a stylish but empty German train car
German Articles

How to use adverbs of frequency in German?

By: Babsi Schafer Cabrera Tue Jun 10 2025
German
Adverbs, Sentence Structure

In German, you can use of frequency to express how often an action or event takes place, took place, or will take place.

  • Morgens trinke ich eine Tasse Kaffee.

    I drink a cup of coffee in the morning.

  • Ich trinke meinen Kaffee fast immer schwarz, aber manchmal mit etwas Milch.

    Almost always I drink my coffee black, but sometimes with some milk.

In this article, we will go through some of the common German adverbs of frequency, discuss what they mean and where to place them in a sentence. Let’s get started!

Adverbs of frequency: what are they and when do you use them?

Adverbs of frequency are used to describe how often an action or event occurs. They are often used to discuss routines, patterns, habits or recurring activities and events. We can split them into groups based on whether they tell you exactly how often the action happens (e.g. weekly) or generally how often the action happens (e.g. occasionally). We call them adverbs of definite or indefinite frequency. Let’s dig a little deeper!

Adverbs of definite frequency

Adverbs of definite frequency are used to express frequency that specifies a particular time or time frame and is therefore measurable. It tells you the exact details about how often and when something happens.

Tina hat nur wenig Zeit. Montags geht sie zum Ballet, dienstags hat sie Klavierunterricht, mittwochs Theater, donnerstags geht sie zum Schwimmen und freitags zum Reiten.

Tina only has little time. On Mondays she goes to ballet, on Tuesdays she has piano lessons, on Wednesdays she has drama lessons, on Thursdays she goes swimming and on Fridays she goes horseback riding.

Check out this comprehensive list of German adverbs of definite frequency for some more examples!

Let’s talk about how these can be formed!

How to form adverbs like “daily” or “on Mondays”

Adverbs of definite frequency like “daily” or “on Mondays” come from .

  • Morgens putze ich mir die Zähne nach dem Aufstehen.

    Every morning I brush my teeth after getting up.

    → morgens comes from der Morgen(morning)

  • Die Zeitschrift wird monatlich veröffentlicht.

    The magazine is published monthly.

    → monatlich comes from der Monat(month)

You can form them by either adding the letter -s or the suffix -lich to the of the origin noun. Unlike nouns, though, adverbs are not capitalized. Here are the rules to follow:

  • If the noun represents a time of day, add -s:

    • der Morgen

      the morning

      →

      morgens

      in the morning

    • der Abend

      the evening

      →

      abends

      in the evening

  • If the noun represents a day of the week, add -s:

    • der Montag

      Monday

      →

      montags

      on Mondays

    • der Dienstag

      Tuesday

      →

      dienstags

      on Tuesdays

  • If the noun represents some other time period (e.g. day, week, month, or year), add -lich

    • der Tag

      the day

      →

      täglich

      daily

    • die Woche

      the week

      →

      wöchentlich

      weekly

    • der Monat

      the month

      →

      monatlich

      monthly

Note that some of these come with a vowel change to an umlaut!

Tip

Just like in English, you can also express a recurring frequency using a longer phrase (e.g. “every three weeks”).

  • The German equivalent of something like “every week,” with a singular time noun, is formed like this:

    jeder

    every

    (accusative)

    singular time noun
    (accusative)

    jeden Tag(every day)

    jeden Montag(every day)

    jeden Woche(every day)

    jeden Jar(every day)

  • The German equivalent of something like “every three weeks”, with a number and a plural time noun, is formed like this:

    alle

    number

    plural time noun
    accusative case

    Tim leert seinen Briefkasten nur alle zwei Tage.

    Tim empties his mailbox only every two days.

    Alle drei Monate kommt meine Freundin aus Berlin zu Besuch.

    Every three months my friend from Berlin comes to visit.

To learn more about these kinds of phrases, check out our post on the accusative case in German!

How to form adverbs like “once” or “three times”

Adverbs of definite frequency like “once” or “three times” are formed by adding the ending -mal to a number.

  • Peter hat den Film schon dreimal gesehen.

    Peter has already watched the movie three times.

  • Ich habe dir schon hundertmal gesagt, dass du dein Zimmer aufräumen sollst!

    I have already told you one hundred times that you have to clean up your room!

Exception!

The word for “once” in German is ✅einmal(once)rather than ❌einsmal.

Adverbs of indefinite frequency

Adverbs of indefinite frequency are words like “always” or “sometimes,” that we use to express frequency in more general terms. In German, these mostly just need to be learned, there are no formation rules.

Here is a list of some of the most common ones. For a comprehensive list of German adverbs of indefinite frequency, please check out our list.

