¶ Intro / Opening
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¶ Answering "Wann" Questions in German
I want to talk to you about time and how we talk about it in German. More specifically even, I want to show you how to answer questions starting with WAN. When? Neugierig? Super! Dann lass uns anfangen!
Wie gesagt, today I want to show you some different options of how to talk about when something is happening or when somebody is doing something. If you are new to Coffee Break German, or have just started learning German, this might not be the best place to start, since we will be talking a lot about the accusative and the dative case.
Not necessarily the best topic to get started with. If that's the case, have a listen to our Coffee Break German Level 1 podcast, taking you all the way from the start. too comfortably talking about the most important topics in German. So, aber jetzt zu unserem heutigen Thema. Talking about when things are happening is essential to make any form of plans with other people. So if somebody asks you, wann können wir schwimmen gehen?
you have a lot of possible answers. You could say, morgen, tomorrow, am Freitag, on Friday, or even jeden Tag, every day. Using adverbs like, Morgen or jetzt, now, makes things easy. However, once your answer includes a noun like, say, Woche, week or Samstag or April, April.
¶ Using the Accusative Case for Time
you need to choose between two cases. Let's have a look at our first possible case, the accusative case. If you are answering a question about a certain time and... Don't use a preposition like an or in. The accusative is mostly used. So our answer to the previous question could be Ich gehe diesen Montag schwimmen. In English, it's a lot easier because we can just say this Monday or next Saturday and don't need to worry about cases or gender.
However, in German, we need to do exactly that. We have to adjust the words depending on the gender and the case of the nouns. In the sentence just now, we said, diesen Montag, this Monday. And that's because all days of the week are masculine. And we are using the accusative case here. So we need this EN ending for the accusative masculine.
We could also say Ich gehe nächste Woche schwimmen. This time we're using Woche, which is feminine, die Woche in the accusative. So the ending for that is I. Nexte. Generally, words we often see in this context with the accusative are words like diese or nächste, which we just saw, but also letzte, last, or jede, every.
Of course, there are a lot more ways to express a certain time or duration. But just remember, if you're not using a preposition, then use the accusative case, okay? Now, let's move on to the...
¶ Using the Dative Case for Time
Dative keys. As you might have guessed, when you use a preposition, then you almost always need to switch to the dative keys. So again, here's an example. Somebody might ask you... When are you starting your new German course? Then you might say, So here we're using the preposition an, on Monday. I'm starting on Monday. If you remember, we said that Montag, just like any other day, is masculine. And so the definite article in the DTIF is...
Dem Montag. So we had preposition an. Dem Montag. And that's often shorted to am. Because an and dem join together to am. You could also answer this question saying. In einer Woche fängt mein Kurs an. My course starts in one week. So this time we have the preposition in. Then Woche is feminine. Eine Woche, because we have to use the dative after in, is einer Woche. In einer Woche. Okay? The eine changes to einer in the dative feminine.
One last example to also see a Newton noun would be der Kurs beginnt nach dem Wochenende. So the course starts after the weekend and this time we use the preposition nach. Wochenende is neuter, das Wochenende, but because we have to use the dative, it changes to dem Wochenende, nach dem Wochenende. A couple of other prepositions that you might see in those contexts are up, which means from, for, before, side, since, or zwischen, between.
The trick really is to remember that most prepositions here use the dative. So after preposition, your answer usually takes the dative case. Even if you will use words like diese or nächste that we saw previously. Again, to give you an example, we could say, seit diesem Monat esse ich vegetarisch. So we have the preposition seit. Then we need the dative case and it's der Monat, so it's masculine. So we have diesem.
¶ Gender Rules and Practice Sentences
Also, I think that's enough with the examples for now. There's just one last thing I want to note before it's over to you and some practice sentences. Remember that all seasons... all months and all days of the week are masculine. However, seconds, minutes, hours and the week is feminine. And then the only two neuter ones that are often used are...
Das Wochenende, the weekend. Und das Jahr, the year. Okay, jetzt bist du dran. I will give you a few sentences where you have to fill in the right ending. based on keys and gender. I will give you a few seconds after each sentence to think about it and then I will tell you the answer. Bereit? Here we go. Ich koche. Woche Kartoffelsuppe. And the word you need to fill in is the word for next, but with a correct ending. So ich koche Woche Kartoffelsuppe.
Gut gemacht. Ich koche nächste Woche Kartoffelsuppe. So we don't have a preposition here. Therefore, it's the accusative and it's feminine because it's Woche. So we have the E at the end of next here. Nächste Woche. Noch eins. Wir spielen an Geburtstag Minigolf. And I'm looking for the word my, but with a correct ending. So wir spielen an my Geburtstag Minigolf.
Sehr gut. Wir spielen an meinem Geburtstag Minigolf. Because we have the preposition an here, we need the dative and it's der Geburtstag. So we have that EM ending that we saw earlier. Super gemacht and well done for practicing those endings. Hopefully you're feeling more confident now with answering Wann questions in German using both the accusative and the dative keys. Before you go, just a reminder.
If you are looking for more detailed exercises on the accusative or the dative case, or you want to brush up on other grammar points, just head over to Coffee Break TV for in-depth videos about these topics. Also, remember to hit the subscribe button to support us and to not miss any German lessons. And if this podcast wasn't enough, you can also sign up for our free weekly German lesson on coffeebreaklanguages.com slash German. Also, mach's gut und bis bald. Happy? Coffee breaking.
Copyright 2025, Radiolingua Limited. Recording copyright 2025, Radiolingua Limited. All rights reserved. Popsicles, sprinklers, a cool breeze. Talk about refreshing. You know what else is refreshing this summer? A brand new phone with Verizon. Yep. Get a new phone on any plan with Select Phone Trade-In and MyPlan.
And lock down a low price for three years on any plan with MyPlan. This is a deal for everyone, whether you're a new or existing customer. Swing by Verizon today for our best phone deals. three-year price guarantee applies to then current base monthly rate only additional terms and conditions apply for all offers