Deutsch · A1 · vocabulary · 4 minutes
Days of the week
Place routines on weekdays with am and recurring habits with bare time phrases.
Understand the choice
Weekday phrases often stand first, making them good practice for verb-second order. The time phrase takes position one, the conjugated verb position two, and the subject follows.
Core rule: Use am + weekday for a specific or general day; weekday nouns are capitalized.
Notice it in context
Am Montag arbeite ich, aber am Dienstag habe ich frei.
On Monday I work, but on Tuesday I am off.
Am Montag is first, so arbeite comes before ich; the second clause repeats the pattern.
Mittwochs spielen wir Fußball.
On Wednesdays we play football.
The adverb mittwochs with -s marks a recurring habit.
Am Wochenende besuchen wir unsere Eltern.
At the weekend we visit our parents.
Wochenende appears in the fixed phrase am Wochenende.
What to remember
- Samstag and Sonnabend are regional alternatives for Saturday.
- Weekday adverbs such as montags are lowercase because they are not nouns.
Common trap: Do not keep subject-verb order after a fronted day: am Montag arbeite ich.