Hello everyone,
and welcome back to part five of our series on Talking about Time in German.
So far, the series was slow and boring, but now, we”re getting to the more interesting stuff
And today, we’ll start with talking about
German Time Prepositions
Now, if you’re not sure what a preposition actually is, don’t worry. You’re not alone.
The long and short of it is that prepositions are words that relate entities in a sentences to each other.
“The table is on the cup”.
Here, the preposition tells us what the spatial relation is between the cup and the table… a very broken relationship. They should go to therapy.
But of course there are all kinds of domains besides space and one important one is time.
So time prepositions basically relate things in the time domain and today, we’ll look at the important German ones, see what they express and also go over a few really common mistakes English speakers tend to make.
If you want to know more about prepositions in general, I recommend my article about them. I’ll leave a link at the end of this article.
So, if you’re ready, let’s jump right in :)
A bit of background
Before we go over the actual prepositions, I want to talk about one important concept real quick.
Nothing too serious.
Just some little something crucial for ALL languages.
I am talking about
The difference between a time span and a point in time
A time span is a measure of a quantity of time and it answers to the question “How much time?” .
Here are a few examples:
- 3 days, 5 years, some time, one moment, a while
A point in time on the other hand is a word or a group of words that kind of “names” or “addresses” a more or less specific “point” in time. That point can have different sizes, so it can be a second or a whole month, but at its core it’s always an answer to “when” or “at what point in time”.
These are basically what we’ve been talking about in the three preceding articles.
- soon, last Monday, tomorrow, 12:30, now…
So, that’s the difference between point of time and span and the reason we need to understand this distinction is grammar.
Some German time prepositions only work with a span, some only with a point and some are ok with either.
And before you go like “Oh my God, German is so annoying.” let me tell you… this is not specific to German.
An English example for this sis the pair since and for. For ONLY works with a span (a quantity) while since refers a point.
- I have been here since yesterday. (since when?)
- I have been here for 5 minutes. (for how long?)
For the first one, we’d ask “Since when?” and for the second one “For how long/much time?”.
And it’d sound pretty darn wrong to mix them up.
- I have been here for yesterday… NOPE
Actually, this is a pretty typical mistake for Germans to make because German happens to use the same word for both, for and since.. seit.
So, it#s really important to be aware of this potential difference and for each preposition we’re about to go over, I will tell you whether it takes a point, a span or both using these beautiful colors :).
Oh, and sorry for those of you rocking dark mode… I know that the blue is hard to read. I added dark mode only recently and I have to find a way how I can adjust the blue in ALL the articles. So yeah… sorry for the shitty look.
But yeah… I think we’re all set, so here’s the first preposition.
“vor” for time
Vor in a local sense is about “in front“, and in the time domain that of course becomes before.
- Ich komme nicht vor um 8 nach Hause.
- I won’t come home before 8.
- Vor dem Yoga trinkt Maria einen Tee.
- Before the yoga, Maria drinks a tea.
It’s important to note though that vor ONLY works with nouns or names of time.
It does NOT work with actions that are phrased with a verb…
- Before Maria does Yoga…
- Vor Maria Yoga macht…. WRONG
That’s a pretty common mistake and we’ll talk more about it in the next episode, but in a nutshell, the reason is that the before has more than one grammatical function. Vor ONLY is a preposition, so it doesn’t work with side sentences.
But yeah, more on that next time.
Now, vor is not only the word for “before [point in time]”, it can also give a time span. Because it is THE word to give a measure for how much time has past between now and some moment in the past.
In English, the main way to do that is using the word ago, but there’s a big difference between vor and ago and that is structure.
Vor is a PRE-position, so it comes before the element, whilst ago comes AFTER the element, so it’s technically a POST-position.
- Vor 3 Tagen habe ich meiner Katze gestritten.
- 3 days ago, I argued with my cat.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Maria ist vor einer Stunde in die Bibliothek gegangen.
