The 3 meanings of “als”

Hello everyone,

and welcome to a new episode of our series on German Must-Have Words.
This time we will look at:

The Meanings of “als”

Als is is actually one of the most useful German words ever, ranking #21 in the list of the top 30 most used words. Which allegedly account for like one third of all text.
That sounds pretty crazy, and I am not sure how accurate this is, but what is certain is that als is super duper hyper common and you absolutely need it, even as a beginner on A1 level.

Now, when learners see it, the brain usually associates it with as. And that’s not completely wrong but it’s not even half the story.

Als actually has three distinct and very important meanings and functions:

• Speaking about the past (when, as)
• Making comparisons of differences (than) 
• Assigning roles and appearances (as, as if)

Today, we’ll go over each of them and see how to use them and which pitfalls to avoid.

So if you’re ready, let’s hop right in.

‘als’ as ‘when’ for Past Events

When you want talk about something that happened in the past, it’s really common to add information about WHEN something happened.
Structurally, there are two ways to do that in pretty much any language:

1. Using a noun or adverb (phrase)
2. Using an action as reference

Here’s a couple of examples for the first way:

• When did you buy this Bentley? Last Monday. 
• When did my friend call? 2 hours ago.

And here’s an example for using an action as reference:

• When did you decide to quit your job? When I woke up this morning.

English does that by using when.
And in German, the translation for this past-when is als.

• Als ich bei Aldi war, habe ich meine Ex-Freundin getroffen.
• I met my ex-girlfriend when I was at Aldi.
• ▶
  
• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

• Du hast mich angerufen, als ich gerade gehen wollte.
• You called me just as/when I was about to leave.
• ▶
  
• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

English speakers often use wenn here out of habit, but it’s actually quite confusing for a German, because it’ll sound like if to them.

If you want to say something like “When X happened…” use als in German.

That’s the rule.

Great.
Now, what would you say…

Of course the rule has an exception. It’s German after all.
And it’s a really important one:

Als only refers to singular instances.

That can be one moment, like in “when I got home”. Or it can be an extended but singular period. Like “When I was 18.” or “When I was living in Berlin.”

But if we’re talking about reoccurring events, then als does NOT work.
Then we’d actually need wenn, usually in combination with immer.
A good hint is that in English you’d either have whenever or some combination of when and always.

• My cat was always angry when I watched YouTube.

This doesn’t describe a singular instance but a pattern and here we need wenn.

• Meine Katze war immer sauer, wenn ich YouTube geguckt habe.

Als would sound confusing here, like saying “always” but then adding “that one time when“.

Let’s look at the two words back to back.

• Wenn ich in Berlin war, habe ich immer viel gegessen.
• Als ich in Berlin war habe ich immer viel gegessen.

The first sentence tells us what always happened on my visits.
In the second one, however, the als pinpoints one visit of many and so the sentence kind of sounds like I ate a lot with every meal … during THAT ONE STAY.

So yeah… als is THE translation for when whenever you talk about singular events in the past. Not for the future, not for some weird conditional, not for habits.
Just singular occurences.

Your turn.

All right.

Now, a quick word on the grammar, before we move on.
You might have picked up on it from the examples already that als is one of those words that makes the verb go all the way to the end. The jargon term is that it’s a subordinating conjunction, but you don’t really have to remember that. Just remember that it works like dass or weil. 

• Ich habe in Paris gewohnt. Damals habe ich oft Wein getrunken.
• I lived in Paris. Back then I often drank wine.

• Als ich in Paris gewohnt habe, habe ich oft Wein getrunken
• When I lived in Paris, I often drank wine.

And that’s it for als and time.
Let’s now get to its next function – comparisons.

‘als’ as ‘than’ in Comparisons

Independent of language, there are two “angles” you can make a comparison from.

1. Comparing by “equality”
2. Comparing by “difference”

In many languages, each has its own structure and the two words we need in English are as for comparing equality and than for comparing difference.

• I’m (not) as tall as you. (Comparing equality)
• I’m taller than you. (Comparing difference)

And now guess.

The intuitive common sense answer is that als means as in comparisons, but nope!
It’s exactly reverse.

‘als’ means ‘than’.

Yes, it’ll take some getting used to, but it’s just how it is.
Let’s do some examples and let’s make them horse themed, because why not.

• Ponys sind süßer als Katzen.
• Ponies are cuter than cats. (No, they’re not!)
• ▶
  
• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

•  Mein Pferd mag Hafer lieber als Pommes.
• My horse likes oats better than fries.
• ▶
  
• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

• Reiten ist schwerer als ich dachte.
• Riding is harder than I thought.
• ▶
  
• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

Pretty straight forward, right?

Now you’re of course asking how to then say as… as in German.
The structure for that is so… wie.

• Ich bin so schnell wie mein Pferd.
• I’m as fast as my horse.

Learners often use als here but it sounds VERY confusing to native speakers, so it’s worth paying attention. If you want more examples, just check out my lesson on comparisons in German.
I’ll leave a link below.

Your turn for a quick recap.

Cool.
Two quick notes before we move on.

Firstly, the comparison-als does not affect the word order the way that the past-als does. It really works like than.

And the second thing I want to specifically point out is about the word denn.  It SOUNDS like than, and back a couple of hundred years it was still used for these comparisons. But now, it’s largely outdated.
You can sometimes find it in old books and fantasy style writing. And there are some phrases like “denn je” (than ever) that got frozen in time.
But that’s it.
All the normal than-comparisons are done by als.

