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Lesson 14: Days of the week, months, seasons, year

Vocabulary: Holidays and traditions

Completing this lesson will add to your overall progress:

VocabularyA1+3%A2+2%
GrammarA1+3%A2+2%

How to work with this lesson

  1. Read the rule — understand the logic (5 minutes)
  2. Translate the exercises in writing — check against the key
  3. Say it out loud — slowly, consciously, analyzing every preposition
  4. Speed up — run the matrix until it flies out on autopilot

You already know times of day and the prepositions um, von...bis, seit from Lesson 13. Now level up: days, months, seasons, dates. After this lesson you can schedule a meeting, wish someone happy birthday, and discuss Christmas plans.

Part 1: Days of the week — all end in -tag, except one

All masculine. All end in -tag (= day), except for one rebel.

GermanEnglishCognate clue
der MontagMondayMon = moon, tag = day → "moon-day" (just like English!)
der DienstagTuesdayOld Germanic god Tiw/Tyr
der MittwochWednesday"mid-week" — the rebel
der DonnerstagThursdayDonner = thunder → Thor's day
der FreitagFridayGoddess Freya
der SamstagSaturday(≈ Sabbath)
der SonntagSundaySonne = sun → "sun-day"

Cognate gift: Monday/Montag, Sunday/Sonntag, Thursday/Donnerstag — same words, same gods. English and German split off a thousand years ago but kept the weekly calendar identical.

Anchor: All days = der. All end in -tag, except Mittwoch (= Mitte der Woche, "middle of the week"). Mittwoch is the rebel, but the gender is still der.

To say "on Monday", use am:

am Montag = on Monday am Freitag = on Friday am Wochenende = on the weekend

Not "in", not "auf". Only am. (English uses "on", German uses "am" — different word, same job.)

Part 2: Months — almost identical to English

Good news: German months are direct cognates of English. All der. The preposition is im.

der Januar, Februar, März, April, Mai, Juni, Juli, August, September, Oktober, November, Dezember

im Januar = in January, im Oktober = in October. Not "in Januar". Always im.

Cognate confirmation: January/Januar, February/Februar, March/März, April/April, May/Mai... You already know all twelve. Just shift the pronunciation.

Part 3: Seasons — four masculine guys

All masculine. Same preposition — im.

GermanEnglishCognate clueExample
der Frühlingspring≈ "early" timeim Frühling
der SommersummerSommer/summer — direct cognate!im Sommer
der Herbstautumn / fall≈ harvest!im Herbst
der WinterwinterWinter/winter — direct cognate!im Winter

Cognate alert: Sommer = summer, Winter = winter. Direct copy. Herbst is the same root as English "harvest" — autumn is when you harvest the crops. Once you see this, you'll never forget.

Part 4: Dates and years

Use am + ordinal number in Dativ:

am dritten März = on the third of March am ersten Januar = on the first of January

Up to 19 — suffix -ten; from 20 — -sten: am fünften, am zwanzigsten.

Trap! 1st, 3rd, and 7th have irregular stems: erst-, dritt-, siebt-. Not "eint-", not "dreit-". Memorize this trio separately — same as English "first, third" don't follow the regular -th pattern.

Year: im Jahr 2024 or just 2024 (no preposition). Both are correct.

Wann hast du Geburtstag? — Am zwölften Mai. (When is your birthday? — On the twelfth of May.) Wann ist Weihnachten? — Am fünfundzwanzigsten Dezember. (When is Christmas? — On the 25th of December.)

Next up: Lesson 15 — Akkusativ vs. Dativ: the two-way prepositions (Wechselpräpositionen). You'll learn why "I'm going into the room" and "I'm in the room" use different cases — even though the preposition is the same. English splits "into" vs. "in"; German uses the case to do that job. This is the most elegant trick in German grammar.

Lesson 14: Days of the week, months, seasons, year · Deutsch · Glottos Matrix