Dates and years pull together everything in this group: you need ordinals for the day, cardinals for the year, and the right prepositions to say on a day and in a month. German also has two habits with no English equivalent that cause reliable errors — it writes dates in day-month-year order with the day as an ordinal, and it uses no preposition at all before a bare year (you never say in 1990). This page walks through asking the date, days of the week, months, full dates, and years.
Asking and giving the date
To ask today's date, German uses an ordinal in disguise: Der Wievielte ist heute? — literally "The how-many-eth is today?". The answer names the day as an ordinal in the nominative, because it is the subject:
Der Wievielte ist heute?
What's today's date? (literally 'the how-manieth is today?')
Heute ist der erste Mai.
Today is the first of May. (nominative — der erste, naming the day)
Morgen ist der dreizehnte.
Tomorrow is the thirteenth.
Note that when you state the date as a label like this, the ordinal is nominative (der erste). But when you say something happens on a date, you switch to the dative (am ersten) — see below.
Days of the week and months are masculine
Every day of the week and every month in German is masculine (der). This matters because it fixes which article and which preposition-contraction you use. The preposition for both is an + the dative for days and in + the dative for months, and both contract:
- am = an dem → used with days: am Montag (on Monday)
- im = in dem → used with months: im Mai (in May)
| Days (all der) | Months (all der) |
|---|---|
| der Montag, Dienstag, Mittwoch | (der) Januar, Februar, März |
| der Donnerstag, Freitag | April, Mai, Juni |
| der Samstag (regional: Sonnabend) | Juli, August, September |
| der Sonntag | Oktober, November, Dezember |
A useful detail: to say something happens regularly on a given day, German adds -s and lowercases the word — montags means "on Mondays / every Monday", as opposed to am Montag (this coming Monday). Note Samstag is the standard word in the south and west; Sonnabend (regional: north and east) is the equivalent in the north.
Am Montag habe ich einen Termin beim Arzt.
On Monday I have a doctor's appointment.
Im Dezember wird es hier richtig kalt.
In December it gets really cold here.
Montags geht das Café erst um zehn auf.
On Mondays the café doesn't open until ten. (regular -s, lowercase)
Writing a full date: day-month-year
German writes dates in day · month · year order, with the day as an ordinal (so it carries a period) and the month often as a number (also with a period, since it is read as an ordinal too):
- 1.5.2026 = der erste Mai zweitausendsechsundzwanzig (1 May 2026)
- 3.10. = der dritte Oktober (3 October)
- 24.12.2025 = der vierundzwanzigste Dezember (24 December)
The order is the reverse of the American month-day-year style: 1.5.2026 is the 1st of May, not the 5th of January. When you say a date on which something happens, the day goes into the dative (am), and so does the month if you say it as an ordinal:
Ich bin am ersten Mai geboren.
I was born on the first of May. (am ersten — dative)
Der Termin ist am 3.10. — am dritten Zehnten.
The appointment is on 3 October — 'on the third of the tenth'.
Berlin, den 15. März 2026
Berlin, 15 March 2026 (the dateline form on a letter — accusative den)
The letterhead form Berlin, den 15. März uses the accusative (den) — a fixed convention for dates at the top of letters and documents.
Reading years: two systems
A year can be read in two ways, and which one you use depends largely on the century:
- As a plain cardinal number — always available, and standard for 2000 onward: 2024 = zweitausendvierundzwanzig (two-thousand-four-and-twenty).
- In hundreds — the traditional way for the 1100s through the 1900s: 1989 = neunzehnhundertneunundachtzig (nineteen-hundred-nine-and-eighty), i.e. "19 hundred, 89".
| Year | In hundreds | As a plain number |
|---|---|---|
| 1789 | siebzehnhundertneunundachtzig | (rare for this era) |
| 1990 | neunzehnhundertneunzig | — |
| 2008 | (zwanzighundertacht, uncommon) | zweitausendacht |
| 2024 | — | zweitausendvierundzwanzig |
For years in the 1900s, the hundreds reading is by far the most natural: 1985 is neunzehnhundertfünfundachtzig. For years from 2000 on, German overwhelmingly uses the plain-number reading (zweitausendvierundzwanzig), not zwanzighundertvierundzwanzig.
