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Mein Termin ist am achten April.

Mein Termin ist am achten April.
My appointment is on the eighth of April.
From Lesson 77:Ordinal numbers 1st to 19th (am ersten)·German

Questions & Answers about Mein Termin ist am achten April.

Why does the word for 'eighth' end in '-en' (achten) instead of '-e' (achte)?
Because it follows the word am, which requires the dative case. When an ordinal number comes after am (meaning 'on the'), it acts like an adjective and gets the ending -en. So, der achte April (the eighth of April) becomes am achten April (on the eighth of April).
What exactly is am short for in this sentence?
It is a contraction of an dem. An means 'on' or 'at', and dem is the masculine dative word for 'the' (because all months, like April, are masculine). We always use am to say something happens 'on' a specific date or day of the week.
Why is it mein Termin and not meinen Termin?
Termin (appointment) is a masculine noun. Because it is the subject of the sentence (the thing that 'is' on the eighth), it is in the nominative case. Therefore, the possessive word mein stays in its basic form and does not take an extra ending here.
Do I need to capitalize ordinal numbers like achten?
No. When ordinal numbers are written out as words before a noun (like April), they are treated as adjectives. Because they act like regular adjectives here, they are written with a lowercase letter.

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