Adverb Meaning

Adverbs of Absolute
Frequency
vorgestern the day before
yesterday
Adverb Meaning
gestern yesterday
immer always
heute today
fast immer almost always
morgen tomorrow
meistens most of the time
übermorgen the day after
tomorrow häufig frequently

oft often
Subjective Temporal
Adverbs ab und zu once in a while

manchmal sometimes
Adverb Meaning
selten rarely
damals then
fast nie almost never
früher earlier
nie never
jetzt now

sofort immediately Adverbs of daily frequency

gleich immediately Adverb Meaning

bald soon
morgens in the morning

später later
nachmittags in the afternoon

dann after/then
abends in the evening

Temporal adverb gerade nachts during the night

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 weekly the evening in the evenings
frecuency
der Halbtag halbtags
half a day half-day
Adverb Meaning
der Feiertag feiertags
montags on Mondays the holiday every holiday

dienstags on Tuesdays
Locative Adverbs
mittwochs on Wednesdays

donnerstags on Thursdays

freitags on Fridays

samstags on Saturdays

sonntags on Sundays

Other adverbs of frequency

Adverb Meaning
Locative adverbs of place
täglich daily
Adverb Meaning
wöchentlich weekly
vorn / vorne in front
monatlich monthly
hinten behind
jährlich yearly/annually
links on the left
Forming temporal adverbs
rechts on the right
by adding an -s
oben up
Often, temporal adverbs of frequency
are formed from nouns with an "–s" unten down
added on. At first, this construction
creates a bit of confusion among innen inside
students of German.
außen outside

Noun Adverb
hier here

der Abend abends da there

dort there

überall everywhere

nirgends nowhere

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:
Locative adverbs with the particles
"hin" and "her". The particles "hin"
Komm heraus!
and "her" denote the direction of
Come outside!
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: herein

Geh hinein! If I am inside the house and my son

Go inside! is playing in the garden and I want
him to come in (for example, to eat),
I’d say:

Komm herein!
Come inside!
 In German, locative adverbs are also
formed by adding an "–s" to nouns.

Noun Locative adverb

das Rechte rechts

right to the right

die Linke links

left to the left
hinaus
Causal Adverbs
If my child and I are inside the
house and I want to tell him to go
Causal adverbs indicate the reason
out (for example, to play in the
or origin of an action.
garden), I’d say:

Geh hinaus! Adverb Meaning

Go outside!
deshalb therefore
Locative adverbs that
darum therefore
indicate movement
deswegen therefore
Adverb Meaning
folglich thus/consequently
aufwärts upwards
daher therefore
abwärts downwards
Causal adverbs serve as a
vorwärts forwards
connection between two sentences,
given that
rückwärts backwards
they’re Konjunktionaladverbien
heimwärts homeward
Ich möchte in Deutschland
westwärts to the west leben, deshalb lerne ich
gerade Deutsch
bergauf uphill I would like to live in Germany,
therefore I am learning German
bergab downhill
It must be emphasized that adverbs
occupy a position and by placing
Construction of locative them at the beginning of a sentence,
adverbs by adding an -s they move the subject to the 3rd
position.
Main Article: Sentence structure The construction "Ich hätte gern…" is
very common in German and means
Adverbs of manner "I would like to" and is used to
politely order something.

Adverb Meaning gern or gerne are exactly the same

but gern is used more often.
erstens firstly

zweitens secondly
Pronoun Adverbs

drittens thirdly Pronoun adverbs are the

combination of a preposition and a
auch also pronoun and are used only to refer
to things (not for living things).
ebenfalls as well
Adverbs "da-" + preposition
ansonsten otherwise
The adverbs "da-" + preposition are
außerdem in addition used very often and their translation
depends greatly on the context:
Restrictive adverbs
Ich habe nicht daran
gedacht
Adverb Meaning I didn’t think about that

nur only
Adverb Meaning
wenigstens at least
daran (or dran) at it (preposition
an)
hingegen on the other hand
darauf (or on it (preposition
Adverbs of quantity drauf) auf)

daraus from it
Adverb Meaning (preposition aus)

sehr very dabei present

(preposition bei)
kaum hardly
dagegen against it
(preposition
gern / gerne gegen)

The adverb "gern" is used often in darin in it (preposition

in)
German and it’s equivalent is
"gladly".
 often. Their meaning depends
damit with it
(preposition mit) greatly on the context.

darüber about it Adverb Meaning

(preposition
über) hieran at this (preposition an)

darum therefore hierauf on this (preposition auf)

(preposition um)
hieraus from this (preposition
dazu additionally aus)
(preposition zu)
hierbei with this or at this
The prepositions are not exactly the (preposition bei)
same in German and English and
thus the translation is not exact. hiergegen against this
(preposition gegen)
Check out prepositions to get the
best translation in every case.
hierin in this (preposition in)

Adverbs hier + preposition hiermit with this (preposition

mit)
The adverbs "hier-" + preposition
have practically the same meaning hierüber about this (preposition
as adverbs da + "preposition" über)
though they are used much less
hierzu for this (preposition zu)

Interrogative adverbs
Main article: Interrogative particles

The most important interrogative adverbs are:

Wie (how) Wo (where)

 Wann(when)  Worüber
 Wie alt  Woran
 Warum(why) (what
(how (whereof)
 Wieso (why) about)
old)  Worauf
 Worum
 Wie viel (where
(what
(how upon)
about)
much/m  Woraus
 Wozu
any) (what
  Wie from) (what for)
lange  Wobei (in
(how which/
 Wohin
long) whereat)
(where to)
 Wie oft  Wogegen  Woher
(from
(how (against
where)
often) what)
 Wie  Worin
teuer (wherein)
(how  Womit
expensiv (whereby)
e)
 Wie weit
(how
far)

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 eher am ehesten

soon sooner soonest

gern lieber am liebsten

gladly preferably most preferably

oft öfter am häufigsten

often more often most often

wohl wohler am wohlsten

well better 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