What is the german word for when

Hallo, ich bin Laura. Hi everybody! I’m Laura. Welcome to GermanPod101.com’s “Deutsch in 3 Minuten”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn German. In the last lesson, we learned how to ask «Where» questions in German. This time, we are going to ask questions with the interrogative word «When?» Let’s go! Los geht’s! Imagine you want to ask when your roommate is coming back home. You will ask him Wann kommst du nach Hause zurück? [slowly] Wann kommst du nach Hause zurück? So let’s break down this answer. First we had- Wann, which is the basic translation of «When» in German. Kommst is the verb «to come back», then zurückkommen in German is in the 2nd person present indicative. The first part zurück means “back” and comes at the end of the sentence. Then du, which is the informal for «you». And finally nach Hause which is literally «to home.» So, all together it is Wann kommst du nach Hause zurück? «When will you come back home?» So in German, «When» is generally translated as the word Wann. For example, if you want to ask «When were you born?» you will say Wann bist du geboren? As in English, the interrogative word is placed in the 1st position, then the verb, and then the subject. So let’s have a look at another example. How can you say «When did you arrive?» It is really simple since it is exactly the same pattern — Wann bist du angekommen? First we have Wann, which is «When». The second word is bist which is the verb sein in 2nd person present indicative tense. Du is «you» in informal form. And finally angekommen which is the past participle of the verb ankommen, «to arrive». Have you noticed a difference between the sentences Wann kommst du nach Hause? and Wann bist du angekommen? The first one is talking about a future action – «When are you coming back home?» Whereas the 2nd one is referring to the past «When did you arrive?» The conclusion is that you can use the interrogative word Wann to talk about any moment, whether past or present. If you want to ask a question about duration as in «Since when have you been a teacher?» Then you will have to say Seit wann bist du Lehrer? Here you also use the present tense if the person is still a teacher but then it’s exactly the same as in English, because «since» is seit. So Seit wann means «Since when?» Let’s see how to ask «Until when?» in German. It becomes- So for example, if you want to ask a friend «Until when are you going to stay here?» It will be Bis wann wirst du hierbleiben? But of course there are other ways to ask about time. You can be even more specific by asking about the year, the date or the hour. For example, you can ask: — «Which year did you start working?» will be In welchem Jahr hast du angefangen zu arbeiten? — «Which day is better for you?» will be Welcher Tag ist besser für dich? — «What hour can we meet?» Um wieviel Uhr können wir uns treffen? Now it’s time for Laura’s Insights. To ask how long an action has been taking place in German, we could say Seit wann, but there is another very simple way to do it! You just have to use the pattern Wie lange? As in Wie lange hast du gewartet? That is «How long have you been waiting?» Ok, so in this lesson, we learned how to correctly use the interrogative German word for «When», Wann, but also its different variations. Next lesson we’ll learn more about asking questions with «Who» in German. I’ll be waiting for you in the next Deutsch in 3 Minuten. Bis bald!

Hello everyone,

and welcome to our German is Easy Learn German Online Course.
And today we’ll learn all about

How to ask questions in German

Now, you’re like:
“Uhm, no way man. I’m not gonna ask Germans anything in the foreseeable future. I got my phone right here and I can just google everything I need to know. Could we please learn how to speak fluently, instead?”
That is certainly and totally true and a good argument against learning questions in German but your theory has one big flaw. Aliens.
They’ve been lurking for a while and soon, they’ll come and invade, for that’s what aliens do.
And they’ll disrupt telecommunication of course.
INCLUDING the Starlink satellites.
Dunn dunn dunnn.
And then what?
How are you gonna find out where the next Starbucks is then? You will have to face the invaders WITHOUT one of Starbucks’ amazing and refreshing Iced Chocolate Mocha in your system and that will be much much harder…. and then you find yourself spending the rest of your lamenting why you didn’t learn to ask questions in German when you had the chance to while you’re massaging hairy alien feet… hairy and STINKY alien feet.

So… are you ready to learn how to ask questions? Perfect

We’ll start with a tiny bit of groundwork, then, we’ll do the basic grammar and then we’ll go over the question words in German one be one and see if there’s any important differences to English.

1. Type of Questions
2. Grammar of w-questions
3. wann
4. wo
5. was
6. wer (wen, wem)
7. warum (wieso, welhalb)
8. wie
9. welch

And now let’s jump right in.

Types of questions

There are two main types of questions, which are fundamentally different.
The first group are the so called: “yes or no questions“, which we’ll call yon-questions. That’s questions where yes or no are a proper answer. Maybe not a satisfying one, but they’re officially answered.

• Are you hungry?
• Have you ever been to Paris?
• Do you know if there is an ATM around here?

The other group are the questions that have a question word, also known as w-questions.

• Where is the train station?
• How do you like German?
• Due to what fact did … ?

Those questions are asking for one particular piece of information, like time, or place or reason, and the answer totally depends on what the question word was. But it totally can’t be yes or no…

That doesn’t work. And neither does answering a yes or no question with a particular bit of info.

• “Are you tired?”
  “Because I have been working.”

These two different types of questions actually exist in most if not all languages.
And beacuse they have different structures in German, it makes sense to look at them separately.
Today, we’ll start with the questions with question words, the w-questions.