Die Mauer fiel neunzehnhundertneunundachtzig.
The Wall fell in 1989. (read in hundreds — note: no preposition before the year)
Ich bin zweitausendzwei geboren.
I was born in 2002. (plain number; again no 'in')
No preposition before a bare year
This is the single most persistent date error for English speakers. English requires "in" before a year: "in 1990 he was born". German does the opposite — before a standalone year you use no preposition at all:
- ✓ 1990 wurde er geboren. (1990 he was born)
- ✓ Im Jahr 1990 wurde er geboren. (In the year 1990 ...) — the only way to use a preposition
- ✗ in 1990 wurde er geboren — wrong, a direct calque of English
So you have exactly two correct options: drop the preposition entirely and just state the year, or wrap it in the full phrase im Jahr(e) 1990 ("in the year 1990"). What you may not do is say in 1990 — that little "in" is the giveaway of an English speaker.
1871 wurde das Deutsche Reich gegründet.
In 1871 the German Empire was founded. (bare year, no preposition)
Im Jahr 2015 zog sie nach Hamburg.
In 2015 she moved to Hamburg. (the full phrase im Jahr is the only way to add a preposition)
Common Mistakes
❌ Er ist in 1990 geboren.
Incorrect — German uses no preposition before a bare year.
✅ Er ist 1990 geboren. / Er ist im Jahr 1990 geboren.
He was born in 1990 — bare year, or 'im Jahr 1990'.
❌ Heute ist der 1.5. = der fünfte Januar
Incorrect — 1.5. is day-month, so it's the 1st of May.
✅ Heute ist der 1.5. = der erste Mai
1.5. = the first of May (day before month).
❌ Ich bin am erste Mai geboren.
Incorrect — am triggers the dative ending -en.
✅ Ich bin am ersten Mai geboren.
I was born on the first of May — am ersten.
❌ in Mai / in Montag
Incorrect — months take im, days take am (and contract).
✅ im Mai / am Montag
In May / on Monday — im for months, am for days.
❌ zweitausend vierundzwanzig (two words)
Incorrect — the year, like any number under a million, is one word.
✅ zweitausendvierundzwanzig
2024 written as a single solid word.
Key Takeaways
- Dates run day-month-year (1.5.2026 = 1 May), with the day as an ordinal.
- The label form is nominative (der erste Mai); "on" a date is dative (am ersten Mai).
- Days take am, months take im; both are masculine; montags = "every Monday".
- Years read in hundreds (1900s: neunzehnhundert...) or as plain numbers (2000s: zweitausend...) — and take no preposition unless you say im Jahr.
Now practice German
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning German→Related Topics
- Ordinal NumbersA2 — Forming German ordinals with -t (1-19) and -st (from 20), the irregulars erste, dritte, siebte and achte, why ordinals take adjective endings (am zweiten Mai), and the period-as-ordinal-marker (1. = erste).
- Hundreds, Thousands, MillionsA2 — Building large German numbers as single words up to a million, the reversed decimal comma and thousands dot (1.000,5), and the high-stakes false friend Milliarde = billion, Billion = trillion.
- Prepositions of TimeA2 — The German time prepositions — am, im, um, vor, nach, seit, bis, in, für, während — organized by clock, day, month, and duration.
- Pronouncing Numbers, Dates, and Spelling AloudA2 — Spoken German says the units before the tens (einundzwanzig = 'one-and-twenty'), uses zwo on the phone to avoid confusion with drei, and has its own spelling alphabet — the survival skills for phone numbers, prices, dates, and dictation.
- Cardinal Numbers 21-100 (Units before Tens)A1 — German names the units digit before the tens digit and joins them with und in a single word — einundzwanzig is 'one-and-twenty' — plus the irregular tens dreißig, sechzig, and siebzig.