German Adverbs (das Adverb)

Adverbs are words that do not change (they are not declined) and they modify the verb’s meaning, an adjective or other adverb.

       Types of adverbs

Temporal adverbs dealing with the day

Adverb	Meaning
vorgestern	the day before yesterday
gestern	yesterday
heute	today
morgen	tomorrow
übermorgen	the day after tomorrow

 

Subjective Temporal Adverbs

Adverb	Meaning
damals	then
früher	earlier
jetzt	now
sofort	immediately
gleich	immediately
bald	soon
später	later
dann	after/then

Temporal adverb gerade

The adverb gerade is used to make the present continuous in German:

Ich lese gerade die Zeitung I am reading the newspaper

Adverbs of Frequency

Adverbs of Absolute Frequency

Adverb	Meaning
immer	always
fast immer	almost always
meistens	most of the time
häufig	frequently
oft	often
ab und zu	once in a while
manchmal	sometimes
selten	rarely
fast nie	almost never
nie	never

Adverbs of daily frequency

Adverb	Meaning
morgens	in the morning
nachmittags	in the afternoon
abends	in the evening
nachts	during the night

Adverbs of weekly frecuency

Adverb	Meaning
montags	on Mondays
dienstags	on Tuesdays
mittwochs	on Wednesdays
donnerstags	on Thursdays
freitags	on Fridays
samstags	on Saturdays
sonntags	on Sundays

Other adverbs of frequency

Adverb	Meaning
täglich	daily
wöchentlich	weekly
monatlich	monthly
jährlich	yearly/annually

Forming temporal adverbs by adding an -s

Often, temporal adverbs of frequency are formed from nouns with an “–s” added on. At first, this construction creates a bit of confusion among students of German.

Noun	Adverb
der Abend the evening	abends in the evenings
der Halbtag half a day	halbtags half-day
der Feiertag the holiday	feiertags every holiday

Locative Adverbs

Locative adverbs of place

Adverb	Meaning
vorn / vorne	in front
hinten	behind
links	on the left
rechts	on the right
oben	up
unten	down
innen	inside
außen	outside
hier	here
da	there
dort	there
überall	everywhere
nirgends	nowhere

Locative adverbs with the particles “hin” and “her”. The particles “hin” and “her” denote the direction of movement with respect to the person that is speaking. These particles are used often to make adverbs. Here are some examples so that you understand better:

hinein

If my child and I are outside of the house and I want to tell him to go inside (for example, to do his chores), I’d say:

Geh hinein! Go inside!

heraus

If I am outside of the house and my child is inside and I want him to come out (for example, to cut the grass), I’d say:

Komm heraus! Come outside!

herein

If I am inside the house and my son is playing in the garden and I want him to come in (for example, to eat), I’d say:

Komm herein! Come inside!

hinaus

If my child and I are inside the house and I want to tell him to go out (for example, to play in the garden), I’d say:

Geh hinaus! Go outside!

Locative adverbs that indicate movement

Adverb	Meaning
aufwärts	upwards
abwärts	downwards
vorwärts	forwards
rückwärts	backwards
heimwärts	homeward
westwärts	to the west
bergauf	uphill
bergab	downhill

Construction of locative adverbs by adding an -s

In German, locative adverbs are also formed by adding an “–s” to nouns.

Noun	Locative adverb
das Rechte right	rechts to the right
die Linke left	links to the left

Causal Adverbs

Causal adverbs indicate the reason or origin of an action.

