Hello everyone,
and welcome to the fourth part of our (not so) mini series on how to talk about time in German.
The first part was the foundation with some core concepts, the second part was about the time of day in German, in all its tiring minutia.
And in the third part, we looked at all those “names” for times like Monday, June, morning, last week and so forth and if you like exceptions (who doesn’t) then that’s gonna be your favorite article.
And while all three parts have quite different topics, they have one thing in common:
They are incredibly long.
So will part four live up to its predecessors and be as long and tiring?
The answer is… No!
It’s time to bring the fun back to learning German.
Here is what’ll happen today:
We’ll look at a bunch of words, I’ll say a few things about them, you will go like “Oh my Gawd, I always used that the wrong way”, “Oh cool, that is really good to know.” and “Oh cool this is also really good to know.” and “Oh cool, this is also really really good to know.”
And then we’ll be done.
Sounds great?
Cool. The let’s jump right in and look at
German time adverbs
Which of course raises a fascinating question: what are adverbs of time?
What are Temporal Adverbs
Well, they’re basically words that can indicate either a point in time or a span by themselves.
Actually, we’ve already learned some of them last time, when we were talking about the “names”, because grammatically, today and yesterday are adverbs of time.
And the key thing is really that they can answer the question when? by themselves.
- When did/will you do your homework?
- … .
But the bulk of time adverbs are words likee now, soon, later, earlier, or recently.
And because there are so many of them and they’re SUPER USEFUL, we’ll split this in two parts – the past and the “not past”.
In this lecture, we’ll focus on the latter, so we’ll start in the present, and move along the time line into the future.
And the first word is of course the German word for now – jetzt.
- Ich muss jetzt gehen.
- I have to go now.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Und, was jetzt?
- So, what now?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
German actually also has nun, a direct relative of now, but jetzt and nun are synonyms for the most part, and jetzt is definitely more common, so just stick with that one.
Cool.
So, now that we know how to refer to the now, let’s move forward in time to the immediate future.
Adverbs for the immediate future
And the first word to know there is sofort. Sounds a bit like so forth, looks a bit like so forth, smells a bit like so fart… I mean forth.
But it means immediately because German likes to mess with our heads.
- Mach sofort den Fernseher aus!
- Turn off the TV immediately!
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Hast du deine Mails gecheckt?”
“Noch nicht, aber ich mache es sofort.” - “Have you checked your Email?”
“Not yet, but I’ll do it right away.“ - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Generally, sofort really sounds pretty immediate, but time is of course relative.
A kid playing Fortnite might very well use sofort as an answer to “Start doing your homework!” only to keep playing for another 3 hours.
Or a waiter might say sofort, when you ask for the bill, only to go have a cigarette with the waitress.
I think, neither immediately nor right away can be used in this kind of Einsteinian-way.
But anyway, generally sofort is the closest to now there is in the future.
Also pretty close to “now” but not as immediate as sofort is the word gleich.
The temporal range of gleich is roughly from about in 5 minutes to in 2 hours, depending on context.
If a waitress says:
- Ich komme gleich.
- I’ll be there in a minute.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
…that means that she will probably be there once she’s done with that cigarette.
If you are on the phone with a friend and you say
- Bis gleich.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
..then that might mean that you’ll meet in one hour in the park.
Of course, the range of gleich doesn’t stop precisely at the two hour mark. It’s blurry. But saying bis gleich on the phone to someone you’ll see five hours later for dinner might already be confusing.
- “Ok also dann sehen wir uns heute Abend zum Dinner.”
“Ja ich freu mich, bis gleich.”
“Ähhh… wie bis gleich… ich dachte, heute abend?” - “Ok, so we’ll see each other tonight for diner.”
“Yep, I am excited, I’ll see you in a bit”
“Uhh… what do you mean “in a bit”.. I thought, tonight?” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
In this situation, we need something that’s a bit further into the future, which bring us right to our next section.
Time Adverbs for Later Today
The two main possibilities here are nachher and später.
Später is the literal translation of later, which could technically be in 100 years. But in practice, as a name for time, später covers the span between 2 hour and 5 hours from now.
Why 5 and not 6? Well, no idea… it is just a feeling.
If you agree with someone at noon that you will meet up at 8 pm, you’d rather say heute abend (tonight) and that’s just more idiomatic.
The best use for später is as a reference to some point within the next few hours, and it is not clear when exactly. So, you go shopping and your friend goes to the library and you’ll see later – that is a perfect moment to say
- Bis später.
- Later.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Just to make sure… später ALWAYS means the same day.
If you say “Bis später” to someone when you mean the next day, that’s actually a bit confusing.
