German Telling the Time Vocabulary
This set covers how Germans actually talk about clocks and daily time markers: die Uhr for the clock itself, die Uhrzeit for the time it shows, and der Zeiger for the hands that move around its face. One thing that trips up English speakers: Mitternacht (midnight) is grammatically masculine as 'der Mitternacht' here even though 'die Nacht' (night) is feminine, so don't assume the gender carries over from the root word.
Learn these 15 words
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All 15 words
plural: die Abende
evening
Am Abend sehe ich fern. — In the evening I watch TV.
plural: die Mittage
noon
Wir essen um Mittag zusammen. — We eat together at noon.
plural: die Nachmittage
afternoon
Am Nachmittag gehe ich einkaufen. — In the afternoon I go shopping.
plural: die Stunden
hour
Ich bin in einer Stunde zurück. — I'll be back in one hour.
plural: die Uhren
clock, watch
Es ist vier Uhr. — It is four o'clock.
- umA1
at, around
Er kommt um sieben Uhr. — He comes at seven o'clock.
plural: die Armbanduhren
wristwatch
Er trägt eine schöne Armbanduhr. — He wears a nice wristwatch.
plural: die Digitaluhren
digital clock
Die Digitaluhr zeigt die Zeit genau. — The digital clock shows the time exactly.
- frühA2
early
Geht es auch später? Sechs Uhr ist mir zu früh. — Is it possible later? Six o'clock is too early for me.
plural: die Uhrzeiten
time of day
Wie ist die genaue Uhrzeit? — What is the exact time?
plural: die Vormittage
morning (before noon)
Der Termin ist am Vormittag. — The appointment is in the morning.
midnight
Um Mitternacht zünden wir die Feuerwerke an. — We set off fireworks at midnight.
plural: die Sekunden
second (Time)
Warte eine Sekunde, bitte! — Wait one second, please!
plural: die Stunden
hour
Eine Stunde hat sechzig Minuten. — An hour has sixty minutes.
plural: die Zeiger
pointer / indicator / hand
Der Zeiger der Uhr zeigt auf die zwölf. — The hand of the clock points to twelve.
How to learn this set
Notice how many words here are built on Uhr: Armbanduhr (wrist + clock), Digitaluhr (digital + clock), and Uhrzeit (clock + time) all reuse the same root, so once you've got die Uhr locked in, the others are just prefixes stuck on the front. The day-part words (Vormittag, Mittag, Nachmittag) share the -mittag root too, and pairing them in order out loud, morning to noon to afternoon, is faster than drilling them separately. For der Zeiger, picture the literal action, it comes from 'zeigen' (to point), which is why clock hands are 'pointers' in German.
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Frequently asked questions
How do you say 'quarter past' in German?
You say 'Viertel nach' for quarter past and 'Viertel vor' for quarter to. So 3:15 is 'Viertel nach drei' and 2:45 is 'Viertel vor drei'.
What is the difference between Vormittag, Mittag, and Nachmittag?
Mittag is noon itself, the point around 12:00. Vormittag is the stretch of morning before it, and Nachmittag is the stretch of afternoon after it, so Germans think of the day as split by that midday marker rather than having one word for 'morning' and one for 'afternoon' the way English does.
Is Uhr the same word for both clock and o'clock?
Yes. 'Die Uhr' is the object (a clock or watch), but it's also tacked onto numbers to mean o'clock, as in 'um drei Uhr' (at three o'clock). Context tells you which one is meant.
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