- Maria went to the library an hour ago.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Doesn’t look like much on screen here, but it’s a pretty big deal for the brain.
Like.. if you are a beginner and you are a native English speaker it’s almost guaranteed that at some point you’ll just start with the time span right away
- 2 Jahre… uh… vor, blah blah blah… uh…
(2 years ago, I did something.)
If you catch yourself doing that, then start over!
There is no way to save this sentence and get anywhere near correct. And saying “2 Jahre vor… ” doesn’t only sound really really bad, it’s actually really really confusing to a native speaker, at least if they’re speaking English that much.
It’s not a problem to mess up, but please please make sure to start over and say vor first. It’s worth training this a bit.
Cool.
So that’s it for vor, let’s move on to in.
“in” for Time
In might be the easiest of them all because it’s exactly like in English. So it has two functions, and the first one is to give the time span between now and some point in the future. So basically, it’s like vor, just in the other direction.
- Ich rufe dich in 5 Minuten zurück.
- I will call you back in 5 minutes.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- In 100 Jahren gibt es vielleicht fliegende Autos.
- 100 years from now, there might be flying cars.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And the other thing in is used for is to give a measure of duration, so the time span it took to achieve something.
Like in this completely realistic example…
- Ich habe in 3 Monaten Deutsch gelernt.
- I’ve learned German in 3 months.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
It’s true guys, with my amazing secret hack course, you can do it too. Now 90% off with the coupon code #falsehope
Seriously though, this double usage of in of course opens some room for confusion.
- Ich mache meine Küche in 3 Tagen sauber.
- I am going to clean my kitchen in three days.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Will I do it three days from now or will it take me three days to do it… it’s not clear. Though one is way more realistic than the other. And I’m not gonna tell which one. Most of the time, our good old friend Captain Context will make it clear which in we’re looking at though…
- Morgen trinke ich in einer Stunde 3 Kaffee.
- Tomorrow, I’ll drink three coffees in one hour.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
This one can only mean that we’re talking about duration, because of the morgen.Cool.
So this really is pretty straight forward but is there anything to watch out for with in?
Yes.
The German in is NOT used for ins that are used in sense of since or for.
- I haven’t eaten in 3 days.
- Ich habe in 3 Tagen nichts gegessen…. is wrong
This does NOT work in German and a German native speaker would not understand what you’re trying to say.
So yeah… even though German in and English in are really similar, try to remember the two concepts of German in and not just the translation.
Here’s an example that brings them together :)
- In 100 Jahren kann man vielleicht in einer Stunde von Berlin nach NY fliegen.
- A hundred years from now, it might be possible to fly from Berlin to NY in one hour.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
“seit ” – since and for
Seit is used to express when something started in the past that is still going on now. And it can do that by either giving the starting point or the time span, so it’s a translation for both, since AND for. Wow, one word in German for two English words… that’s rare :). Usually, it’s the other way around.
- Ich lerne seit Juni Deutsch.
- I have been learning German since June.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich lerne seit 4 Monaten Deutsch.
- I have been learning for 4 month.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Meine Katze kann seit Montag reden.
- My cat can talk since Monday.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich war seit 4 Wochen nicht mehr an der Uni.
- I haven’t been to university in 4 weeks.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Pay attention to how Germans speak English and you’ll hear LOT of mistakes with since and for.
Because to a German brain, it’s just one word.
Is there something to watch out for for English speakers, though?
Well, yes.
Take a look at this sentence.
- I slept for a while.
We just learned that for in sense of time means seit, so we can use that here, right?
Wrong!
Because this action is already over. I am NOT sleeping anymore, so it doesn’t carry into the present. But seit ALWAYS implies that the action is still ongoing. So here, the correct German phrase would be either with für or better yet, just plain without a preposition.
- Ich habe eine Weile geschlafen.
Cool.
Now, there’s one question that most learners ask sooner or later and that’s the question of which tense to use with seit.