Like… which is it, today or tomorrow?
Cool
Now, the other word, nachher, refers to the same range of time as später. And many times, nachher and später are interchangeable.
But I feel like nachher sounds is a bit more specific. If you do know the exact time you will meet, nachher is the better pick, because it sounds more “aware of the date“. And später sounds more open and has more procrastination potential, if that makes sense.
- “Thomas, wann machst du die Küche sauber?”
“Nachher Schatz.” (Thomas acknowledges that he will do it at some point later really should do it, just not now)
“Später, Schatz.” (Thomas sounds a bit as if he doesn’t really care and is just procrastinating the chore) - “Thomas, when will you clean the kitchen?”
“Later, hon’.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
But this difference between nachher and später is really subtle. Here are two examples, where they’re pretty much interchangeable.
- Bis nachher.
- Later.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ach Mist, ich muss nachher noch zur Uni. Ich habe keine Lust.
- Oh crap, I have to go university later. I don’t feel like it.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now, before we move one, I want to say a quick word about danach, beacuse I’m sure some of you are wondering about it.
Danach can translate to later as well, but it NOT mean the same as später or nachher because danach is what I call a pointer, not a name, and you need a reference point for it.
Don’t worry, we’ll talk about this stuff in part 6 of this series, but you can keep it in the back of you head that you CAN’T use danach if you have no point in time to point to.
All right.
Now so far, we have learned words, that can be applied for the same day.
Time to go further into the future.
Time Adverb for Tomorrow and Beyond
And the main two words here are are bald and demnächst.
Just like später and nachher, bald and demnächst are interchangeable oftentimes.
They both can refer to any point in the future between, let’s say four days and four weeks maybe… yes, they are THAT vague :).
They CANNOT be used for the same day and the shouldn’t be used for the two or three following days as those are quite close and can be addressed with morgen, übermorgen or in ein paar Tagen.
So if you are going to see someone three days from now you WOULDN’T say
- Bis bald /demnächst.
- Till soon.
And not only because three days is a bit closer than bald and demnächst sound like, but also because bald and demnächst with all their inherent vagueness really express that you do NOT know when something is going to happen. They’re like soon but think bald actually sounds less soon, than soon does…. like… bald sounds a bit less urgent.
Here are some examples.
- Ich muss bald mal wieder Fenster putzen.
- I will have to clean my windows at some point /soon.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich glaube mein Handy geht bald kaputt.
- I think my phone will break at some point (soon).
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Bald ist wieder Winter.
- Not so far from now/ soon, it will be winter.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich will so bald wie möglich Kaffee trinken.
- I want to drink coffee as soon as possible.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now, is there a difference between bald and demnächst? Well, yes. It’s tone. Demnächst wouldn’t really sound right. I think demnächst has kind of a technocratic touch to it. Bald is the heart, demnächst is the Google calendar.
- Wir haben demnächst in unserer Firma Besuch von einem wichtigen Investor.
- We will have a visit from an important investor in our company soon.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
I don’t use demnächst that much in every day speech but I think you’ll see it around. One example, where they do use demnächst is in movie trailers.
- Demnächst im Kino.
- Coming soon.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
However, both things work as a good bye if you are not quite sure when exactly you will see someone.
- Bis bald/demnächst.
Alright.
So this has gotten quite long already so I think we’ll divide it into 2 parts and make a … oh, hold on… my red exception phone is ringing, gotta take that call real quick… hey John man, how is it going?… WHAT? … I messed up?!?!… about bald?…uh … oh …. ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh … oh crap…. damn bald… well, good you called man, that is a BIG deal, thanks a lot man and keep watching…. yeah you too, bye.
So…. sorry guys but I have really overlooked something about bald. So … I said that bald doesn’t refer to the same day!
That is true in context of good bye phrases. “Bis bald” does absolutely NOT WORK for the same day.
However, there are many occasions when bald refers to the same day in sense of soon.
- Ich glaube es regnet bald.
- I think it is going to rain soon.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Ist Maria schon da?”
“Nein, aber sie sollte bald kommen.” - “Is Maria here yet?”
“No but she should be coming soon.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Was machts du gerade?”
“Ich bin noch in der Bibliothek aber ich glaube ich gehe bald nach Hause.” - “What are you doing?”
“I am still at the library but I think I will go home soon.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
This same-day-bald can mean anything between 30 minutes and 2 hours … that’s what I feel. It is actually kind of similar to gleich, just a little more extended.
So bald is REALLY vague after all. And it’s really up to context.
- Wir sollten bald wieder ins Theater gehen.
