Sind Sie Arzt? (Are you a doctor?) They are also called Ja-Nein Fragen (W-questions), because all of the Interrogative pronouns and adverbs start with W. Was machen Sie? (What do you do? What are you doing?) They are also called W-Fragen Please telephone ahead.With an interrogative pronoun, e.g. We're flying to Frankfurt this morning at 8. Wir fliegen heute Morgen um 8 nach Frankfurt. Word order: time before place, general time before specific. Of course 'für', 'um', and 'gegen' always take the accusative. When defining a spacial area, the prepositions 'über' and 'auf' take either the accusativeīut in time expressions, they take the accusative. Wir haben uns erst heute Abend kennengelernt. Note that while English defines the beginning of an action or event negatively ('not until'), German does it positively: Er kommt erst um 11. Some days or afternoons we're not here at all, We usually leave approximately at 3 or 4 p.m. Our work hours: We're usually here at 9 or 10, sometimes as early as 8, but occasionally not till 11. She's been living in New York for a month. We've been studying in Berlin for a year. Nach der Deutschstunde muss ich diese Vokabeln lernen.Īfter German class I have to learn these vocabulary items. N.B.: 'seit' means 'since' or 'for' and is used together with the present tense to designate a time span that began in the past and continues into the present. Of course 'seit' and 'nach' always take the dative. Vor einem Jahr habe ich das nicht gewusst. One should take a walk before eating a meal.Ī week ago I was still in Florida. In einer Woche fahren wir in die Schweiz. The sun shines in the winter (in summer). On Monday (in the evening, in the morning) I often eat pizza. Am Montag (am Abend, am Morgen) esse ich oft Pizza. The preposition 'an' is mostly used for parts of the day (except for 'die Nacht') and days of the week. When defining a spacial area, the prepositions 'an', 'in', 'vor' are so-calledīut in time expressions, they take the dative. The analogy to the other masculine parts of the day is stronger than the grammatical gender).ģ) Definite time expressions with prepositions: (Note that in this last example 'die Nacht' is treated as if it were masculine, rather than feminine. (as, of course, are time expressions with 'während'): Eines Tages wird er alles verstehen. Often the 'Uhr' is abbreviated as 'h': 'Es ist 8h 25.'ġ) Definite time expressions without prepositions are in the

Note that when the time is written in numerals only, a period, rather than a colon, normally separates the hours and minutes. Often the adverb 'schon' emphasizes the duration: Ich warte seit einer Stunde. German uses the present tense and a time expression, usually a prepositional phrase with 'seit'. To indicate a continuous action that began in the past and extends to the present, 'We had been wanting to leave for a long time', 'I will be seeing him next week', etc. Tardiness is held to be inconsiderate, even insulting, to those who must wait.Įnglish and German share six basic tenses (theīut German has no 'progressive tenses': 'I am watching you', 'She has been visiting her sister', ( Five minutes ahead of time is true punctuality).

Promptness is a key virtue: 'Fünf Minuten vor der Zeit / Ist die wahre Pünktlichkeit' When members of the two cultures try to work together. North Americans, particularly those of Northern European descent, attach somewhat similar values to time, but Germans carry the attitude further. Hence the saying, 'Arbeit ist Arbeit und Schnaps ist Schnaps.' That means that they take time commitments seriously, do one thing at a time, and concentrate on the job at hand. This light in Hamburg tells pedestrians how many seconds they have to wait for the green. Hall, Germans form a 'low-context,' 'monochronic' culture. In the scheme formulated by the anthropologist Edward T. Signs announce the length of time before the next subway's arrival. Visitors to Germany will notice the ubiquity of clocks, the consistent posting of opening times and office hours, and other forms of temporal orientation. The Importance of Time in German Culture:

Was esse ich heute