And the answer is… seit works with both, past AND with present. But there’s a bit of a difference in meaning.
- Ich habe seit einer Woche kein Fleisch gegessen
- Ich esse seit einer Woche kein Fleisch.
- I haven’t eaten meat in a week.
The first sentence states the mere fact, that it’s been a week that I haven’t eaten any meat. It just describes the “state of affaires” and I might say that right before I bite into that juicy quarterpounder.
The second sentence on the other hand expresses that my not eating meat is an “active process”. Like… “not eating meat” is something I do. And that implies intent and it’s very likely that I’ll continue doing that.
Here’s another example…
- Ich habe seit einer Woche nicht geraucht.
- I haven’t smoked for a week.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich rauche seit einer Woche nicht mehr.
Lit.: I am not smoking anymore since a week ago. - I have stopped smoking a week ago.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
So, try to get a feel for what the point of the story is… do you want to talk about something that’s ongoing? Then use present tense. Do you just want to give the span between some time in the past and now, then go with past tense.
Oh and don’t stress too much about it. I think you can actually rely on your intuition here quite a bit.
All right.
Moving on to the next one and that’s kind of like seit’s brother from the future.
“ab” for time
We just learned that seit helps us tell when something started. Ab does the same, only that it’s about the future. So it tells us when something WILL start.
- Ich bin ab Montag in Rom.
- I will be in Rome from next Monday.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ab morgen habe ich mehr Zeit.
- I will have more time starting tomorrow.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And if you’re now wondering about why I didn’t use future tense in these examples… well, that’s because German typically doesn’t use it, as soon as there’s some other indication of time in there. Like “ab morgen” for instance. You CAN use future tense, if you want to, but oftentimes, present tense is more idiomatic.
Now, one big difference between ab and seit, aside from the different “time zones” in which they’re operating, is the fact that ab can ONLY be used with points of time . It does NOT work with spans.
- I’ll be in Rome starting three weeks from now.
- Ich bin ab 3 Wochen in Rom… is wrong
If we want to use ab with a span, we have to do two steps. First, we use the span to indicate a point in the future. The preposition for that is one we’ve already learned: in… so this would be in 3 Wochen. This block is a point in time and now we can put our ab in front o fit…. ab in 3 Wochen. Yes, ab in a fairly common thing to say :)
- Ich bin ab in 3 Wochen in Rom.
- I will be in Rome starting 3 weeks from now.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
While not being the prettiest sentence to utter, people do talk that way at times.
Now, I have a little test for you. Is this also correct?
- Ab vor 3 Wochen habe ich nicht geraucht…. NOPE
No, it’s not. Because it talks about the past, and the word there is seit – not ab.
Ab does work with jetzt, though.
Do you know these kind of little games like “Who talks first is stupid” or “ Who laughs first secretly eats boogers.”?
We played those a lot during my senior year at.. uhm… at elementary school.
So if you want to start a competition like that, here are the words:
- Wer als erstes “bis” sagt, ist doof… ab jetzt!
- Whoever says “bis” first is stupid.. starting now!
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And that’s a challenge I’ll totally lose because our last word for today is…. bis :)
“bis” as until
The ones we just had, seit and ab, were about when something starts. bis is kind of the opposite of those because it tells us when something stops.
It is used for past, present and future and you probably already know it from the various good bye phrases like “Bis bald” “bis morgen” or “bis dann”.
- Ich war bis um 10 auf Arbeit.
- I was at work till 10.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich bin bis um 10 auf Arbeit.
“I am at work till 10 (lit.).“ - I will be at work till 10.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich bin immer bis um 10 auf Arbeit.
- I’m always at work till 10.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Hast du deine Hausaufgaben gemacht?”
“Bis jetzt nicht”. - “Have you done your homework?”
“Not until now/ Not yet.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Does it also work with spans? Nope!
- Ich bin bis 2 Wochen in Paris… is wrong
If we want to use a time span, we have to do the same we just did with ab… double up on a preposition.