- We should go to the theater again at some point in the near future/soon.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Wir sollten bald losgehen, sonst kommen wir zu spät ins Theater.
- We should head out soon, or we will be late for the theater.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Cool.
And I think we’ll actually make a break here. We’ve learned the most common time adverbs for the future and next time we’ll do the same for the past. To recap quickly here is a list of today words in temporal order:
- jetzt – now
- sofort – immadiately
- gleich – (a few minute)
- später, nachher (bald) – (a few hours on the same day)
- bald /demnächst (a few days till 1 month or more into the future)
If you REALLY have no idea, then you can also say irgendwann, which is at some point.
And to wrap this up, here is the ultimate word that can stand for ANY point in time.
dann
Technically, this is one of those pointer-words, that we’ll talk about in part 6, so it needs a reference point. But when saying good bye to someone, it can be used generically.
- Bis dann.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
This is fine for in an hour or in 2 months, for a fixed appointment or for no idea when exactly… it just always sounds appropriate.
If you want to recap what we did, go ahead and take the little quiz my beautiful assistant and I have prepared.
And if you have any questions or suggestions please leave me a comment, I hope you liked it and
Bis dann.
Further reading:
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HMM i dont know if i am correct but help me out here .
“Now” is also a reference point , as in Grammar
Time of speech : exact moment a person speaks
Event time : time when an event happens .
Reference point : a 3rd point in time to relate the event to speech in time .
but can we use “Now” as Reference point if Yes the time of speech and reference point are than same .
And if that is so , all temporal adverbs indirectly depends on Reference point. So reference point is necessary for all , even if it is The Time of Speech as reference point.
Okay, so all temporal adverbs do land somewhere on the timeline and as such they of course have a relation to any point on it. They can be before it, at it or after it.
The crucial difference between a referential adverb and a “name” that just relates to “now” is that the referential adverb FEELS like a pointer.
– Davor – before THAT
A word like “soon” on the other hand doesn’t have this pointy feeling.
But yes, a word like “soon” DOES need some context to mean something, so you do need to know what “now” is. In that sense, every time adverb needs “context”, also “now” itself, to mean anything.
Welp as u said “land somewhere on the timeline ”
On platforms like Linguistic exchange , i found out about this Timeline .
That when we talk about
Future the Reference time is in Future COinciding with Event Time.
When we talka bout past RT=ET in past but the Speech time is still in Present .
when we talka bout Present all RT=ET=ST [ speech time] .
The only exception is Perfekt tense as The reference time is same as speech time but the Event time is in the past .
So that explains Ur statement that every adverb needs context and that context is speech time if i am correct but it is not reference time for it rahter reference time is in future or past as we are referring back to future or past.
as this is english lang theroy i do not know if this holds fully true for german but yeah it now makes sense all of it .
and your last article about action connecting each other is
Present , where all RT ET and ST kind of are on same timeline.
Yeah, you have to be careful when it comes to generalizing English language theory with German. They do deviate in how they analyze things here and there and the definitions deviate too.
Like… something as widely known as “Modal verb” does not in fact have the same definition in German, English and Spanish grammar as far as I know.
And none of this is set in stone either. There is a branch of German linguistics, that kind of wants to say German doesn’t have a future tense and instead classify it differently.
So yeah… if you kno English language theory and linguistics REALLY well, that can actually get in the way a bit because German doesn’t work the same and also might not analyze the matter the same way. Reflexive verb, transitive verb… all of this is a mess.
The only exception is Perfekt tense as The reference time is same as speech time but the Event time is in the past .
I’m not 100% certain, but I’m pretty sure that this is NOT how German looks at its Perfekt. It’s a past form to us.
Anyway, happy things are somewhat clear now :)
The only exception is Perfekt tense as The reference time is same as speech time but the Event time is in the past .
Yea , Will keep in mind while upstaking both languages .
Anyways this time Articles were seriously helpful . I realised i was making a lot of mistakes .
Since you said that both gleich and bald can be something between 5 minutes to 2 hours from now, do I understand it correctly that the main difference is that bald is more unsure?
Like when I say ‘Sie kommt gleich’ – means she wrote me she is on the way
or ‘Sie kommt bald’ – I think she will be here soon but its also possible she will not come at all for some reason.
The same with the rain then. I guess I would not use ‘Ich glaube es regnet gleich’.
Did I say that “bald” works for 5 minutes? I don’t remember :).
“bald” is definitely further in the future, but it’s really really vague.
– Es regnet gleich.
The rain is imminent.
– Es regnet bald.
Can be “soon today, let’s start planning for it” or it can mean “It rains within a few days” after a drought period for instance. Does that help?