Now on to the last als.

‘als’ as ‘as’ for assigning roles

The third meaning or function of als is to help virtually assign a role, profession, function or general character to a person or a thing.
Sounds complicated when I try to describe it like this, but luckily, English as does the same thing, so here, the two words do line up.

• Als kleines Mädchen war ich ein ganz großer Pferdefan.
• As a little girl I was a big big fan of horses.
• ▶
  
• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

• Als Tierarzt muss man sehr viel über Pferde wissen.
• As  a vet you need to know a lot about horses.
• ▶
  
• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

• Du kannst diese Decke als Sattel benutzen.
• You can use this blanket as a saddle.
• ▶
  
• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

• Als erstes füttere ich mein Pferd, als zweites kämme ich seine Mähne.
• First, I feed my horse, then (secondly) I comb its mane.

The last example doesn’t really work the same in English, but in German, we do say it that way… “as first, as second” and so on.

I hope you can see what I mean by function though.

Now, this role-als is pretty clear so I think, but there’s a use that kind of fits in this category that deserves a bit more attention.

‘als’ and ‘als ob’ for ‘as if’

As if is a way you can use to assign some sort of appearance to someone or something when it involves a verb.
Here’s what I mean:

• Thomas acts as if he owns the hotel.

You know… these guests that are REALLY annoying and bossy. That’s Thomas. Don’t be Thomas.
But yeah, in German, there are two options to say this: als and als ob.

In terms of meaning, both are completely equal, so it’s completely up to you which one you use.
They do have differences in structure though.

• Thomas tut so, als gehöre ihm das Hotel.
• Thomas tut so, als ob ihm das Hotel gehört.

Can you spot the to differences?

The first one is verb position.
Als ob makes the verb go to the end, while als by itself acts as position 1 in a main sentence and the verb follows.

Now you might say to yourself “Awesome, I’ll always use the plain als then, thank you very much.” because you want to avoid the verb at the end stuff.
Which is understandable, but there are several reasons against it.
First of all, als ob is just way more common in daily life than just als, so if you want sound authentic, that’s the one to go with.
Then, second of all, you REALLY need to get used to the verb at the end stuff anyway. The sooner, the better. So trying to avoid it is completely the wrong approach. You can’t run, so lean in!

And then, the plain als also kind of wants to go with a Konjunktiv.
Which is the second difference between als and als ob besides the word order.
Here’s the example again:

• Thomas tut so, als gehöre ihm das Hotel.
• Thomas tut so, als ob ihm das Hotel gehört.

Gehöre is Konjunktiv 1 here. You may hear people using gehört with the plain als, but it sounds a bit off. Konjunktiv 2 does work as well, especially with verbs like sein, haben, the modal verbs and other verbs where the real Konjunktiv 2 form is still widely used.

• Thomas acts as if he could buy the hotel.
• Thomas tut so, als könnte er das Hotel kaufen.

But yeah, you kind of need one of these forms, and if the term Konjunktiv makes you go like “Huh?!” then … go with als ob :). Because there, you don’t need to worry about special verb form.

Phew, man, that got quite boring quite fast.

Let’s do one for the road maybe.

All right!

So these were the three things we need als for:

• Singular instances in the past – when
• Comparing differences – than
• Assigning “roles” and appearnces – as, as if

Before we wrap up though, let’s go over a few minor things relating to als.
Nothing groundbreaking really, just a bit of trivia, if you will :)

Some “fun” facts about “als” (aka exceptions)

So the first thing I want to point out is that als does NOT mean as in sense of because.

• As I had already eaten, I just ordered a salad.

Back hundreds of years ago, als was used in these cases but because the past-als meaning is just too dominating, because-als is barely understandable today.
Sometimes,as is somewhere in between reason and time. Then you need to decide what is more important and translate accordingly.

• As I was at the Supermarket I bought you some milk.

This could be either als or weil/da but I’d say the temporal aspect is really not interesting after all so no work for als here
Cool.
Another thing that’s worth noting is that there is one construction where als actually translates to but. This is the case when but can be replaced by other than. So it is actually connected to the comparing-als.

• Mit meinem neuen Handy habe ich nichts als Ärger.
• I have nothing but trouble with my new phone.
• ▶
  
• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

• Der Film war alles andere als spannend.
• The movie was anything but suspenseful.
  The movie was everything other than suspenseful. (lit.)
• ▶
  
• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

And the last thing that should be mentioned is the combination “als dass” which, at least in past tense, is a fancy sounding translation for the “too X to verb” – construction. Here’s what I mean:

• The car was too fast to be able to read the license plate.
• Das Auto war zu schnell, als dass man das Nummernschild hätte lesen können.
  ▶
  

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

I know, I know… you are probably all staring at the three verbs at the end of the second sentence asking yourself how  you are supposed to do that…. well, don’t worry.

You don’t need to use this construction actively. I just wanted to mention it for completeness.

And that’s pretty much it for today.

Hooray!

As always, if you want to check how much you remember, just take the little quiz I have prepared for you. And of course, if you have any questions or suggestion, just drop me a comment.

I hope you liked it and see you next time.

further reading:

• The Meaning and use of  “ob“
• wann vs wenn – what’s the difference
• The Meaning and use of – “falls”
• Comparisons in German