First, we indicate a point in time using the span and vor or in respectively. And then put bis in front of the whole thing.
- Bis vor 3 Wochen hatte ich nie ein Wort Deutsch gelernt und jetzt spreche ich fließend.
- I hadn’t learned one word of German until 3 weeks ago and now I am fluent. (#morefalsehope)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
You can see that English uses the same mechanics… you need 2 prepositions to make it work, until and ago but in German, the prepositions are right next to one another so this might make it look odd to some of you. Anyway, people do talk that way and they even use it to say good bye
- Bis in 3 Tagen.
- See you in 3 days.
“Until in 3 days.(lit.)”
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And speaking of good bye… this is actually it for today :).
There are some more things to know, namely the teams vor-nach and von-bis and the word her. But I think this is enough for one session.
The prepositions we learned today are the most important ones anyway. Here they are again with the question they are answering.
| vor (span) | How much time ago did something happen? |
| in (span) | In how much time is something going to happen? How much time did it take for something to happen? |
| seit (point / span) | For how much time has something been happening? Since when has something been happening? |
| ab (point) | From what point in time onwards will something be happening? |
| bis (point) | Until which point in time has something been happening? |
And now it’s time for you to test yourself with our little quiz.
And after that, as always, if you have any question or suggestions about the article or the quiz, just leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it and see you next time… which according to some is also, what she said.
Further reading:
Audio Speed
Dark Mode
Hallo Emanuel, kurze Fragen über “vor”:
Es wurde im Artikel erklärt, dass “vor” nur für Zeiträume verwendet wird, e.g. “ich habe vor 7 Monaten angefangen, blabla zu blabla”
Allerdings kann ich auch sagen, soweit ich verstehe: “vor letzte Woche Montag (hat es geschneit),” oder “vor 17 Uhr (war’s windig).” Diese wirken auf mich, als ob Zeitpunkte bezeichnet werden.
1. Sind diese richtig formuliert?
2. Bedeuten die dasselbe wie “bis letzte Woche Montag,” “bis 17 Uhr/bis vor x Stdn,” oder gibt’s nen Unterschied im Tonfall bzw. bezüglich der grundsätzlichen Bedeutung?
Hey hey, ich glaube du beziehst dich auf den letzten Teil des Abschnitt ueber “vor”.
Das war ein bisschen ungluecklich formuliert und ich habe es jetzt rausgenommen.
Davor habe ich aber gesagt, dass “vor” fuer beides geht… points (names, nouns) und spans.
Es muss aber sein:
– Vor letzteR Woche…
Und das wuerde man vielleicht versuchen zu vermeiden, da es sehr start wie vorletzte Woche klingt, was ja was anderes bedeutet.
– bis 17 Uhr hat es geregnet
– vor 17 Uhr hat es geregnet
Der Sinn ist schon sehr aehnlich aber “bis” hat den Fokus auf dem Endmoment, waehrend der Satz mit “vor” nur eine zeitliche Platzierung ist.
– vor 17 Uhr hat es mal geregnet
Vielleicht hat es um 3 geregnet.
Hilft das?
Super danke schön!
Hi
Regarding the bitter
Bis in
Vs
In
controversy far down below in the comments:
I cannot tell when this conversation took place, but any consensus yet? Hate to see Germany divided again.
I would comment that in English saying
Starting in 3 weeks
makes perfect sense so “bis in” sounds good
In English saying that we will be in Berlin “in 3 wk” implies nothing about how long one will be there.
Separately
Can you say “ich Kommen vor 5 minuten “
Is that a time name?
(Admittedly sounds awkward in English. Better would be “within “ or “in less than”)
Regarding
An English example for this sis the pair since and for. For ONLY works with a span (a quantity) while since refers a point.
I have been here since yesterday. (since when?)
I have been here for 5 minutes. (for how long?)