Many years ago – the wall had more or less recently fallen and the DDR was no longer-I was in Berlin and had entered an S-bahn wagon at Friedrichstrasse, I believe it was. It was after the workday was over but the sky was still light. After a few minutes of travel, a very drunk German asked me about an upcoming station which would have been a couple of stops further. I believe he was concerned that he had missed his station. I replied “Es kommt gleich.” He thought about that for a few seconds and then became angry and wanted to know “Willst du mich verarschen?” Not wishing to engage in a physical altercation about his destination and since there were only two other people in the car – a woman and a slightly-built young man -and because the drunk was clothed as a laborer and certainly looked strong, I got off at the very next station with the man yelling at me that I indeed should leave his presence for the effrontery that I had committed. Should I have said “Es kommt bald?” inasmuch as there were more than a few stops before his desired one? I assume “demnaechst” would have really popped his cork.
Oh, you did nothing wrong, except maybe “es” when it should be “sie/die” (die Station).
Maybe he got pissed because you were not precise as to how many stops, but honestly, I think he was just looking to start something anyway.
“gleich” is fine as is “bald”. “demnächst” would be a bit vague and wishy washy, but nothing to get triggered over.
Remembering a little more distinctly in retrospect, said drunken fellow did pause a moment after my answer and then staggered off to speak with the young woman – presumably to ask her the very same question. After her answer, he then staggered back to me to accuse me of trying to “verarsch” him. At that moment, we arrived at a station, the doors opened and I left the car with him shouting after me that I should, indeed leave. I guess “gleich” in his mind was misleading. Incidentally, I believe that he would not have noticed me saying “Es” and not “sie” because the noise of the trip and my colloquial German being such that I was used to “swallowing” sounds much like a native. (A small example “Was soll ‘enn das?” used when a German acquaintance was pulling a joke on me behind my back.) Therefore he probably only heard an “s” sound. Well, enough of all that.
Thank you for your answer. Believe it or not, why he reacted as he did has always bothered me. Now I have a probable answer: for some native speakers, gleich is gleicher than for others. LOL
Not every gleich is created gleich :)
is it just me? or some of the audios couldn’t be played :(
Let me know which ones please and I can try and fix it.
Hi Emanuel! Love I found this Post, because the other day in the Gym some guy asked me “Do you want to use the Weight? we can share it” and I want it to reply “no its ok, i will use it later” in sense of “do your stuff in Ruhe and then I use it” and I had like a Stroke and didnt know what to say and just said “Danach, danke” Now I know that that was false. Should I use “später” then? although it´s really probably in 20 minutes und not in hours, how you descreibed it.
Thank you in advance for you answer :)
Oh yeah, in that context “später” works fine. Or you could use “nachher”, but I think I would say “später” myself.
If you want to be extra colloquial, you could throw in a “Kein Stress” or “Mach in Ruhe”
random but i’ve started saying “bis Glatze” to my host family because Glatze means bald (as in no hair) and we find it really silly and i just wanted to share that
also, is there a way where I can enable all comments to notify me if new comments are replied to my old ones automatically?
You can activate notifications whenever you leave a comment, right? Is that what you mean?
yeah but i have to do it manually everytime and i fear that sometimes i’ll forget and just never see the comment
im asking if theres a way to just always keep it on
I don’t think there is, but I think you should see replies in the comment notification box even without subbing. So not by email, but in the box.
Let me know if you know what I mean.
yep, got it! thanks a bunch
You might like this one:
https://yourdailygerman.com/bald-german-english-soon/
an absolute banger, vielen Dank!
A. interrogation
used in “w-questions” to request repitition of information
Often used in combination with doch
B. resigning
‘may-as-well’ meaning words at
C. überhaupt
generally anyway at-all
Are these ideas rubbish?
Could you paraphrase this a bit? I’m not sure what exactly you’re asking.
Thank you for this! When I had German classes, they never even tought us gleich :(
Really?! That’s such a common one… ugh, German classes.
Perhaps it is subjective, but “I think it is going to rain soon” means that it may start raining any minute or perhaps within 30 minutes. “I think it is going to rain later” means that it will rain later today (but not the following day). So, which of the two is “Ich glaube es regnet bald.”
So, maybe it is risky to give a time frame, since “soon” is different for rain vs. going to a theater.
So, maybe “bald” means “in the near future, but unspecified” and “gleich” means soon at a specific time, which is probably why we would not use it for rain (I’m assuming), since we do not really know when.
Hmmm… tricky stuff, it looks like.
