Description

Adverbs, as you probably remember from school, are words that describe verbs, adjectives, and even other adverbs.

In a sentence, adverbs tell us how, when, how often, or where an action occurs.

The sentence – Er studiert seit September mit seinem Bruder Medizin an der Universität shows how different the word order is in German compared to English.

In German, you should always follow the “tense, mood, place” rule when determining the order of adverbs.

German adverbs of time
Gestern: Yesterday
Heute: Today
Immer: Always
Sometimes: Sometimes
Morgen: Tomorrow
Morgens: Morning
Afternoons: Afternoon
nachts/abends: night, evening
nie/nimmer: never
Oft: Often
German mood adverbs

Adverb of state shows how an action happens and includes words like:

Allein(e): alone
Eventual: Probably
Freiwillig: Voluntary
Gern(e): gladly/willingly
Hoffentlich: hopefully / fortunately
Langsam: Slowly
Leichtsinnig: Reckless
Lieber: Relatively
Natürlich: Naturally
Sicherlich: Of course
Vielleicht: Maybe
Widerwillig: Stubbornly
Wütend: angrily
Zögerlich: Reluctantly
Zufällig: By the way
Zusammen: Together
German adverb of place

Adverbs of place describe the place of an action. Some of these adverbs are:

da/dort: here/there
Drauβen: Out
Drinnen: Inside
Hier: Here
Irgendwo: somewhere/in a place
Linkd: Left
Nirgends: nowhere
Oben: Up
Rechts: Right hand
Überall: everywhere
Unten: Below
Voran: before / in front of

Below are some examples of how to place the adverbs of “time, state, place” in a sentence:

Ich bin oft (time), allein (state) irgendwo hin (place) gegangen: I often went somewhere alone.
Wir sind heute (time), zusammen (state), hier (place): today we are here together.
Er ist gestern (time) freiwilling (state) nach drauβen (place): He went out yesterday of his own free will.

In German, you don’t need to think about how the sentences are structured, you just have to follow the same rules and order.

4- German nouns have gender

One of the most complex grammatical concepts in German is the gender of words. In this language, there are three different cases for gender: masculine, feminine and neuter.

The Case system may take time to learn, but it follows clear grammatical rules. Every time you add a word to your German vocabulary, be sure to learn its gender.

Male: Der
Female: Die
Neutral: Das

Sometimes, you have to remember what gender each word has. But in most cases, you can tell the gender from the end of the word.