Seems to me that “since yesterday” refers to a span, which would be readily apparent if you had been standing in the rain “since yesterday “
Well enough bother for one morning
Be well
Not sure which controversy you mean, I couldn’t find it searching for ‘bis in’. Could you help me out please? Next to the comment name, there’s a little icon. That lets you copy the direct link to the comment. If you could share that, that’d be great.
– bis in 3 Wochen
this means something will happen in 3 weeks that’ll end a steady ongoing process.
– Bis in 3 Wochen!
– See you in 3 weeks!
The process is waiting for the reunion and it’ll last until three weeks from now.
Can you say “ich Kommen vor 5 minuten “
Not really, no. It doesn’t answer “when?” by itself, at least not without contextaul fill in.
– When did that happen?
– 5 minutes.
This makes no sense.
What you’re trying to do I saying that you’ll be arriving before 5 minutes are up, correct?
– Ich komme innerhalb der naechsten 5 Minuten.
– Ich komme spaetestens in 5 Minuten.
The version with “vor” makes no sense and sounds like you tried past tense but got the conjugation wrong.
About the “since yesterday”:
Since + time indicates the moment something started. I guess you’re looking at it more from the perspective of the fact that it’s still ongoing, but the time indication is not about “when does the action take place” but rather “when does it start”.
– Standing in the rain for a day (the action takes place over the course of a day, we don’t know when it started)
– Standing in the rain since yesterday ( we know when it started and that it’s ongoing)
You’re right that you can answer “for how long?” with “since yesterday” but that doesn’t always work.
– I haven’t eaten since Monday.
if you read this in a diary without dates, you don’t know how many days without food the person was. You just know when the period started.
– I haven’t eaten in/for 5 days.
Here, you DO know the duration but maybe not what day it was when it started.
Does that help?
In your intro you make that common German mistake: ‘That’s because since a few days, I am STANDING at my new awesome high-adjustable desk’… English speakers would wince but it’s perfectly understandable . Idiomatically in English we’d say ‘For a few days now I have been standing’. Mistakes are also instructive, as you often demonstrate. Never change :)
Oh wow, lol. Yeah, that’s a really really typical “German English” mistake. I thought I was past that, but I guess not :D
A little question on time prepositions (hopefully a little answer???).
To talk about time periods with defined start and finish we use von…bis
zB von 2 (Uhr) bis 4 (Uhr), von Montag bis Freitag, usw.
But for calendar dates, we say: vom 2. Mai bis zum 8. Mai.
The vom is easy, because there’s an implied article in the dative now we are talking about ‘the second..’. By why does bis suddenly need a zu? Why not just bis dem achten Mai?
I’ve read some ‘explanations’ online about bis+zu being needed when the thing is being counted (up to 8 kilo) or something about indicating direction (bis zum Bahnhof) – but I don’t really understand those and I can’t see why that relates to calendar dates, when its not used for other times.
Actually – I think I understand the bis zu, in terms of zu indicating the end point, and bis indicating everything up to that point. So perhaps the question is why is it not von Montag bis zu Freitag?
I think the better approach to this “quirk/exception” is this:
– no “zu” without article
– you need “zu” if you have a direct article
That also applies for places.
– Der Zug fährt bis Berlin.
– Der Bus fährt bis zum Alexanderplatz. (the location)
– Der Bus fährt bis Alexanderplatz (the station name)
Why do we need a “zu” with the definite article? I have no explanation. That’s just what ended up being idiomatic but there’s no inherent logical reason why “bis” alone can’t work. It just doesn’t.
Hope that helps :)
Vielen Dank!
Hi Emanuel –
Mein Gehirn erwartete ein “seit” anstelle von “dass”. Könnte “seit” in diesem Satz verwendet werden? Wenn sie auf diese Weise verwendet werden, sind “dass” und “seit” austauschbar?
Es ist Jahre her, dass ich ein Reh im Hof gesehen habe.
Ciao
Interessante Frage!
Im Prinzip geht beides, “her, dass” und “her, seit”.