So “gleich” doesn’t have to have a specific point in time but it’s definitely very close by (no longer than an hour from “now”, give or take)
“bald” is indeed super vague. In the example with the rain it can imply “later today”, but in other contexts it can mean “within two months” (“Bis bald!” is an example for that).
I think the most important bits here are:
– gleich is for the very near future (a few hours)
– bald is tricky and “Bis bald” does NOT mean “See you later.”
Thanks a lot.. these adverbs are really important I think.. and you really explained their use pretty well. As aditional reading I can recommed https://language-easy.org/german/grammar/adverbs/ as they also talk about other types of adverbs.. their position in sentences etc. But of course, it is not as detailled as your article. Thank you very much again and greetings!
“I think I will make bald a Word of the Day at some point…” >_>
Hahahaha…. I knew it :)
Hi Emanuel. Concerning your exception to the use of bald, I am wondering if this goes for demnächst as well. I was driving yesterday and using the German navigation system for the first time. The system kept saying “demnächst links abbiegen” and similar constructions with demnächst. I take it that the exception also works for demnächst.
“I’ll see you right away”, in England this term is used in official capacities; doctor/dentist/the boss etc.
“I’ll see you shortly” is the least friendly way, something your mother-in-law would say to you.
Hey, thank you for this post. It really helped me!
I have a question, can we say: Ich glaube wird es bald regnen instead of ich glaube es regent bald?
Yeah, that’s perfectly fine, too. The version without “wird” is just shorter.
Vielen Dank nochmal für deine wunderbare Erklärungen. Ich habe eine Frage noch, und zwar was ist der Unterschied zwischen jetzt und nun? Ich weiß, dass die beiden bedeuten “now” aber ich weiß nicht wann jedes Wort verwendet wird.
I wrote something about this in my forum (which is now inactive).
https://askaboutgerman.wordpress.com/2013/03/07/difference-jetzt-nun-german/#comment-23
I guess I could do a post on that but I hope that helps for now.
Just after talking about bald you said ‘we’ll make a break’. We don’t make breaks in english. We have breaks :)
Thanks! One of the typical mistakes native speakers of Germans make. We make everything.
We also take breaks/take a break.
You’re on the time train, aren’t you :)
I use shortly quite often (also from Australia) but usually at the end of a sentance, like the examples already given in the comments. The waiter will be with you shortly. It CAN also be used in the middle of a sentance as well – the waiter will shortly be bringing out the main dish – but to me that sounds a bit stilted and old fashioned and I wouldn’t say that.
Great information here. By the way, “shortly” is also used all the time in the US. To me, it is the normal phrase a waiter/waitress uses after an order is taken when he stops by to refill your water glass: “your dinner will out shortly.” Also, “see you in a bit” is a friendly, sweet convention, but not something you’d say to your boss, it’s a little too “familiar.” In the latter case, I’d use “I’ll see you soon.”
road(-)map (no hyphen)
recommend( to read that )(that you read)
One word(s) I feel like ( word)
where (transtaing)(translating) one …
other (costumers)(customers) to rendered Costumers make costumes probably for actors etc
for (diner)(dinner) might diner is the american word for “cafe”
“Yep, I am excited, see you shortly.” No, we would use “soon” or “later”. “shortly” would be maybe 15min to an hour.
I never use the word “shortly” and neither do most people. I can only think of one news presenter on television (a Welshman) who says
” We will be going over to Fred Smith shortly, but first lets hear from …..” Maybe it is regional.
Note “soon” can also be used for a much longer period of undefined time. It is often used at the end of a
telephone conversation when no meeting has been set up.
“See you soon”/”Hear from you soon”
It can also be used for short or long periods.
“Is dinner ready? It will be ready soon”. short
” We will all be driving electric cars soon”. looooong
Und noch mal vielen Dank :)!! Ich habe eine Frage im Bezug auf “shortly”.
I have actually learned the word only a short time before I wrote this article from a coworker who is from Australia. I have never encountered it before so it makes total sense to hear that it is in fact rarely used. However, is there any way to express what “bis gleich” expresses in German without relying on context too much?
Could I say for instance “See you right away?” or would that be too close.
Or how about “See you in a bit?” Is that idiomatic at all?
Vielen Dank im Vorraus
You can say “I’ll see you right away” but not without the “I’ll”. “See you in a bit” is perfect, or “See you in a minute/second” or “ “See you in a few minutes” And you of course you can be specific “See you in 5 minutes” or “See you at one o’clock”
Alan
great post! Very helpful! Danke schön!
also, could you write one about the word “na” as in “na, ja…” or how some people just say “na” as a greeting? Think about it…
oh, and I won’t accept “sofort” as an answer to my request. ;)