

Or the adjective weiter can indicate that the action will take place in the future or sequentially:

Weitere Infos erhalten Sie bei Ihrem Skoda-Partner unter: www/octavia-combi/de etc.
["Der Spiegel", 2006].

Thus, semantically, the German language is characterized by an extended form of presence.

Then another question arises: when is it worth returning to this important part of German grammar? For many methodologists, the answer will be very simple: when all the main temporary forms are mastered by the student. It was then that it was fashionable to show the blurring of the futuristic presence and the completeness of the historical.

As exercises, you can use the following tasks:
Determine the temporal form of the text, indicate the differences between the historical and future presentation.
Describe these ongoing events using historical presence. In other words, write some news.
Replace the future tense with a form of futuristic presence where necessary.

So, you got to the topic: german times. What do you need to understand before you start to delve into it? Everything is very simple! In German, as well as in ours, we first of all consider three time planes: present, past and future. In some of them, we work simply with a semantic verb, and in some, in addition to semantic ones, we also need helpers in the form of auxiliary verbs.

let's consider tenses in german clearer!

The tense system in German

In our presentation topic: tenses in german table to convey an action in the present, past and future looks like this:

Table of tenses in German:

Formulas of tenses in German

Formation of tenses in German it is most convenient to present in the form of formulas, in which the main attention is paid to changes in the verb.

Cases of using one or another tense:

There is another type of Futur II time to convey a finished action in the future by the time another action in the future begins. But it is used extremely rarely, so we decided not to consider it in the format of this article.

Do you have difficulty learning the language? The teachers of our studio use classical and the latest teaching methods, take advantage of our offer: German for beginners in groups and with a tutor, business German.

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Time in German is a grammatical category of a verb that expresses the temporal relations of events to a certain point in time: for example, to the moment of speech or to the moment of another action.

Präsens is the simple present tense, which conveys an action that is happening at the moment, a constant or repetitive action.

Present tense. Präsens

Präteritum (Imperfekt) is the simple past tense, used more often in narrative, dialogue, showing that the action happened sometime in the past. Präteritum, like Präsens, is formed by adding a personal ending to the stem of the second form of the verb.

Präteritum for weak (regular) verbs

Präteritum for strong (irregular) verbs

Perfect is the past compound tense, which also serves to convey an event in the past tense. Used in colloquial speech.

Complicated past tense. Perfect

Plusquamperfekt is a compound past tense that denotes an action completed in the past or a long time ago.

Compound past tense.Plusquamperfekt

Futur I and Futur II are complex future times. The first expresses the future of the action and is formed using the auxiliary verb werden in the present tense and the semantic verb in Infinitiv I. The second tense is practically not used today.

Futur I examples:

● Hier ist meine Address.
▲ Danke! Ich werde dich bestimmt besuchen!
● Here is my address.
▲ Thank you, I will definitely visit you.

Video. The use of tenses in German:

How do they talk about time in Germany, what phrases do they use? We will analyze this in this article. So we have today German language theme Time!

Naturally, you need to know the German words "minute, hour, second." Note that these words will be used with the article die:

• The time will be in German die Zeit.
• The hour is in German die Stunde
• Minute in German die Minute
• Second in German die Sekunde

First, let's look at and learn phrases related to time:

• die Zeit haben- have time
• die Zeit Verlieren- Waste time
• keine Zeit haben- don't have time
• viel/wenig Zeit haben- have a lot / little time

How do you say "how long does it take"?

• dauern- last
• Wie lange dauert das? — how much/how long does it take?
• Das dauert eine Stunde lang it lasts one hour.
• Das dauert Stunden lang it lasts for hours.
• Das dauert eine Sekunde lang it lasts one second.
• Das dauert eine Minute(lang can be omitted) - this lasts one minute.
• Das dauert funf Minuten(lang) - it lasts one 5 minutes.

What do the Germans say when a person is in a hurry or late:

• in Eile sein— hurry / be in a hurry
• zu spat sein - be late
• beeil dich! — hurry up!
• Schneller! | Schnell! — Faster!
• Nun aber dally! — And now quickly! Live!
• Nun aber zack, zack! — And now one or two! Live! Come quickly!

Answer the question "how much time do you have?":

• Wieviel Zeit hast du? — How much time do you have?
• Ich habe keine Zeit. — I have no time.
• Ich habe viel Zeit. — I have a lot of time.
• Ich habe wenig Zeit. — I do not have much time.
• Ich habe zwei Stunden. — I have 2 hours.

German language Topic Time: expressions and sayings about time

• Eile mit Weile! — Hurry up slowly! The quieter you go, the further you'll get.
• Gut Ding will Weile haben! — Good work takes time.
• Was du heute kannst besorgen, das verschiebe nicht auf morgen. — What you can do today, do not put off until tomorrow.
• Verschoben ist nicht aufgehoben. — Postponed - not forgotten.
• Zeit ist Geld! — Time is money!

"What time is it now?" or "What time is it" in German:

• Wie spat ist es? — What time is it now? How much time?
• Wieviel Uhr ist es? — What time is it now? How much time?
• -Es ist 17.00 Uhr. — 17.00 hours.

And to ask "what time / what time?" need to say:

• Um wieviel Uhr? — At what time? At what time?
• We answer this:
  Um zwei Uhr (Uhr can be omitted ). — At 2 o'clock.
• Um fünf vor zwölf.(11.55/23.55). — At 11.55/23.55

To mark the time exist two ways: official and unofficial. Officially, the time is indicated in accordance with the 24-hour dial:

• Es ist neun Uhr dreißig (9.30) — Time 9.30 a.m.
• Es ist vierzehn Uhr fünfzehn (14.15) — Time 2.15 p.m.
• Es ist einundzwanzig Uhr vierzig (21.40) — Time 21.40 h.

In informal communication 12 hour cycle is used. Incidentally, in an informal conversational communication for hours the word Uhr and for minutes the word Minuten are rarely added; most often omitted in speech:

• Es ist zwei Uhr (2.00) / Es ist zwei.(2.00) — Time 2 hours.
  Es ist zwanzig vor acht (7.40). — Time 7.40

Also, to make it clearer what time of day is spoken in informal communication, it is possible add these definitions:

• morgens- in the morning
• vormittags- in the morning / before lunch
• mittags- noon / lunch
• nachmittags- afternoon/afternoon
• abends- In the evening
• nachts- at night

• Example: Es ist zwanzig vor acht morgens. — 7.40 am.

What is vor, nach, halb, Viertel when indicating time?

Viertel - quarter, fourth part. We use Viertel as a designation for 15 minutes.

Pretext vor we use if we want to say how many minutes are left until some hour. And vor we use after breaking the clock half an hour, when the hand is on the left side of the dial! For example:

Es ist Viertel vor vier (15.45)- Literally translated, then "now 15 minutes to (vor) four o'clock", i.e. 15 minutes left until 4pm.

Preposition nach we use if we want to say how many minutes have passed since a certain hour. But at the same time, we use nach before breaking through on the clock for half an hour (30 minutes), when the arrow is on the right side of the dial!

• Es ist Viertel nach vier (16.15) — 15 minutes after four or 4:15 p.m.
• Es ist fünfundzwanzig nach vier (16.25) — 25 minutes after four or 4:25 p.m.

Well, the last moment: halb - half . We use this word when we want to say that it is already half an hour (17.30):

Es ist halb zehn abends (21.30)- Half past nine or nine thirty in the evening.

Es ist halb sechs (17.30)- Half past five.

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