Telling the time in German, with am, um, im.

Clock times with um

Use the preposition um for specific clock times. When expressing the half hour, German uses halb with the next upcoming hour rather than the past one.

• Ich esse um acht Uhr.I eat at eight o'clock.
• Der Zug kommt um halb neun.The train arrives at half past eight.

Days and parts of the day with am

Use am for days of the week, weekends, and parts of the day. The word am is a contraction of an dem.

• Wir arbeiten am Montag.We work on Monday.
• Am Abend lese ich ein Buch.In the evening I read a book.

Months and seasons with im

Use im for months and seasons of the year. The word im is a contraction of in dem.

• Sie hat im Mai Geburtstag.She has her birthday in May.
• Im Sommer fahre ich nach Berlin.In summer I travel to Berlin.

Time first and future plans

When a time expression starts the sentence, the conjugated verb remains in position 2 and the subject follows it. In German, the present tense combined with a time word expresses a future plan without needing a separate future verb.

• Morgen arbeite ich nicht.Tomorrow I will not work.
• Am Freitag fahre ich nach Graz.On Friday I am going to Graz.

Exceptions to remember

• Years are used directly without any preposition. Ich komme 2025 nach Wien.
• The word halb refers to half an hour before the named hour. Der Kurs beginnt um halb acht.

Practice it in the course

This rule is chapter 19 of 31 in the A1 German course in Langvie, after es gibt in German: there is, there are and before German ordinal numbers and dates. In the app the chapter goes on with 8 exercises and a short spoken conversation with an AI partner, which opens with Wann arbeiten Sie? Wann haben Sie frei?

Choose the correct preposition. Wir essen ___ acht Uhr. (im / am / um)

um. Use um for exact clock times. We eat at eight o'clock.

Every A1 chapter, in course order