Now, the name w-questions  is well deserved because pretty much all the question words start with w. And it’s the same in German. The reason is that all these question words, including the ones of Spanish and French and the other Roman languages and also the Slavic languages come from one very VERY ancient ancestor: the Indo-European roots  *ku̯o-.  This root (and its variations) was basically a sound that expressed that you want to know something. Like… basically a universal Huh?
Over time, the languages started making modifications (mainly altering the vowels) depending on what they wanted to know and that’s how the questions words of today evolved.
Unfortunately, this is where the languages started to drift apart.
The Germans one day, over a few beers said this:

“Hey folks, let’s make a specific question word for place… which vowel should we use?”
“How about wo… like Lokal?“
“Yeah… that makes sense… so wo it is.”

But meanwhile somewhere near London (also with beers):

“Hey folks, let’s make a specific question word for place… which vowel should we use?”
“How about who… like LOcation?”
“Come on, broth… they don’t even sound the same. “
“Yeah, we should use where… like ARea?”
“Great, let’s do that… so where it is.”

Little did they all know that they just created a source of never-ending confusion for beginners of both languages.
But anyway… enough with the history.
Ladies and Gentlement, give it up for… the German question words:

I also made a neat little chart about this back when I started teaching,  so you can download that here:

German-Question-Words
(click the link or the image for the full version, pdf)

What we’ll do in the rest of the lesson is we’ll go over the words one by one, check out the most important variations and talk about the grammar and structure of these questions.
And that’s actually what we’ll start with. Because there is one REALLY big difference between German and English.
And no… I am not just referring to the weird verb-at-the-end-stuff…. which I’ll totally call Vate®, from now on.
Damn, why didn’t I think of that sooner in the course. That’s the perfect name.
Vating… makes it much less annoying.
Bro, I’m sooo vating every day, man. Vaters gonna vate.
Uh.. anyway, let’s look at the grammar.

Grammar of w-questions

In English, the structure of a w-question looks like this:

• [question-word]   [verb 1]  [ subject]   [optional: verb 2]  all the rest?

But verbs are not equal in English. Only a select few can be in the [verb 1] slot right after the question words. The modal verbs can, and also helper verbs like to have  or to be or will can be there. But “normal” everyday verbs with normal jobs like to read or to eat or to flabbergast can’t. You cannot say this:

• What read you?

That sounds really really really bad.
Instead, for some reason, English at some point decided to use to do as a helper here.

• What do you read?

German does NOT do that.
In German w-questions any verb can (and does) come after the question word and we do NOT use to do.

• Wann lese ich ein Buch?
• When do I read a book?
  Lit.: “When read I a book? (lit.)”

Now, that does not mean that all German w-questions look totally different to English. If there is a helper-verb or modal verb or whatever in the German sentence it might exactly look like English.

• Was kannst du machen?
• What can you do?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• What have you done?
• Was hast du gemacht?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

But for the “normal” verbs, you’ll definitely need to get used to the weird flow of these questions, at least if your native language is English.
Cool.
Now, besides that, questions of course also have this Vate-thing going on. So if the verb has more than one part, the leftovers go to the end.
Take this sentence:

• What do you want to eat on your birthday tomorrow.

We’ve just learned that German DOESN’T use to do as a helper. So instead of saying “What do you want to… ” the German structure would be “What want you … “.
And we’ve learned last time, that to want translates to wollen and we totally still know the conjugation, so we get… So we get

• Was willst du…
• What want you…

And then comes all the rest and at the END comes the rest of the verb essen.

• Was willst du morgen an deinem Geburststag essen?
• What want you tomorrow for your birthday eat?

I know… the English version feels REALLY strange. So maybe it’s better NOT to translate back and try to get used to it in German instead.
Anyway, so now that we have a basic understanding of the structure, I’d say it’s time for a little coffee break. And a quiz

And now let’s look at the questions words one by one, learn some variations and also their annoying little secret… because many of them have one.

wann

Wann is the German word to ASK for a time.

• Wann kommst du nach Hause?
• When are you going to come home?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Wann fährt der Bus?
• What time does the bus go?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

And the two really important variations are of course  since when and until when.

• Seit wann wohnst du hier?
• Since when have you been living here?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Bis wann musst du arbeiten?
• Until when/what time do you have to work?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

And the annoying little secret? Well, German also has the word wenn which is a translation of when (and if) .
The difference, in a nutshell, is that wann is the word to ASK for a time. Wenn is the word to indicate one. I’ve talked more about this in a separate article (link below) but it’s not that important as a beginner. Just make sure, you DON’T use wenn if you want to ask something. It’s just one letter difference, yes, but it makes a big difference to a native speaker.
All right, movin’ on.

wo

We’ve already mentioned it… this is one that’ll throw you off. Wo looks like who but it means where. You totally understand that now, but just know that you will mess it up. Many times. That’s normal, so don’t beat yourself up over it.
Here are some examples.

