Questions & Answers about Ostern ist im April.
Why does the sentence use im April instead of just in April like in English?
In German, you almost always need the definite article (the word for "the") before a month when saying something happens "in" that month. The word im is a combination of in and dem (the). So you are literally saying "in the April".
Since im is short for in dem, what gender is the word April?
April is masculine (der April), just like every other month and day of the week in German. When you say something happens at a specific point in time using in, it triggers the dative case, changing the masculine article der to dem.
Why doesn't the holiday Ostern have an article like das (the) in front of it?
Major holidays like Ostern (Easter) and Weihnachten (Christmas) are treated a lot like names, so they usually do not take an article in German. This works just like it does in English. You only add an article if you describe the holiday with an adjective, such as das schöne Ostern (the beautiful Easter).
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