This is how you TELL the TIME in German (like Germans do)

VANESSA
Ich bin so krank. Welcher Tag ist heute überhaupt?
(I’m so sick. What day is it today anyway?)

DENISA
Du Arme. Heute ist Dienstag.
(You poor thing. Today is Tuesday.)

If you want to learn how to say all seven days of the week in German, you are at the right place at the right time. Ich bin Spring German Lehrerin Denisa und hier sind die Wochentage: (I’m Spring German teacher Denisa and here are the days of the week:)

1. Die Wochentage (the days of the week)

• Montag (Monday)

Tag (day) means “day” in German. So almost every day of the week ends with Tag (day), so you can see that Montag (Monday) can be translated  as Monday.

• Dienstag (Tuesday)
• Mittwoch (Wednesday)

Woche (week) means “week” in German. Mittwoch is short for Mitte der Woche (middle of the week) and means “middle of the week”.

• Donnerstag (Thursday)

Fun fact: Donner (thunder) means “thunder” in German.

• Freitag (Friday)

Did you recognize that “Freitag” (Friday) sounds a bit like Friday? Some Wochentage (days of the week) sound almost the same as in English:

• Montag (Monday) – Monday
• Freitag (Friday)- Friday

Another Wochentag (day of the week) also sounds similar to German. We will come to that in a second.

ALISHA
Heute ist Freitag, also hast du frei, oder?
(Today is Friday, so you are free, right?)

DENISA
Nein. Am Freitag müssen wir auch arbeiten.
(No. On Friday we have to go to work, too.)

ALISHA
Warum heißt es dann Freitag?
(Then why is it called Friday?)

“Frei” means “free” in German. But we don’t have free time on Friday, then why is it called Freitag (Friday)? Feel free to make some assumptions about the reason in the comments below.

• Samstag (Saturday)
• Sonntag (Sunday)

Sonntag means literally the same as Sunday. Sonne (sun) means “sun” and you now know that Tag (day) means “day”, Sonntag (Sunday). Also, doesn’t Sonntag (Sunday) sound similar to Sunday, too?

Guys before we continue, at the end of this video we will do a quiz to check our knowledge, so stay tuned.

2. Schönes Wochenende (Have a nice weekend)

DENISA (closes Laptop)
Endlich fertig mit der Arbeit. Ich geh’ jetzt nachhause, Vanessa. Schönes Wochenende!
(Finally done working. I’m going home now, Vanessa. Have a nice weekend!)

VANESSA
Alles klar. Dir auch ein schönes Wochenende!
(Alright. Have a nice weekend, too!)

Chunk alert!

Now you know that the words Samstag (Saturday) and Sonntag (Sunday) are the days of the weekend. But what if you want to wish somebody a great weekend? You can’t say: Oh, I wish you a great Samstag (Saturday) and Sonntag (Sunday). I mean, you can, but a better way to wish a great weekend is to say Schönes Wochenende! (Have a nice weekend!) as seen in the dialogue before.

What are chunks you ask? Chunks are word combinations that natives use all the time and that you can learn by heart as a whole. Get the most important German chunks you need for a conversation in our free essential German chunking kit. The link is in the description.

3. Tag, Woche, Wochentag, Wochenende (day, week, day of the week, weekend)

Here are some topic words that will help you when speaking German:

• Tag (day)
• Woche (week)
• Wochentag (day of the week)
• Wochenende (weekend)

Some examples:

• Auf unserem Kanal kommen zweimal die Woche Videos. (On our YouTube channel there are videos twice a week.)
• Welcher Wochentag ist heute? (What day of the week is today?)
• Was sind deine Pläne für’s Wochenende? (What are your plans for the weekend?)

4. gestern, heute, morgen (yesterday, today, tomorrow)

Here are some chunks that will help you to talk about what you did yesterday or what you are planning to do today or tomorrow.

• gestern (yesterday)
• heute (today)
• morgen (tomorrow)

If you want to say something about the day before yesterday you say vorgestern (the day before yesterday). The day before that is “vorvorgestern” and so on. So you only have to put the prefix “vor-” in front of “gestern” (yesterday).

But if you want to talk about the days after morgen (tomorrow), you need to put the prefix “über-” in front. So the day after tomorrow is “übermorgen” (the day after tomorrow), the day after that is “überübermorgen” and so on.

5. Quiz

Let’s do a quiz to test your knowledge. The answers will be in the dialogue after.

1. What’s “yesterday” in German?
2. What’s “tomorrow” in German?
3. What does “Samstag” (Saturday) mean in English?
4. What does “Wochenende” (weekend) mean in English?

Pause the video to make some notes.

Here are your results in a dialogue. I hope you will find all the answers. Write them in the comments and I’ll correct them for you.

DENISA
Gestern war es wieder so kalt draußen. Wie wird das Wetter heute?
(Yesterday, it was so cold outside again. How is the weather today?)

VANESSA
Heute ist es immer noch kalt. Aber morgen wird es warm.
(Today, it’s still cold. But tomorrow it’ll be warm.)

DENISA
Und übermorgen?
(And the day after tomorrow?)

VANESSA
Übermorgen ist Samstag. Mal sehen was die Wetter-App sagt. Am Samstag wird es auch warm.
(The day after tomorrow is Saturday. Let’s see what the weather app says. On Saturday it’ll be warm, too.)

DENISA
Cool. Dann lass uns morgen in den Park gehen.
(Cool. Let’s go to the park tomorrow then.)

VANESSA
Gute Idee.
(Good idea.)

DENISA
Hast du am Wochenende danach schon was vor?
(Do you have plans for the weekend after?)

VANESSA
Am Wochenende ist der 1. Februar. Meine Mama hat Geburtstag.
(On that weekend it’s February first. It’s my mum’s birthday.)

DENISA
Wünsch ihr alles Gute zum Geburtstag von mir.
(Tell her happy birthday from me.)

VANESSA
Mach ich.
(I will.)