• Wo ist die Bushaltestelle?
• Where is the bus stop?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Wo hast du deine Hose gekauft?
• Where did you buy your pants?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Wo ist der nächste Starbucks?
• Where is the next Starbucks?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

I bet it will be confusing at first to say wo when you mean where but you’ll get used to it and that it is great fun.
And speaking of great fun… this bring us right to the annoying little secret and thereby also to a SUPER IMPORTANT core feature of German, that you’ll struggle with for years… encounter a lot.
You see, a location can have three distinct roles: it can be an origin, a current location or a destination.

• go there
• be there
• come from there

That’s a universal truth, but the thing about German is that it really really wants to distinguish between those three.
In one way or another, German will mark which role a location has. English on the other hand sometimes relies on context.

• “Where is your house?”
  “There.“
• “Where are you going?”
  “There.“

The there in the first example defines a fixed location, the there in the second example defines a destination. The context makes it clear here, but German DOESN’T rely on context when it comes to this. It always marks the role of a location. It has various ways to do that, and one of them us to use the generic words hin and her.

hin indicates that we are talking about a destination
her indicates that we are talking about an origin

This is really important and you’ll have a much easier time if you remember it right from the get go. So here’s a mnemonic for you

• hin: dest-hin-ation
• her: hor-rigin

Not sure if that works :).
Anyway, these two are how German marks in questions whether you’re asking for an origin or a destination. Because German does mark that. ALL. THE.TIME. If you ask about an origin, you need her

• Woher kommst du?
• Where do you come from?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Woher kennst du ihn?
• Where do you know him from?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

Here, English actually also does a marking (with from).
But that’s not the case for a destination:

• Wohin gehst du?
• Where are you going (to)?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Wohin fährt dieser Bus?
• Where is this bus going?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

And if we skip hin and just ask

• Wo fährt dieser Bus?

then we’re asking at what location the bus is driving and the answer could be

• On the road.

Now, hin and her are not only very common in German, they’re also a little “free spirited” in that it’s often not really clear where they belong. Like… in the examples we had, they look like they’re part of the question word. But especially in spoken German, you often find them at the very end. So they basically “vate” as if they’re a verb prefix.

• Woher kommst du?
• Wo kommst du her?
• Wohin gehst du?
• Wo gehst du hin?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

There is NO difference in meaning between the versions, but the ones with the hin and her at the end do sound a bit more spoken, actually, and I’d recommend you start using those. Just to get more used to this flow of having a prefix at the end, you know.
Anyway, you’ll see hin and her a lot and we’ll also talk about them in separate articles, but I think for now we’re good.
Here’s a quick overview again…

• wo – where as in “In/at what location”
• wohin – where as in “to what location”
• woher /von wo – from where/where from

Oh and just to make sure… “current location” can also be a location that someone was at IN THE PAST. What matters is the verb/the question it answers.
Yes, the question “Where were you?” kind of includes the question “Where did you come from?” but the way it is phrased is a steady location.
I’m mentioning this because people kept getting it wrong in the quiz. So pay attention now

And now let’s get to the next word. 

was

Was means what.

• Was willst du essen?
• What do you want to eat?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Was ist deine Lieblingsfarbe?
• What is your favorite color?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• “The wolves in Twilight are the best special effect ever.”
  “Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?”
• “Die Wölfe in Twilight sind der beste Special Effekt aller Zeiten.”
  “Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas?“

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

So far so good.
But there’s a couple of caveats. The first one is rather small. English also uses what in the sense of which, what kind.

• What beer should we try first?

That is NOT gonna be was. The proper word here is welche(-) which we’ll get to later.
The other possible trap is more important and it has to do with prepositions. That’s these little words that express relations, like of, on or with. And they often come in combination with a verb..  like to dream of or to think about.
In questions, it looks like this…

• What do you dream of ?
• What are you waiting for?

But that does NOT work in German. Sometimes, beginner try to ask this way…

• Was träumst du von?… NOPE

But that does NOT work. It’s actually really hard to understand for a German speaker.
Instead, the preposition goes all the way to join the question word at the beginning.

• Von was träumst du?
  (“Of what do you dream?”)
• Auf was wartest du?
  (“To what are you waiting?”)

That probably sounds pretty bad to you. And it actually isn’t the most elegant in German either. But trust me… it’s the LESS confusing version for a beginner.
The other, more elegant and, as some would say, more correct way is at the same time the annoying little secret of was.
It’s what I call the wo-words. Those are for example wovon or woran or vomit… I… I mean womit.
English also has this type of word. Just take whereof or whereby. But in German they’re MUCH more common because they’re actually was in disguise. Was in combo with a preposition to be precise.
Take a look at these examples:

• Wovon träumst du?
  “Whereof do you dream?” (“What are you dreaming of?”)
• Worauf freust du dich?
  “Whereto are you you looking forward” (What are you looking forward to?”)

So that’s the “most properest” way to do it. But you don’t have to worry about that now. It’s fine if you do the version with was. I just wanted to mention it, so you already have it somewhere in the back of  your mind.
Oh and it’s kind of good to know because Germans of course use them. So sometimes you might hear a question start with wo- and you the notice it totally doesn’t make sense as where.  So when that happens just remember that they might be asking what :).

