Breakdown of Der Arzt hat heute keine Sprechstunde.
haben
to have
kein
no, not any
heute
today
der Arzt
the doctor
die Sprechstunde
the consultation hours
Questions & Answers about Der Arzt hat heute keine Sprechstunde.
What exactly is a Sprechstunde?
It literally translates to "speaking hour." In German, Sprechstunde is the standard word for a professional's consultation hours or office hours. You will hear it most often for doctors or university professors.
Why do we use keine here instead of nicht?
In German, when you want to negate a noun that has an indefinite article (like eine) or no article at all, you use a form of kein. Since you would say the doctor has a consultation hour (eine Sprechstunde), you negate it with keine. You use nicht to negate verbs, adjectives, or nouns with definite articles.
Why does heute come before keine Sprechstunde? In English, we usually put "today" at the end.
German follows a standard word order rule where adverbs of time (like heute) usually come very early in the sentence, typically right after the conjugated verb. The direct object (keine Sprechstunde) naturally gets pushed after the time element.
Could I just say Der Arzt ist heute nicht da instead?
You could, but they mean slightly different things. Der Arzt ist heute nicht da means "The doctor is not here today" (he is physically absent). Saying he hat keine Sprechstunde specifically means he is not seeing patients today. He might actually be in the office doing paperwork, but the clinic is closed for appointments.
Learn Der Arzt hat heute keine Sprechstunde and more in German
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free