GermanFluent

A1 · Time and place prepositions

am Montag, am Abend

on Monday, in the evening

Formam + Tag / Datum / Tageszeit (aber: in der Nacht)

Meaning and usage

Use am with days of the week, dates and parts of the day: am Montag, am Abend, am 20. Oktober. It is a fixed pairing, so learn the whole phrase as one unit. am is a contraction of an + dem.

The one exception is in der Nacht. A common mistake is to use in with other times, for example in dem Abend instead of am Abend. Also note that a bare day name like Montag is normal German, especially in speech, but am Montag is the standard form in writing and exams.

Examples 5

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  1. 1 Sprachbausteine

    Wir treffen uns Dienstag.

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    Correct answer: am

    am is the correct preposition with days of the week. im is used with months and seasons, um with clock times, and in with der Nacht.

    • im is used with months and seasons, for example im Januar, not with days.
    • in is used in the phrase in der Nacht, but not with days of the week.
    • um is used with clock times, for example um acht Uhr, not with days.

In this topic: Time and place prepositions

  1. am Montag, am Abend on Monday, in the evening
  2. im Januar, im Sommer in a month or season
  3. um acht Uhr at + clock time
  4. von … bis from one time or place to another
  5. nächste Woche, jeden Tag next week, every day: no preposition, accusative
  6. vor zwei Jahren ago, with a length of time
  7. Ich komme aus … saying where someone or something comes from
  8. nach Berlin, zum Arzt, in die Schule to a town, to a person, into a place
  9. zu Hause, nach Hause at home vs. going home
  10. bei at someone's home, at a company, near a place
  11. zum, zur, ins, beim, vom zum, zur, ins, beim, vom: preposition and article as one

Example sentences from Tatoeba, used under CC BY 2.0 FR. See sources.