So… how do you like those little special secrets so far?… Oh…  you said you really love them??… that’s great. Then let’s waste no time and find out what our next question word bri… what???… oh you said you DON’T like them… oh…

wer

We’ve already mentioned it. Wer looks like where but it means who. Confusing, you’ll make mistake, but you’ll get used to it :).

• Wer ist dein Lieblingsschauspieler?
• Who is your favorite actor?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Wer will ein Bier?
• Who wants a beer?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

The annoying little secret of wer is neither little nor a secret, though. It is … drumroll… the infamous German cases. German has four cases, Nominative, Accusative, Dativ and Genitals.. I… I mean Genitive. Sorry, I always get really bored when I talk about cases.
But yeah, the cases themselves aren’t the problem. The problem is that German MARKS them with endings.
The wer-question word gets case endings, as well, and before you start whining “That is sooooooo annoying… English is sooooo much better.” let me tell you that English does have case endings too. Behold…

• Whom did you give your book?
• Whose book is that?

German is just a little more consistent in the use… in that you MUST use them.
So… here they are:

Wen – is Accusative case – asking for a direct object

• Wen hast du gesehen?
• Who/whom have you seen?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

Wem  – is dative case – asks for the indirect object

• Wem hast du dein Buch gegeben?
• (to) Whom did you give your book?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

Wessen – is Genitive case – asks for the owner of something

• Wessen Buch ist das?
• Whose book is that?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

Wechischen – is no case – asks for nothing but is lots of fun to pronounce

Do these case endings matter here? Yes, a lot… because they indicate hat function the thing or person has you are asking for has, and that can be really confusing.
Now you’re like “Oh great, that puts a lot of pressure on me? I have no idea about cases and I don’t know which one to use when…”
I totally know how you feel (#lie) but you can do it like this… when it is whom in English then go for wen or wem, when it is whose the use wessen and when you want to know who did or does something (the subject) then use wer.
You’ll still make mistakes and that’s fine but the sooner you start, the easier it’ll be to perfect it later on, once you have a deeper understanding of cases.
Cool
Now, besides this big nuisance, there’s also a small side secret. But it’s not really something new. Do you remember what happened with was in combination with prepositions? The preposition went in front of was.
Well, it’s the exact same thing with wer. So you can’t do it the English way and have it at the end:

• Whom ….. with/of/from/to?

• Mit/von/zu/für  wem/wen …. ?

Alright. So this was wer.
Four down. Three to go. But we’re done with the tough ones and I think we deserve a little break…  you know… when I have a break I also like a little snack. And I can tell ya’… the incredible Double Chocolate Muffin they sell at Starbucks has never let me down. It is just so tasty. And the best thing is it is made entirely of calories. Luckily, I have one here right now so I’m gonna take a huge bite hmmmmmmmmm…. yummie… there ain’t “muffin’” better … ha ha ha
Okay, enough fun. Here’s your quiz:

warum

Warum is the German word for why.

• Warum lernst du Deutsch?
• Why are you learning German?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Warum hast du mich nicht angerufen?
• Why didn’t you call me?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

Pretty simple, and it wouldn’t be fair to say it has an annoying secret. But it does have a little gimmick. Three, to be precise.
I am talking of course about its three(!!) synonyms.

• weshalb
• wieso
• weswegen
  

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

Which of course begs the question why it has so many synonyms. I asked warum for a statement as to why it has so many synonyms, but it just said “Warum nicht.”
My personal theory is that it kind of has an inferiority complex. I mean, all the question words we had so far had a lot extra going on. Wo has the variations wohin and woher, wann has bis wann and seit wann, was has these weird wo-words and wer has its case versions. And warum got itself some synonyms to be more interesting and mysterious.
And it works. Like… students are like “Oh.. what’s the difference. There’s got to be one.”
But the truth is… at least warum, weshalb and wieso all mean the same and most of the time they’re completely interchangeable. Well, okay, weshalb and weswegen can be used in a relative sense of “which is why”, Warum can’t do that. But that’s a bit too much for today.
Anyway, here’s a little usage statistic for all of them

This Google-ngram shows how often the words can be found in written German, and as you can see, warum or weshalb the more common ones, by far. Oh and by the way – have you noticed the uptick in use at around the end of World War 2 and the Nazi era? I found that to be an interesting little phenomenon. People were clearly questioning. Also, I find it quite fascinating how much the usage has been increasing in the last 20 years. I checked French, English and Italian, too, and you can find the same tendency there.
So maybe people are just asking more and more for the reason of things. That’s awesome!!
Anyway, I digress.
So…  when you want to ask for a reason, German offers you quite a few options. But warum is the most common one and it’s totally fine if you just stick to it. Don’t worry. It won’t sound boring.
Cool, five down, two more to go.
Let’s do this

wie

Wie means how …

• Wie geht’s dir?
• How are you?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Wie komme ich von hier zur Superstrasse?
• How can I get to superstreet from here?

…and just like in English you can add all kinds of word behind it and ask things like how much, how tall or how fast.

• Wie groß bist du?
• How tall are you?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Wie lange dauert es, Deutsch zu lernen?
• How long does it take to learn German?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Wieviel/wie viel kostet das?
• How much is that?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

And as far as the tricky little secret goes… there is none.  Hooray!
Okay… maybe I should mention that wie is not exclusively a question word but it is also used to make comparisons.