German
English

immer

always

meistens

mostly

häufig / oft

frequently / often

manchmal / gelegentlich

sometimes / occasionally

selten / kaum

seldom / rarely

nie / niemals

never

Important

A handful of adverbs of indefinite frequency have comparative and superlative forms:

  • selten, seltener, am seltensten

    seldom, less seldom, least seldom

  • häufig, häufiger, am häufigsten

    often, more often, most often

  • oft, öfter/öfters, am häufigsten

    seldom, less seldom, least seldom

    → Even though am öftesten(most often) it is grammatically correct, Germans usually use the synonym am häufigsten instead.

Where to put adverbs of frequency in a German sentence?

In German, the position of frequency adverbs is fairly flexible. They can all come at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end. There are some generalizations you can follow, though, to help your German sound more natural.

Tip

Remember, all German sentences will still follow the general word order rules we covered in our introduction to German word order! So in a statement, the verb will always be in second-position. So if you move an object or adverb into first position, the subject will follow the verb instead!

Let’s look at some examples!

In the middle of the sentence — Neutral

The most neutral position for an adverb of frequency in German is probably in the middle of a sentence, directly after the , and before any . So the order here is:

Subject

Conjugated Verb

Adverb of Frequency

Ich spiele oft nach der Arbeit Klavier.

I often play piano after work.

Paul geht montags zum Fußballtraining.

On Mondays, Paul goes to soccer practice.

However, you can move the adverb to rest before the direct object as well:

  • adverb of frequencydirect object

    Ich spiele nach der Arbeit oft Klavier.

    I often play piano after work.

  • adverb of frequencyindirect objectdirect object

    Sie gibt mir manchmal Schokolade zum Frühstück.

    She sometimes gives me chocolate for breakfast.

If both objects are pronouns, though, the adverb should either follow the verb, or go after both object pronouns:

direct object pronounindirect object pronounadverb of frequency

Sie gibt sie mir manchmal zum Frühstück.

She sometimes gives it to me for breakfast.

Important

If you want to put the object or some other phrase in first position, for emphasis, the adverb will be “bumped back” a slot, to allow the subject to follow the conjugated verb.

emphasized phraseconjugated verb (v2)subjectfrequency adverb

Zum Fußballtraining an der Uni geht Paul montags.

Paul goes to soccer practice at university on Mondays.

At the beginning of the sentence — Emphatic

German speakers put the adverb of frequency at the beginning of a sentence to add some emphasis.

adverb of frequencyconjugated verb

Oft spiele ich nach der Arbeit Klavier.

Often, I play piano after work.

Montags geht Paul zum Fußballtraining.

On Mondays, Paul goes to soccer practice.

At the end of the sentence — Emphatic

You can also put the frequency adverb at the end of the sentence for emphasis. When placing it at the end, it follows absolutely everything else in the sentence:

adverb of frequency

Herr Meier bezahlt seine Mitarbeiter monatlich.

Mr. Meier pays his employees monthly.

Klavier spiele ich nach der Arbeit oft.

I often play piano after work.

Exception!

When using a separable verb, the separated prefix needs to come at the absolute end of the sentence, rather than the adverb. However, you can still put an adverb of frequency directly before that separated prefix:

Lebensmittel Frau Schmidt wöchentlich ein.

Mrs. Schmidt shops for groceries weekly.

What if there is more than one frequency adverb?

If there is more than one adverb of frequency, you have the same options—depending on what your emphasis is. Usually, the adverbs of frequency should be clustered together:

adverb of frequency

✅Ich besuche meine Mutter oft montags.
✅Ich besuche oft montags meine Mutter.

I visit my mother often on Mondays.

However, if you want to put an adverb in first position, the second adverb of frequency goes in the middle or at the end.

adverb of frequency

Montags besuche ich oft meine Mutter.
Montags besuche ich meine Mutter oft.

On Mondays I often visit my mother.

Summary

Here are the major things to remember about German adverbs of frequency:

  • To create adverbs like “on Mondays,” “weekly,” or “monthly,” add -s or -lich to the appropriate noun

  • To create adverbs like “once” or “four times,” add -mal to the number

  • Adverbs of frequency are most neutrally used after the conjugated verb, but they can also come in a range of other locations, including at the beginning or end (for emphasis)

And now, head on over to our German adverbs of frequency activities to practice all about adverbs of frequency in German!

To embark on your next language adventure, join Mango on social!

Ready to take the next step?

The Mango Languages learning platform is designed to get you speaking like a local quickly and easily.

Mango app open on multiple devices
Log InSign Up