The Date in German

In this article we tell you how to form and say the date in German

Date in German

Date format

In German, dates are written with the formats:

Long format:

der 01.Februar 2009
the 1st of February, 2009

Short format:

der 01.02.2009
01 (day)/02 (month)/2009

Differences between English and German date formats:

  • The separating symbol between the month, year and day in English is the slash “/” and in German it is the period “.”
  • The months in German are written with a capital letter (Februar) like in English

Reading the date

In German the days and months are ordinal numbers but the years are cardinal.

You have to keep in mind that ordinal numbers are declined like adjectives:

example 1:

der 01.02.2009

it is read as:

der erste zweite zweitausendneun (in the nominative)

example 2:

am 01.02.2009

it is read as:

am ersten zweiten zweitausend neun (in the dative)

Reading the year

The way to read the year is different if the year is before 2000 or after:

  • If it is after the year 2000, it is read as a normal number:

    2004 is read as zweitausendvier

  • If the year is before 2000, it is read in an interesting way. We can see this better with an example:

    The year 1995 is read as neunzehnhundertfünfundneunzig

    translated literally, it would be 19 hundred 5 and 90
    The year 1900 is read simply as neunzehnhundert

Asking what the date is

This is how you as the date in German:

Welcher Tag ist heute? ... Es ist der erste Mai
What day is today? …Today is the 1st of May

or also:

Welchen Tag haben wir heute? ... Heute haben wir den ersten Mai
What day do we have? …. Today we have the 1st of May

Pay close attention to the first example. The date is in the nominative and in the second one it is in the accusative.

Units of time (Zeiteinheiten)

Einheiten Units
die Sekunde second
die Minute minute
die Stunde hour
der Tag day
die Woche week
der Monat month
die Jahreszeit season
das Quartal
das Vierteljahr		 quarter
das Halbjahr
das Semester		 semester
das Jahr year
das Jahrzehnt decade
das Jahrhundert century
das Jahrtausend millennium

Seasons of the year (die Jahreszeiten)

Jahreszeiten Seasons
der Frühling spring
der Sommer summer
der Herbst autumn
der Winter winter

Months (Monate)

Monate Months
der Januar January
der Februar February
der März March
der April April
der Mai May
der Juni June
der Juli July
der August August
der September September
der Oktober October
der November November
der Dezember December

Days of the week (Wochentage)

Wochentage Days of the week
der Montag Monday
der Dienstag Tuesday
der Mittwoch Wednesday
der Donnerstag Thursday
der Freitag Friday
der Samstag
der Sonnabend		 Saturday
der Sonntag Sunday

Parts of the day

Parts of the day
das Morgengrauen dawn
(12 am - 6 am)
der Morgen morning
(6 am - 10 am)
der Vormittag late morning
(10 am - 12 pm)
der Mittag noon
(12 pm - 2 pm)
der Nachmittag afternoon
(2 pm - 4 pm)
der Abend evening
(4 pm - 7pm)
die Nacht night
(7pm - 12 am)

Before and After Christ (Death)

vor Christus abbreviated: v. Chr. or v. C.
before Christ abbreviated: b.c.

nach Christus abbreviated: n. Chr. or n. C.
after Christ (death) abbreviated: a. c.

Related topics: Time in German, numbers in German

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