• Ich bin genau so groß wie du.
• I am exactly as tall as you.

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Die Suppe riecht ein bisschen wie Bier.
• The soup smells a little like beer.

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

So not every wie you’ll hear will ask for something.
But as far as asking questions goes, wie is as easy as it gets.
All right. Quick test and then we’ll tackle the last one.

welch(-)

Welche means which and it comes in all kinds of forms depending on whether it is singular or plural and the case… so you will see welche, welcher, welchem, welchen and welches and even welch alone.
I don’t want to get into detail however, because the internet has not enough space at the moment. Seriously… this is something you will learn automatically when you are ready for it and I’d say just use welche for now. Everyone will understand you.

• Welche Sprachen kannst du sprechen?
• Which languages can you speak?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

• Welches Bier wollen wir zuerst trinken?
• Which beer should (lit.: want ) we drink first?

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

Welche/n/m/s is also used as a pronoun… here is what I mean

• “I saw a movie last night”
  “Which one?“
• “Ich hab’ gestern abend einen Film gesehen.”
  “Welchen?”

• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

There is nothing like “welche eine” in German. But anyways… so on to the super secret special that makes things complicated and frustrating. What is it this time? Well… it is not so bad actually. The English which is not only used as a question word but also as a pronoun… so you use it to refer to things you have said before.

• My German textbook, which is full of mistakes by the way, is 10 years old.

The German welche-family can have the same function… however the use is quite different and German tends to use der,die, das and not welche. So I’d recommend thinking of welche exclusively as a question word with the meaning which or which one.
Finally, there is also the Which of the East in English … but that’s just a typo
All right.
We made it. Those are the German question words in detail and I think that was enough for today.

In  part 2 we will look at the other kind of questions… the yes-no-ones and we will also talk about indirect questions in German.
If you have questions or suggestions just leave me a comment. Oh and if you are CEO of a big company and you want me to mention your brand in my next post please contact me at 0800-434-selling-out or email me at cash-in@german-is-easy.com. Use the sales code “German” to get up to 70% discount on the normal or the XXL-plug-bundle to boost your business. Let’s take marketing to the next level together. Reach up to 70.000 readers and infiltrate their brain while it is busy trying to learn German……………………………

For further reading:

If you have ever listened to the German opening of the famous TV series Sesame Street, you might have stumbled upon the following line:

“Wieso, weshalb, warum — wer nicht fragt bleibt dumm!”
(“How come, for what reason, why — if you don’t ask you’ll stay stupid.”)

As per usual for the German language, this is a true, but very matter-of-fact—almost blunt—statement. It’s also the perfect introduction to today’s topic: German question words!

Before I’ll dive deeper into the specific uses for each question word, let’s have a look at all of them:

Wie?	How?
Was?	What?
Wann?	When?
Wo?	Where?
Warum?	Why?
Wohin?	Where to?
Wer?	Who?
Seit wann?	Since when?
Wie lange?	How long?
Worüber?	About which? (About what?)
Woran?	By which? (By what?), what?

Welche?	Which?
Wessen?	Whose?
Wie viel?	How much?
Wie viele?	How many?
Mit wem?	With whom?
Womit?	By what? (Through what?), how?
Gibt es…?	Is there…?
Wodurch?	Whereby? How? What? In what way? By what?

This is quite the extensive list, and probably the best way to memorize them all is to simply learn them by heart.

The more of these German question words you know, the easier it will be for you to ask the right questions.

Let’s now have a look at a couple examples, so that you will know when and how to use the German question words you’ve just learned!

Wie?

Wie gehts es dir? — How are you?
(A very common German phrase you are definitely going to encounter, if you haven’t already!)

Wie kann ich dir helfen? — How can I help you?

Wie hast du die Matheaufgabe gelöst? — How did you solve the math problem?

Wie kannst du nur? — How could you?

Was?

Was hast du heute vor? — What have you got planned for today?

Was hat sie gesagt? — What did she say?

Was für eine Farbe hat euer Auto? — What color is you guys’ car?

Was für eine seltsame Frage! — What a strange question!

Wann?

Wann hast du sie zuletzt gesehen? — When did you see them last?

Wann geht er nach Berlin? — When is he going to Berlin?

Wann fängt bei dir die Uni wieder an? — When will university start for you again?

Wann sollen wir uns treffen? — When should we meet up?

Wo?

Entschuldigung, wo ist der Bahnhof? — Excuse me, where is the train station?

Wo treffen wir uns am Dienstag? — Where are we meeting up on Tuesday?

Wo in München wohnst du? — Where in Munich do you live?

Wo habt ihr geplant, euren Urlaub zu verbringen? — Where did you guys plan to spend your vacation?

Warum?

Warum hat er sich nicht bei dir gemeldet? — Why didn’t he contact you?

Warum bist du nicht mit uns mitgekommen? — Why didn’t you go with us?

Warum müssen wir am Montag länger in der Schule bleiben? — Why do we have to stay in school longer on Monday?

Du hast sie nicht gefragt, warum sie das getan hat? — You didn’t ask her why she had done this?

Wohin?

Wohin gehst du? — Where (to) are you going?

