adverb

morgen

tomorrow

Die Zeit am Anfang eines neuen Tages, wenn die Sonne aufgeht und man normalerweise aufsteht.

Definition & meaning

morgen most commonly means “tomorrow”: the day after today. It is an adverb and is written in lowercase.

Capitalization changes the meaning: Morgen means “morning” and is a masculine noun. The noun also appears in the informal greeting “Morgen!”, short for “Guten Morgen!” (“Good morning!”).

Grammar & Word origin

As an adverb, morgen does not change form. As a noun, der Morgen has the plural die Morgen, though the plural is not needed often.

The adverb and the noun are historically related to the idea of the coming day or its early part. German capitalizes nouns, which is why “morning” is Morgen, but “tomorrow” is morgen.

Synonyms & antonyms

For “tomorrow,” a close alternative is am nächsten Tag , meaning “on the next day.” It is a phrase rather than a single-word synonym, and its precise reference depends on context.

There is no exact antonym for morgen in this sense. gestern (“yesterday”) and heute (“today”) refer to different days, rather than being direct opposites.

For the noun meaning “morning,” Tagesanbruch (“daybreak”) refers more specifically to the start of daylight.