Yesterday, today and tomorrow

gestern, heute, morgen

Place events on a simple timeline and choose a natural German verb form for past, present and planned future meaning.

Time words locate an event, but they do not mechanically create a tense. Gestern often appears with a past form: Gestern habe ich gearbeitet. Heute can describe a current situation: Heute habe ich frei. German often uses the present tense with a clear future time: Morgen arbeite ich wieder. At the start of a sentence, Morgen is capitalized only because it is the first word; inside a sentence, morgen means tomorrow and Morgen means morning.

First identify the time, then choose the form that expresses the event. For a completed action use the taught perfect; for current states and scheduled future plans, the present tense is natural at A1.

These patterns let you explain yesterday’s work, today’s availability and tomorrow’s schedule without learning a separate future construction first.

Do not assume morgen requires a future auxiliary. “Morgen arbeite ich” is normal German. Also keep the verb second after a fronted time expression.

Yesterday: completed event. Today: current situation. Tomorrow: present tense plus a clear future time is enough.

Give one true sentence about yesterday, two about today and two about tomorrow, using a time expression first each time.