These German adverbs answer the question of how often something happens or is the case — Wie oft? Let's take a look at how to describe the most frequent to least frequent occurrences. 

First of all, we have immer, or "always." Like in English, there are different options for the placement of adverbs in German sentences. In this first sentence, the word einfach is also serving as an adverb, and both adverbs are placed after the verb. 

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Es ist einfach immer was los und man ist in einer halben Stunde hier oben.

There is simply always something going on and you are up here in half an hour.

Caption 20, 48 h in Innsbruck - Sehenswürdigkeiten & Tipps

 Play Caption

Meistens, häufig and oft describe a relatively common or frequent occurrence. Note that, in this particular example, meistens is in the first position with the verb immediately following, which gives it extra emphasis. In the other two examples, the adverb comes after the verb (although not the participle!). 

Meistens sind ja die Fenster dann auch noch recht schmal.

Most of the time, the windows are also really narrow.

Caption 57, Feuerwehr Heidelberg - Löschfahrzeug

 Play Caption

In Deutschland ist das Wetter im Herbst häufig kühl und feucht.

In Germany, the weather in autumn is frequently cool and damp.

Caption 6, Herbst - mit Eva

 Play Caption

Große Erfindungen werden oft von ungewöhnlichen Ereignissen inspiriert.

Great inventions are often inspired by unusual events.

Caption 3, 200. Geburtstag - Die Geschichte des Fahrrads in 2 Minuten

 Play Caption

From manchmal to selten, the frequency of something happening or being the case decreases rapidly.

Es ist nur manchmal einfach etwas schwierig, wenn man zusammenlebt und so gut befreundet ist.

It is just sometimes a bit difficult when you live together and are such good friends.

Caption 34, Die Wohngemeinschaft - Probleme

 Play Caption

Ab und zu kann es aber auch mal ganz schön laut werden.

Once in a while it can, however, get pretty loud too.

Caption 62, Rhein-Main-TV - Badesee Rodgau

 Play Caption

Seinen schicken Umhang trug er gar nicht mehr,

He no longer wore his chic cloak

und mit seinem Pferd ritt er nur noch selten.

and he rode his horse only rarely.

Captions 38-39, Märchen - Sagenhaft - Die Prinzessin auf der Erbse

 Play Caption

Finally, we come to "never." It is also possible to say fast nie or "almost never."

Also, früher wollt ich nie zum Klavierunterricht gehen.

Well, at the time I never wanted to go piano lessons.

Caption 35, Deutsche Bands - Glashaus

 Play Caption

Further Learning
Many examples of these words can be found on Yabla German, and you can also look up the following German adverbs of definite frequency: täglich, wöchentlich, monatlich, jährlich, morgens, nachmittags, and abends. For more information on adverb placement, take a look at this helpful page.

You may have noticed that there are two words used to talk about springtime in German: das Frühjahr and der Frühling. Sometimes these two words are used interchangeably, like "fall" and "autumn."

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

However, if we look at the Duden definition of each word, we see that der Frühling is specified as a season in which mild temperatures prevail and plants begin to grow, whereas das Frühjahr is more vaguely defined as the period of time between the end of winter and the end of spring. This may seem like a subtle difference, but means that we will be more likely to hear das Frühjahr used in contexts where we are more generally talking about the transitional months in the early part of the calendar year.

Also dann... [sic] wir sehen uns im Frühjahr zweitausendneun im Kino.

So, then... we'll see one another in the spring of two thousand nine at the movies.

Caption 29, Filmtrailer - Hexe Lilli

 Play Caption

Jedes Frühjahr wandern die großen Tintenfische durch das Wehr.

Every spring, the large coleoids travel through the dam.

Caption 8, Abenteuer Nordsee - Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen

 Play Caption

Im Frühjahr zweitausendundelf

In the spring two thousand eleven,

sollen die ersten Fohlen geboren werden.

the first foals are expected to be born.

Caption 44, Für Tierfreunde - Przewalski-Wildpferde

 Play Caption

Unlike das Frühjahr, der Frühling clearly indicates the season (March through May in the Northern Hemisphere), along with its positive connotations of warm weather. If spring is named among other seasons, it will much more likely be referred to as der Frühling, and not das Frühjahr.

Frühling, Sommer, Herbst und Winter,

Spring, summer, autumn and winter,

so heißen die Jahreszeiten auf Deutsch.

that's what the seasons are called in German.

Captions 3-4, Herbst - mit Eva

 Play Caption

Winter muss eben sein, nich'? Aber, ja, Frühling ist mir lieber.

Winter has to happen, right? But yes, I prefer spring.

Caption 7, Berlin - Im Winter

 Play Caption

Knallige Farben sind im kommenden Frühling und Sommer ein Muss...

Loud colors for the coming spring and summer are a must...

Caption 2, Das Beauty-Einmaleins - Fingernägel

 Play Caption

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Further Learning
Check out this previous lesson on compound words featuring Frühling. Look up the meanings of additional compound words such as die Frühjahrsmüdigkeit, der Frühjahrsputz, das Frühjahrsquartal, die Frühjahrsmesse, or die Frühjahrsmode. 

Expressing dates or the passage of time in German sometimes parallels English, and sometimes doesn't. Let’s take a closer look to get our dates straight.



The standard expression “on the [day] of [month]” is similar in form to English:

Am dreizehnten April zweitausendneunundzwanzig...

On the thirteenth of April, two thousand twenty-nine...

Caption 48, Unser Universum - Asteroiden - Gefahr aus dem All?

 Play Caption

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

The expression of passing time “from the [day] of [month] to the [day] of [month]" goes like this: 


Vom achtzehnten Juni bis zum zwölften Juli...

From the eighteenth of June till the twelfth of July...

Caption 4, Das Tollwood-Festival - BAP und Clueso in der Musik-Arena

 Play Caption

Instead of vom, the preposition ab can be used to express the start of an event: 



Ab Juni wird der Riesenvogel dann in Linienbetrieb gehen.

From June, the giant bird will be starting route service.

Caption 49, Rund um den Flughafen - Der neue Airbus A-380

 Play Caption

One German date-related expression that differs from English is "Wir haben gerade": 



Wir haben gerade Oktober.

Just now, we have October.

Caption 5, Herbst - mit Eva

 Play Caption



Yabla has translated this very literally in order to show the language parallels, but another way of translating Wir haben gerade Oktober could be: “It is now October.”



BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Further Learning:

If you state the day of the week with the date, you use the form: Am Freitag, dem 21. Februar. Note the dative article dem used for the month. On the other hand, if you are writing a formal letter, you write the city name and the accusative article: Berlin, den 21. Februar. There has been a creeping tendency recently in German to express the year (in German) as in 2014, which is an Anglicism and considered poor style in formal German. Historically, German uses either just 2014 or im Jahr 2014, but not in 2014. Natives speakers of English learning German often get confused about this; luckily now you know better!