Der Unterschied ist ihre grammatische Rolle:
Praktisch macht das keinen Unterschied und Leute nehmen, was ihnen besser gefällt, und die Version mit “dass” ist wohl gängiger.
Hier ein Link mit ein bisschen mehr Erklärung (du musst unten die Links “expanden”.
Concerning the still pending 5.2 I just want to say, ‘Emanuel, you are the worst best teacher ever!.’ Still your the best, I really haven’t found anyone nearly as good at explaining these killer details. I find your lessons to be always very helpful. Thanks, bro
Haha, two things can be true at the same time :D!!
Seriously, thanks a lot for the great feedback!
That most be the worse explanation of prepositions lol
Why though?
In the examples about “bis”, we used “um” before the “Uhr”, for example
is this necessary or can we skip it, because the translators I am using are always skipping it? Is it like more formal or correct to use “um”, or it doesn’t matter?
Edit; I think I figured it out, Is it the “news speak”, “street speak” thing, where we either say
Es ist 8 Uhr
or
Es ist um 8 ?
so in the example above it would be (in “news speak”)
Yeah, you pretty much have it.
It’s either “Uhr” or “um” but not really together.
Colloquially, people also say “bis 10” just like that, but it’s better not to do that as a learner, because it might sound wrong if said with an accent :)
Vorgestern means 2 days ago (ich hoffe dass das richtig ist!)
Vor vorgestern means 3 days ago (really hope this one is correct too)
So, “vor 3 Tagen” (if 1 and 2 are correct), should it not be 4 days ago?
The first two things you said were totally correct.
But “vor 3 Tagen” is simply the same as “vorvorgestern” ;)
Thanks so much for the amazing mini series on time. I find the way you explain things so interesting and helpful!
Apologies if you covered this but I missed it, but how do you express a duration in past/present/future?
Eg
I normally work in London, but will be working in Munich *for 6 months* from February
I worked in a bank *for 6 months* when I was 20 years
I am not drinking beer *for 3 weeks*
Thank you!
Ade
Nice question.
– Ich arbeite ab Februar (für) 6 Monate in München. (I prefer with “für” but it also works without)
– Ich habe als ich 20 war (für) 6 Monate in einer Bank gearbeitet. (here, I clearly prefer the version without “für”.
– Ich trinke drei Wochen kein Bier.
Hope that helps :)!
Thanks fir the reply! I seem to recall learning
“Ich habe früher 6 Monate lang in München gearbeitet”
Does that eork?
Oh, yeah, forgot about that one. That’s also idiomatic.
ya an amazing article bro i learn german in my shcool
Awesome :). Keep it up and become fluent like a boss :)
heylopo
lopohey lopolopohey
Amazing article as usual but i have another approach though
Preposition can refer to a point in time or incident by mentioning it “vor,nach” /or using a spin “vor,in”
or can refer to a whole extension by mentioning it “für,in” / or pointing the both edges “zwichen,von…bis..”/ or pointing only one edge and leaving the other free “ab,bis,von” . seit is in the last group too considering that the other edge is now
my question why did not you give “nach” and “von” some attention ?
what is the difference between “von” and “ab”?
and can we use “nach” with a spin effectively?
i’ve just released that there is another episde of time preposition
Not really :)
Honestly, I forgot about “von” and “nach” when I first wrote it, then I thought including them would make it too long and then I never did a part two :).
“von” only work in the combo “von… bis” or in the phrasing “von X an”.
And yes, “nach” does work best with spans.
could you please give me a couple of examples for “her” as a preposition
Was meinst du mit “her” als Präposition? “her” ist eigentlich ein Adverb.
I meant what you actually wrote at the beginning of the next lesson (frankly i confused a bit reading that)
“I know… we still have to talk .. excuse me… (yaaaaaaaaaaawn)…. about von-bis, vor, nach, während and her but frankly… I don’t wan’t to… I just hate leftovers.”