Wohin in Frankreich wollt ihr gehen? — Where to in France are you intending to travel?

Hat er dir erzählt, wohin er gefahren ist? — Did he tell you where (to) he was driving?

Wohin sollen wir am Freitag gehen? — Where (to) should we go on Friday?

Wer?

Wer hat meine Schlüssel geklaut? — Who stole my keys?

Wer war gestern zuletzt im Büro? — Who was the last person at the office yesterday?

Hast du gesehen, wer uns gestern besucht hat? — Did you see who visited us yesterday?

Wer hat mich gerade angerufen? Ich kenne die Nummer nicht. — Who did just call me? I don’t recognize the number.

Seit wann?

Seit wann sind Nathan und Rachel zusammen? — How long have Nathan and Rachel been dating?

Seit wann magst du Erbsen? — Since when do you like peas?

Seit wann lebst du in Deutschland? — Since when have you been living in Germany?

Seit wann hat sie sich nicht mehr bei dir gemeldet? — Since when has she stopped being in contact with you?

Wie lange?

Wie lange lebst du schon in den USA? — How long have you been living in the US?

Wie lange muss der Kuchen im Ofen backen? — How long does the cake have to bake in the oven?

Wie lange hast du Zeit? — How much time do you have?

Wie lange geht der Film (or: wie lange dauert der Film)? — How long is the movie?

Note: A lot of times in German spoken language, the “e” in “lange” is silent. Most of the time, people will opt for saying “Wie lang”, although it’s technically not one hundred percent correct.

Worüber?

Worüber habt ihr gesprochen? — What did you guys talk about?

Worüber lachst du? — What are you laughing at?

Ist das etwas, worüber ich mir Gedanken machen sollte? — Is this something I should worry about?

Worüber denkst du nach? — What are you thinking about?

Woran?

Woran erkenne ich, ob das Fleisch noch gut ist? — How (by what) do I know if the meat is still good?

Woran sollte ich denken, bevor wir losfahren? — What should I think of before we leave? (Meaning: what should I think of packing?)

Woran hast du gesehen, dass etwas nicht stimmte? — How (by what) were you able to tell something wasn’t right?

Woran hast du gedacht? — What were you thinking of?

Note: As you might notice here, the translation for the word “woran” isn’t always “by what” or “through what”, but sometimes also simply “what” or “how”. It’s one of the German question words that seem to shift in meaning depending on how it is used.

Welche?

Welche Fragen sind jetzt noch unbeantwortet? — Which questions haven’t been answered yet?

Welches Kleid soll ich anziehen? — Which dress should I wear?

Welchen Film sollen wir uns anschauen? — Which movie should we watch?

Welche Ausfahrt müssen wir nehmen? — Which exit do we have to take?

Note: Depending on the gender of the noun following the word “welche” as well as the case, the question word “welche” changes its form, as you can see in the examples above.

• If the noun is neuter (like “das Kleid” — “the dress”), the word “welche” remains in its regular form.
• If the noun is male (“der Film” — “the movie”) — and also due to the case, as the question word is in the accusative here — “welche” becomes “welchen”.
• If the noun is female, the word “welche” does not change.

This is an excellent opportunity to brush up on your knowledge on German cases, if you get the feeling that you’re struggling with them a bit! (There’s no shame in that — most Germans will find themselves struggling with them, because they are a mean bunch.)

Wessen?

Wessen Jacke habe ich gestern versehentlich mitgenommen? — Whose jacket did I accidentally take yesterday?

Wessen Bücher liegen auf dem Tisch? — Whose books are on the table?

Wessen Auto ist das? — Whose car is that?

Wessen Idee war es, Kaugummi ins Schlüsselloch zu stecken? — Whose idea was it to stick chewing gum in the keyhole?

Note: “Wessen” is not only a question word, but also indication for you that you are dealing with the genitive case. As I previously mentioned, the genitive is somewhat of a dying case, since a lot of people (even German native speakers!) do not know how to use the case properly.

Instead, a lot of people use “wem sein” instead of “wessen”, and essentially wrongly replace the genitive with a dative case.

(Every time someone does this, somewhere on this planet a kitten dies.)

So just know that whenever someone yells “Wem seine Jacke ist das?”, the correct form is “Wessen Jacke ist das?”

Wie viel?

Wie viel kostet diese Vase? — How much is this vase?

Wie viel Brot habt ihr eingekauft? — How much bread did you guys buy?

Wie viel Trinkgeld soll ich der Bedienung geben? — How much should I tip the waiter?

Wie viel Gehalt verdienst du in deiner Position? — How much does your position pay?

Wie viele?

Wie viele Leute waren bei der Amtseinführung? — How many people were at the inauguration?

Wie viele Male soll ich mich denn noch wiederholen? — How many more times do I have to repeat myself?

Wie viele Paar Schuhe hast du? — How many pairs of shoes do you own?

Wie viele Gäste sind zu deiner Party eingeladen? — How many guests are invited to your party?

Mit wem?

Mit wem hast du dich gestern getroffen? — With whom did you meet up yesterday?

Mit wem fährst du dieses Jahr in den Urlaub? — With whom are you going on vacation this year?

