Adverbs provide more information about when, where or how something happens. They refer to another word in the sentence (such as the verb) or to the sentence as a whole. Temporal adverbs give more information about when something happens. They indicate a point in time, a length of time, or frequency.
You've already learned temporal adverbs that express the day on which something happened:
| gestern | yesterday | |
| heute | today | |
| morgen | tomorrow | |
| übermorgen | the day after tomorrow |
The following temporal adverbs give more information about points of time in a sequence.
| Beginning | Middle (after an action) | End | ||
| zuerst | dann | schließlich | ||
| danach | zuletzt | |||
| anschließend |
Examples:
Zuerst bin ich aufgewacht, und du warst nicht da.
Dann habe ich deine SMS gelesen. Danach habe ich auf dich gewartet.
Und dann bin ich ins Bett gegangen.
The adverbs are usually placed at the beginning of a sentence to give them extra emphasis.
Ich habe dann deine SMS gelesen.
Dann habe ich deine SMS gelesen.