81.4 At a specified time in the past
(a) For a non-specific time in the pastvor x Jahren ‘x years ago/before’
in den neunziger Jahren ‘in the nineties’ See 47.1b (p. 123).
Vor zehn Jahren lebten sie noch in Berlin.
Ten years ago they still lived in Berlin.(b) For a specific time in the pastDienstag vor einer Woche ‘a week ago last Tuesday’
letzten Freitagabend ‘last Friday evening’
in der Nacht zum Donnerstag ‘on Wednesday night’(Note here that German refers to the night preceding rather than to the following day.)heute Nacht, if mentioned in the morning, however, refers to the previous night:Wie hast du heute Nacht geschlafen?
How did you sleep last night?81.5 Events in the distant past
For adverb vs adjective, see 43.2 (p. 118) and 47.2 (p. 123).
damals ‘at the time’
einst ‘once’
damalig (adj.) ‘then’
einstig (adj.) ‘former’ (formal)
früher (adj.) ‘former/earlier’
früher (adv.) ‘in the old days’
einmal ‘once’
es war einmal ‘once upon a time’
eines Tages ‘one day’
irgendwann ‘at some (unknown) time’
als ich klein war ‘when I was little’
es ist lange her ‘it has been a long time’
alt ‘old’
jung ‘recent/young’(a) When talking about events in the distant past, damals ‘then’ and einst ‘one day/
once’ are used:Damals gab es noch kein elektrisches Licht.
Then/In those days there was no electric light.Der damalige Bürgermeister von Berlin war W. Brandt.
The mayor of Berlin at that time was W. Brandt.81
PUTTING EVENTS INTO A WIDER CONTEXT