Mit wem hat er gestern gesprochen? — Who did he talk to yesterday? (With whom did he talk yesterday?)

Mit wem arbeitest du an dem Projekt? — Who are you working on the project with?

Womit?

Womit hat er die Flasche geöffnet? — How did he open the bottle?

Womit kann ich dir helfen? — How can I help you?

Womit hat er das Auto bezahlen können? — By what means was he able to pay for the car?

Womit hast du dich beschäftigt? — By what means did you keep yourself occupied?

Gibt es…?

Entschuldigung, gibt es in diesem Gebäude eine Toilette? — Excuse me, is there a restroom in this building?

Gibt es denn nichts anderes, was dir einfällt? — Isn’t there anything else you could think of?

Gibt es auf der Feier etwas zu essen? — Will there be food at the party?

Gibt es keine andere Möglichkeit? — Isn’t there another option?

Wodurch?

Wodurch wurde er berühmt? — How did he become famous?

Wodurch unterscheidet sich dieses Sofa von den anderen? — In what way is this sofa different from the other ones?

Wodurch hätte ich das wissen sollen? — By what means could I have known that?

Wodurch werden Ressourcen verschwendet? — How are resources being wasted?

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So, there they are! The most important question words in the German language!

There are quite a few of them, but the good news is that they’re pretty easy to keep in mind.

In case you are curious about testing your knowledge on German question words so far, you can head over to our quiz section — Clozemaster will help you learn all the important verbs and grammar in no time!

Until next time, have fun and viel Erfolg!

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English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

• wen (eye dialect)

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English when(ne), whanne, from Old English hwonne, from Proto-West Germanic *hwannē, from Proto-West Germanic *hwan, from Proto-Germanic *hwan (“at what time, when”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷis (interrogative base).

Cognate with Dutch wanneer (“when”) and wen (“when, if”), Low German wannehr (“when”), wann (“when”) and wenn (“if, when”), German wann (“when”) and wenn (“when, if”), Gothic 𐍈𐌰𐌽 (ƕan, “when, how”), Latin quandō (“when”). More at who.

Interjection sense: a playful misunderstanding of «say when» (i.e. say something / speak up when you want me to stop) as «say [the word] when«.

Pronunciation[edit]

• (General American) enPR: hwĕn, wĕn, IPA^(key): /ʍɛn/, /wɛn/
  • (pin–pen merger) IPA^(key): /ʍɪn/, /wɪn/
• (Ireland, Scotland) enPR: hwĕn, IPA^(key): /ʍɛn/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: wĕn, IPA^(key): /wɛn/
• (in accents without the wine–whine merger)
• (in accents with the wine–whine merger)
• (in accents with the wine–whine merger)
• (in accents with the wine–whine merger)
• Rhymes: -ɛn
• Homophone: wen (in accents with the wine—whine merger), win (in accents with the wine–whine merger and the pin–pen merger)

Adverb[edit]

when (not comparable)

1. (interrogative) At what time? At which time? Upon which occasion or circumstance? Used to introduce direct or indirect questions about time.

   When will they arrive?

   Do you know when they arrived?

   I don’t know when they arrived.

   When they arrived is unknown.

   • 1834, Samuel Kirkham, English Grammar in Familiar Lectures, page 117:

     What words are used as interrogative pronouns? — Give examples.
     When are the words, what, which, and that, called adj. pron.?
     When are they called interrogative pronominal adjectives?

2. At an earlier time and under different, usually less favorable, circumstances.

   He’s mister high and mighty now, but I remember him when.

3. (relative) At which, on which, during which: often omitted or replaced with that.

   That was the day when the Twin Towers fell.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, pages 58–59:

     The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. […] Their example was followed by others at a time when the master of Mohair was superintending in person the docking of some two-year-olds, and equally invisible.

4. (fused relative) The time at, on or during which.

   I recall when they were called the Greys.

   Next year is when we elect a new mayor.

5. (informal, in definitions or explanations) A circumstance or situation in which.

   Love is when you can’t get enough of someone.

Translations[edit]

Conjunction[edit]

when

1. At (or as soon as) that time that; at the (or any and every) time that; if.

   Pavlov’s dogs salivate when [i.e. at any and every time that] they hear a bell.

   Put your pencil down when [i.e. as soon as, at the moment that] the timer goes off.

   A player wins when [as soon as, or at any time that, if] she has four cards of the same suit.

   A student is disqualified when [as soon as, if] they cheat.

   • 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, “Accessary After the Fact”, in Nobody, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 1915, →OCLC, page 48:

     Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
2. During the time that; at the time of the action of the following clause or participle phrase.

   They dream when [i.e. during the time that] they sleep.

   I’m happiest when [during the time that, or at any time that] I’m working.

   It was raining when I came yesterday.

   The game is over when the referee says it is.

   Be careful when crossing the street.

   When (you are) angry, count to ten before speaking or acting.

   • 2012 April 22, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0-1 West Brom”, in BBC Sport:

     The Baggies had offered little threat until the 28th minute, but when their first chance came it was a clear one.

3. At what time; at which time.

   I am here till Friday, when [i.e. at which time] I leave for Senegal.