Ah, I see. That’s imprecision on my part.
What I had in mind was the phrasing “her sein”…
– Mein Geburtstag ist 3 Monate her.
It’s technically not a preposition though, but more like an adverb.
You can find a couple of examples in my dictionary :)
https://yourdailygerman.com/meaning/her/her-sein/
“10 of 10 Questions answered correctly
You have reached 11 of 11 point(s), (100%)” lovely lovely lovely, bis zum nächsten Mal! (got to bed with all the encouraging words…)
Perfect.
Actually, you should try again today, and see how many are still there :)
Was geht denn, wenn man bis zu zur zum etwas sagt. Das order das gleiche habe ich vielmal gesehen
ich verstehe die Frage nicht. Auf Englisch vielleicht :)?
Obviously it is necessary to convert some German perfect constructions to English preterites (if we’re talking about colloquial German), so:
A) “On Monday, I have seen the pink, fluorescent elephant I had seen 2 days ago.”
becomes
B) “On Monday, I saw the pink, fluorescent elephant I had seen 2 days ago.”
B is a perfectly well formed English sentence in my native dialect of English at least. Do you think this is wrong or did I misunderstand something? (I understand the fact that it works in English proves nothing about whether it works in German, it’s just that you said it didn’t work in either.)
Never mind; it does sound wrong after I read it more. It should be “On Monday, I saw the pink, fluorescent elephant I had seen 2 days BEFORE.” (2 days before you saw it) or, for a completely different meaning, “On Monday, I saw the pink, fluorescent elephant I SAW 2 days ago.” (2 days before the conversation)
Actually, on second thought, I think “ago” is marginally allowable there colloquially for me, even if I would avoid writing it. It just involves a weird sort of acting like you’re in the period of time your talking about.
But what does the “ago” take as a reference? Monday, or the day of the utterance? Or is it up to the listener to decide? Danke :)
That’s was the main point of the examples. I think someone either here or on english.stackexchange said that my use of past perfect was wrong, so at first I thought you were referring to that.
But good it’s all clear now :)
Hi,
I’m a “German German teacher” in England, always looking for sites to recommend to my students.
Your blog is very helpful and students like your explanations.
Today I found an error in the Test yourself section:
How would you translate “I will be in Rome starting 3 weeks from now.”
1. Ich bin ab 3 Wochen in Rom.
2. Ich bin in 3 Wochen in Rom.
3. Ich bin ab in 3 Wochen in Rom.
4. Ich bin in ab 3 Wochen in Rom.
The 3rd option is marked as correct, but it’s wrong.
The 2 prepositions “ab in” can’t be used next to each other.
It would make sense to say “Ich bin ab Montag in 3 Wochen in Rom.” Which points to a monday 3 weeks in the future.
The 2nd option is the correct one.
Even better would be: Ich bin ab heute in 3 Wochen in Rom.
I hope that makes sense.
I second this.
Ich bin ab in 3 Wochen in Rom is not correct German.
Ich bin in 3 Wochen in Rom should suffice what you want to say.
Well, the semantic difference is that “in drei Wochen” by itself only means that I am there for the day. With “ab” it means that I’ll stay there.
But I’m on shaky ground with this one, it looks like.
Are you a native speaker, if I may ask?
I’m German :)
How did you end up here :)?
Any updates regarding this issue
Not really. To me, it doesn’t feel wrong and I have a hard time letting it go. I guess I should take it out to avoid confusion.
is there any example of Prepositions?
I don’t exactly understand the question. Could you please clarify?
Amazing explanation!!! Thank you SO much!!
Danke für das Feedback :). Freut mich sehr!!
Würde es richtig sein, wenn man sagt: ,, Ich habe am Montag wieder den pinken Elefanten gesehen, den ich am vorigen Samstag gesehen hatte.” ?
Ja, das ist richtig. Das “am” kann man (zumindest in der Umgangssprache) auch weglassen.