Adverb	Meaning
deshalb	therefore
darum	therefore
deswegen	therefore
folglich	thus/consequently
daher	therefore

Causal adverbs serve as a connection between two sentences, given that they’re Konjunktionaladverbien

Ich möchte in Deutschland leben, deshalb lerne ich gerade Deutsch I would like to live in Germany, therefore I am learning German

It must be emphasized that adverbs occupy a position and by placing them at the beginning of a sentence, they move the subject to the 3rd position. Main Article: Sentence structure

Adverbs of manner

Adverb	Meaning
erstens	firstly
zweitens	secondly
drittens	thirdly
auch	also
ebenfalls	as well
ansonsten	otherwise
außerdem	in addition

Restrictive adverbs

Adverb	Meaning
nur	only
wenigstens	at least
hingegen	on the other hand

Adverbs of quantity

Adverb	Meaning
sehr	very
kaum	hardly

gern / gerne

The adverb “gern” is used often in German and it’s equivalent is “gladly”. The construction “Ich hätte gern…” is very common in German and means “I would like to” and is used to politely order something. gern or gerne are exactly the same but gern is used more often.

Pronoun Adverbs

Pronoun adverbs are the combination of a preposition and a pronoun and are used only to refer to things (not for living things).

Adverbs “da-” + preposition

The adverbs “da-” + preposition are used very often and their translation depends greatly on the context:

Ich habe nicht daran gedacht I didn’t think about that

Adverb	Meaning
daran (or dran)	at it (preposition an)
darauf (or drauf)	on it (preposition auf)
daraus	from it (preposition aus)
dabei	present (preposition bei)
dagegen	against it (preposition gegen)
darin	in it (preposition in)
damit	with it (preposition mit)
darüber	about it (preposition über)
darum	therefore (preposition um)
dazu	additionally (preposition zu)

The prepositions are not exactly the same in German and English and thus the translation is not exact. Check out prepositions to get the best translation in every case.

Adverbs hier + preposition

The adverbs “hier-” + preposition have practically the same meaning as adverbs da + “preposition” though they are used much less often. Their meaning depends greatly on the context.

Adverb	Meaning
hieran	at this (prepoition an)
hierauf	on this (preposition auf)
hieraus	from this (preposition aus)
hierbei	with this or at this (preposition bei)
hiergegen	against this (preposition gegen)
hierin	in this (preposition in)
hiermit	with this (preposition mit)
hierüber	about this (preposition über)
hierzu	for this (preposition zu)

Interrogative adverbs

Main article: Interrogative particles The most important interrogative adverbs are:

Wann(when) Warum(why) Wieso (why)

Wie (how) Wie alt (how old) Wie viel (how much/many) Wie lange (how long) Wie oft (how often) Wie teuer (how expensive) Wie weit (how far)

Wo (where) Woran (whereof) Worauf (where upon) Woraus (what from) Wobei (in which/ whereat) Wogegen (against what) Worin (wherein) Womit (whereby)

Worüber (what about) Worum (what about) Wozu (what for) Wohin (where to) Woher (from where)

Comparative and superlative with adverbs

Some adverbs can make comparatives and superlatives like adjective. This is the case with “bald”, “gern”, “oft”, and “wohl”.

Adverb	Comparative	Superlative
bald soon	eher sooner	am ehesten soonest
gern gladly	lieber preferably	am liebsten most preferably
oft often	öfter more often	am häufigsten most often
wohl well	wohler better	am wohlsten best

Adjectives functioning like adverbs

In many cases, adjectives can function like adverbs:

Das Auto ist schnell [schnell as an adjective] The car is fast

Sie isst schnell [schnell as an adverb] She eats fast

Gestern war ich mit Freunden auf einem Rockkonzert. Rolf und ich kamen später. Unsere Freunde warteten deshalb nicht da auf uns, wowir uns verabredet hatten. Als wir ankamen, standen unsere Freundeganz vorn an der Bühne. Aber dortdrängten sich die Fans, darum blieben Rolf und ich hinten stehen. Als das Konzert anfing, begannen die Fans, laut zu kreischen. Man verstandkaum ein Wort, worüber ich mich ärgerte. Aber die Besucher des Konzerts waren größtenteils junge Mädchen, die bereits beim ersten Songreihenweise umfielen. Somit lichteten sich die Reihen und wir standen baldbei unseren Freunden.

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