   I was just walking down the street, when [i.e. at which time] all of a sudden it started to rain.

   • 1839, John Donne, The Works of John Donne: Sermons, Letters, Poems, page 310:

     I am at London only to provide for Monday, when I shall use that favour which my Lady Bedford hath afforded me, of giving her name to my daughter; which I mention to you, […]

   • 1929, Donald John Munro, The Roaring Forties and After (page 38)

     He sat at the door of his kitchen watching, and seeing there was nothing else for it we buckled to and soon had the job done; when we were admitted to the kitchen and given a really good meal.

4. Since; given the fact that; considering that.

   I don’t see the point of putting up Christmas decorations when I am the only person who is going to see them.

5. Whereas; although; at the same time as; in spite of the fact that.

   You’re picking at your scabs when you should be letting them heal.

   He keeps changing things when the existing system works perfectly well.

   • c. 1604–1626, doubtfully attributed to Francis Beaumont; John Fletcher, “The Faithful Friends”, in Henry [William] Weber, editor, The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher, in Fourteen Volumes: […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] F[rancis] C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington; […], published 1812, →OCLC, Act II, scene ii, page 53:

     Oh age! / Where only wealthy men are counted happy: / How ſhall I pleaſe thee? how deſerve thy ſmiles? / When I am only rich in miſery?

Synonyms[edit]

• (as soon as): as soon as, immediately, once
• (every time that): whenever
• (during the time that): while, whilst; see also Thesaurus:while
• (at any time that): whenever
• (at which time):
• (given the fact that): given that, seeing that; see also Thesaurus:because
• (in spite of the fact that): but, where, whereas

Derived terms[edit]

• know someone when
• whenwe

Translations[edit]

Pronoun[edit]

when

1. (interrogative) What time; which time.

   Since when do I need your permission?

   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 18, column 2:

     […] ſhortly […] I’le reſolue you […] / Theſe happend accidents: till when, be cheerefull […]

   • 1831 (published), John Davies, Orchestra Or, a Poem of Dancing, in Robert Southey, Select Works of the British Poets: From Chaucer to Jonson, with Biographical Sketches, page 706:

     Homer, to whom the Muses did carouse

     A great deep cup with heav’nly nectar fill’d,

     The greatest, deepest cup in Jove’s great house,

     (For Jove himself had so expressly will’d)

     He drank off all, nor let one drop be spill’d;

     Since when, his brain that had before been dry,

     Became the well-spring of all poetry.

   • 1833, William Potts Dewees, A Treatise on the Diseases of Females, page 495:

     [This] we imagined might have been owing to some accidental condition of the system, or perhaps idiosyncracy; this led us to a second trial, but we experienced the same inconveniences, since when, we have altogether abandoned their use.

   • 2012, Emile Letournel, Robert Judet, Fractures of the Acetabulum, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 385:

     So we combined the Kocher-Langenbeck and iliofemoral approach until 1965, since when we have combined the ilioinguinal and Kocher-Langenbeck approaches.

Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

when (plural whens)

1. The time at which something happens.

   A good article will cover the who, the what, the when, the where, the why and the how.

   • 2008, Paolo Aite, Lanscapes of the Psyche, Ipoc Press, →ISBN, page 151:

     For the moment, suffice it to say that the stories told through the whens and hows of building a scene differentiate individual desires and needs more clearly than shared speech was up to then able to communicate.

Translations[edit]

Interjection[edit]

when

1. (often humorous) That’s enough: a command asking someone to stop adding something, especially an ingredient or portion of food or drink; used in, or as if in, literal response to ‘Say when’.

   • 2004, Andy Husbands and Joe Yonan, The Fearless Chef: Innovative Recipes from the Edge of American Cuisine, page 83:

     When we go out to a restuarant, we’re the guys who never say «when» when the waiter is grinding fresh pepper on our salads.

   • 2009, Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin, page 111:

     He keeps the bottle in the top bureau drawer; he takes it out, and two glasses, and pours. Say when.
     When, please.

   • 2011, Fritz Allhoff and Dave Monroe, Porn — Philosophy for Everyone: How to Think With Kink:

     Producers have the power to say «when» when the actress involved is too stressed to continue. That’s responsible filmmaking.

2. (obsolete) Expressing impatience. (Compare what.)

   • c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 221, column 2:

     Why when I ſay? […] Off with my boots, you rogues: you villaines, when? […] Out you rogue […]

   • c. 1600, Sir John Oldcastle, iv. 1:

     Set, parson, set; the dice die in my hand.

     When, parson, when! what, can you find no more?

   • c. 1615-1657, Thomas Middleton, More Dissemblers Besides Women, volume 1:

     Why, when? begin, sir: I must stay your leisure.

Derived terms[edit]

• whenever

Translations[edit]

See also[edit]

• since when

References[edit]

• when at OneLook Dictionary Search
• “when”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams[edit]

• hewn

Middle English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Adverb[edit]

when

1. Alternative form of whenne

Conjunction[edit]

when

1. Alternative form of whenne

Etymology 2[edit]

Verb[edit]

when

1. Alternative form of winnen (“to win”)

What is the german word for when you try to duplicate a problem with someone watching but it works perfectly once they come to help?