Welcome to this deck on German temporal clauses. You'll learn how to connect sentences to say when something happens, using conjunctions like als, wenn, während, bevor, nachdem, seit, and bis. A key rule to remember is that these words introduce a subordinate clause, which means the main verb of that clause moves to the very end. Let's get started.

Let's begin with two of the most common, and often confused, temporal conjunctions: 'als' and 'wenn'. Both can be translated as 'when' in English, but they are used in very different situations in German. Getting this distinction right is a big step in sounding more fluent.

The conjunction 'als' is used to talk about a single event or a continuous period of time that happened only once in the past. For example, 'Als ich ein Kind war, habe ich in Berlin gewohnt' means 'When I was a child, I lived in Berlin'. Being a child is a single, continuous period in the past. Another example: 'Als er ankam, regnete es', which means 'When he arrived, it was raining'. His arrival was a single event in the past.

Now for 'wenn'. 'Wenn' has two main uses. First, it's used for repeated or habitual actions in the past, present, or future. Think of it like 'whenever'. For instance, 'Immer wenn ich Zeit hatte, habe ich ein Buch gelesen', meaning 'Whenever I had time, I read a book'. Second, 'wenn' is used for a single event in the present or future. For example, 'Ruf mich an, wenn du ankommst', which means 'Call me when you arrive'.