Breakdown of Am Morgen ist meine Stimmungslage besser als am Abend.
Questions & Answers about Am Morgen ist meine Stimmungslage besser als am Abend.
In German, the verb normally comes in second position, but the subject does not have to be first.
The core order is:
- Position 1: Some element of the sentence (subject, time, place, etc.)
- Position 2: The conjugated verb
- After that: The rest
So:
- Am Morgen (time) = Position 1
- ist (verb) = Position 2
- meine Stimmungslage besser als am Abend = the rest
You could also say:
- Meine Stimmungslage ist am Morgen besser als am Abend.
Both are correct.
Difference:
- Am Morgen ist meine Stimmungslage … → emphasizes the morning.
- Meine Stimmungslage ist am Morgen … → emphasizes your mood more neutrally.
am is a contraction of an dem:
- an (preposition) + dem (dative article for der → masculine, singular)
So literally:
- am Morgen = an dem Morgen (on/in the morning)
- am Abend = an dem Abend (on/in the evening)
With time expressions for parts of the day, German usually uses an + dative:
- am Morgen – in the morning
- am Vormittag – in the late morning
- am Nachmittag – in the afternoon
- am Abend – in the evening
- in der Nacht – at night (here the preposition is in, not an)
So am shows:
- The preposition an
- The dative case (dem → am)
Yes, both Morgen and Abend are in the dative singular.
Reason: the preposition an (in the contraction am) requires the dative when it indicates time.
- an + dative = on/at (a point in time)
- am Montag (on Monday)
- am 3. Mai (on May 3rd)
- am Morgen (in the morning)
- am Abend (in the evening)
So:
- an + der Morgen (nom.) → an dem Morgen (dat.) → am Morgen
- an + der Abend (nom.) → an dem Abend (dat.) → am Abend
Both refer to the morning, but they’re used slightly differently:
am Morgen
- Literally “on/in the morning” (a specific morning or more concrete time frame)
- Often sounds a bit more formal or specific:
- Am Morgen des 3. Januar… – On the morning of January 3rd…
- Am Morgen trinke ich Kaffee. – In the morning I drink coffee. (OK, sounds neutral/formal)
morgens
- An adverb of time meaning “in the mornings / every morning / usually in the morning”
- Emphasizes habit/repetition:
- Morgens trinke ich Kaffee. – I (usually) drink coffee in the mornings.
In your sentence, you could also say:
- Morgens ist meine Stimmungslage besser als abends.
That would emphasize a general habit: in general, your mood is better in the mornings than in the evenings.
Because Stimmungslage is feminine in German:
- die Stimmungslage (nominative singular, feminine)
The possessive mein- must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun:
- Masculine nominative singular: mein Freund
- Neuter nominative singular: mein Buch
- Feminine nominative singular: meine Stimmungslage
- Plural (all genders): meine Freunde, meine Bücher
In the sentence:
- meine Stimmungslage is the subject → nominative singular feminine → meine
Both relate to mood, but with a different nuance:
die Stimmung
- Very common and everyday
- Means mood, atmosphere (personal or of a group/place)
- Examples:
- Meine Stimmung ist heute gut. – My mood is good today.
- Die Stimmung auf der Party war super. – The atmosphere at the party was great.
die Stimmungslage
- More specific / technical / formal
- Literally: “state of mood”
- Often used in psychology, reports, or more formal language, sometimes about:
- mental/emotional state over a period
- general mood situation (e.g. in a population)
In normal everyday speech, most people would simply say:
- Am Morgen ist meine Stimmung besser als am Abend.
Your original sentence is correct, but sounds a bit more formal/clinical/analytical because of Stimmungslage.
Yes. The more natural everyday version would be:
- Am Morgen ist meine Stimmung besser als am Abend.
This keeps the same meaning but sounds less technical and more like spontaneous spoken German.
Use Stimmungslage if:
- you’re writing something more formal (e.g. a medical report, a psychological evaluation, an academic text), or
- you deliberately want a more clinical phrase.
German forms comparatives (X is more Y than Z) mostly by adding -er to the adjective, or with irregular forms.
- gut → besser (irregular)
- teuer → teurer (more expensive)
- schnell → schneller (faster)
You do not say mehr gut for the comparative of gut.
Pattern for comparatives:
- Adjective + -er + als:
- besser als → better than
- schneller als → faster than
- wichtiger als → more important than
So:
- Meine Stimmungslage ist besser als am Abend.
= My mood is better than (it is) in the evening.
In comparisons, German clearly separates two cases:
Comparative (–er / “more … than”) → use als
- besser als – better than
- größer als – bigger than
- schneller als – faster than
Example:
- Am Morgen ist meine Stimmung besser als am Abend.
Equality (as … as) → use so … wie or genauso … wie
- so gut wie – as good as
- genauso schnell wie – just as fast as
Example:
- Am Morgen ist meine Stimmung so gut wie am Abend.
My mood is as good in the morning as in the evening.
So:
- comparative → als
- same degree → wie (with so or genauso)
Yes, that word order is perfectly correct:
- Meine Stimmungslage ist am Morgen besser als am Abend.
Meaning: essentially the same.
Subtle difference in emphasis:
- Am Morgen ist meine Stimmungslage besser als am Abend.
- Emphasizes “in the morning” (stronger focus on when your mood is better).
- Meine Stimmungslage ist am Morgen besser als am Abend.
- Slightly more neutral; starts with the subject as in English.
Both are natural; your choice depends on what you want to highlight first.
Yes, you can. That’s a very natural alternative:
- Am Morgen ist meine Stimmungslage besser als abends.
Here:
- am Morgen = that part of the day, more concrete
- abends = in the evenings / generally in the evening (habitual)
Nuance:
- als am Abend → compares morning vs (the) evening as time periods
- als abends → compares the morning with your usual evening mood (habitual, repeated)
Both are common and correct.
In a main clause (normal statement) in German, the conjugated verb is almost always in second position (the “Verb-second” rule, V2):
- Am Morgen (position 1) ist (position 2) meine Stimmungslage besser als am Abend.
Other examples:
- Ich (1) bin (2) müde.
- Heute (1) arbeite (2) ich zu Hause.
- Wahrscheinlich (1) kommt (2) er später.
You can move different elements to position 1, but the verb still stays second.
You cannot say:
- ✗ Am Morgen meine Stimmungslage ist besser als am Abend.
Stimmungslage is pronounced roughly like:
- SHTI-mungs-la-ge
Details:
- Sti-: In standard German, st at the beginning of a syllable is usually pronounced “sht”
- -mmung: like English “moong” but with a shorter u (as in “book”)
- -s-: a normal z/s sound
- -la-: lah
- -ge: -ge at the end of a word sounds like “guh” (not like a hard English “g” in “get”)
Stress:
- STIM-mungs-la-ge
→ main stress on the first syllable: STIM-