Days, Months, Seasons

Days, Months, Seasons in German and some related words can be found here. Let’s start with the days of the week!

The days of the week – Die Tage der Woche

They are all masculine nouns with the article der:

Der

Montag – Monday
Dienstag – Tuesday
Mittwoch – Wednesday
Donnerstag – Thursday
Freitag – Friday
Samstag ( / Sonnabend) – Saturday
Sonntag – Sunday

You have to pay attention to Mittwoch as it is rather different in English. Mitt- refers to the word middle, woch refers to the week. So it literally means the middle of the week.

If you want to say on Monday, on Tuesday etc., you have to use am before the name of the day:

am Montag – on Monday
am Dienstag – on Tuesday
and so on

If you want to say every Monday or on Mondays you can say:

jeden Montag – every Monday

or:

montags – on Mondays

Other useful phrases:

nächsten Montag – next Monday
letzten Montag – last Monday

The names of the months – Die Namen der Monate

They are all masculine with the article der – just like the days. It is easy, isn’t it?

Der

Januar – January
Februar – February
März – March
April – April
Mai – May
Juni – June
Juli – July
August – August
September – September
Oktober – October
November – November
Dezember – December

You should pay attention to März, it seems difficult. But the other words are easy. Juni and Juli are quite similar. Oktober is written with a k (not c) and Dezember is written with a z (not c). Furthermore the German people does not really like y. So you leave it at the end of Januar and Februar, even you write i instead of y at the end of Mai and Juli.
Note that January is referred to as Jänner in Austria.

im Januar – in January
im Februar – in February
im März – in March
and so on

Take care! The English in is im here in German! So, not with n but m! They sometimes use im instead of in. The reason is the dative case with a definite article with in.

The four seasons – Die vier Jahreszeiten

All of them are masculine with the article der – like the days and the months. Once the articles get simple!

der

Frühling – spring
Sommer – summer
Herbst – autumn / fall
Winter – winter

Winter is super easy. Sommer is a little more difficult. Frühling and Herbst are totally different. It can help you if you remember that früh means early. So Frühling refers to the early stage of the year when the nature awakens. Herbst is Herbst – what can we do with it? Maybe, if you think of herbals, some kind of beneficial tea, you may think of the autumn when people often catch a cold and drink beverages like this.

im Frühling – in spring
im Sommer – in summer
im Herbst – in autumn
im Winter – in winter

jeden Sommer – every summer

vorigen Sommer – last summer

nächsten Sommer – next summer

diesen Sommer – this summer

Some extra words:

der Tag, die Tage – the day, the days
die Woche, die Wochen – the week, the weeks
der Monat, die Monate – the month, the months
die Jahreszeit, die Jahreszeiten – the season, the seasons

Some example sentences:

Ich werde am Dienstag arbeiten – I am going to work on Tuesday.
Es ist im Winter kalt – It is cold in winter.
Mein Bruder ist im Februar geboren – My brother was born in February.
Wir arbeiten jeden Tag – We work every day.
Jeden Sommer ist es warm hier – Every summer it is warm here.
Wir arbeiten sonntags nicht – We do not work on Sundays.
Vorigen Sommer waren wir in Italien – Last summer we were in Italy.
Letzten Freitag habe ich viel gearbeitet – Last Friday I worked a lot.

Some exercises:

Translate into German:

on Thursday, on Saturday
in June, in July
in autumn, in spring
next Sunday, next Monday
last Winter, last Wednesday

Translate into English:

im Sommer, im Frühling
vorigen Sommer
jeden Samstag
im März
nächsten Herbst