der Tag
day
Der Tag (the day) is masculine and takes der. The plural is die Tage, formed by adding -e with no umlaut. It is one of the most useful nouns to have solid, because it appears in greetings, time expressions, and dozens of compounds.
Guten Tag is the standard German greeting for most of the day, used from late morning until early evening. The -en ending on guten is there because the phrase is a shortened accusative: the full form was once ich wünsche Ihnen einen guten Tag (I wish you a good day). The same pattern gives guten Morgen and guten Abend, but gute Nacht keeps a different ending because Nacht is feminine.
Time expressions with Tag use the accusative without a preposition: jeden Tag (every day), den ganzen Tag (all day). To say "during the day" you use tagsüber, and am Tag means "per day" or "in the daytime" depending on context.
Compounds are everywhere. Der Geburtstag is birthday, der Alltag is everyday life, das Tagebuch is a diary, and heutzutage means nowadays. Weekdays all end in -tag: Montag, Dienstag, Mittwoch (the exception), Donnerstag, Freitag, Samstag, Sonntag.
Pronunciation: Tag is one syllable, [taːk]. The a is long and the final g hardens to a "k" sound. In the plural Tage the g sits between vowels and softens back, giving [ˈtaːɡə].
Article / Gender
English
day
Singular
der Tag
Plural
die Tage
der Tag appears in the following vocabulary collections:
Der Tag ist warm.
The day is warm.
Simple main clause with verb in position 2.
Ich beginne den Tag mit Kaffee.
I start the day with coffee.
Direct object takes the accusative case.
Wir planen den Tag zusammen.
We plan the day together.
Subject–verb–object word order.
- What does Tag mean in German?
- Tag means "day". It is a masculine noun and takes der: der Tag.
- What is the plural of Tag?
- The plural is die Tage, formed by adding -e. Drei Tage means "three days".
- How do you pronounce Tag?
- Tag is one syllable, pronounced [taːk]. The a is long and the final g sounds like a "k". In the plural Tage, the g softens back to a normal "g" sound.
- Why is it guten Tag and not gut Tag?
- The phrase is a shortened form of ich wünsche Ihnen einen guten Tag (I wish you a good day), so the adjective carries an accusative masculine ending. The same logic gives guten Morgen and guten Abend.
- How do you say every day in German?
- Say jeden Tag. The accusative is used here without a preposition, which is the standard way German marks a stretch or repetition of time.