‘Wenn’ and ‘als’ can both mean ‘when‘ in English. What’s the difference between them?

Luckily, the difference is nice and easy to learn! We’ll start with ‘wenn’. Firstly, ‘wenn’ can mean both ‘whenever’ and ‘if’. The reason I say ‘whenever’ is because ‘wenn’ is often used to describe a regular action, as opposed to a one-off. For example: ‘Wenn ich meine Hausaufgaben mache, bekomme ich Geld’ (Whenever I do my homework, I get money). Now an example for ‘if’: ‘Wenn ich durstig bin, trinke ich Wasser‘ (If I am thirsty, I drink water). The context will tell you whether to use ‘whenever’ or ‘if’ when you translate into English. Now for ‘als’. ‘Als’ is used to refer to a single event or period of time which occurred in the past, which has now finished. Here’s an example with a single event: ‘Als meine Mutter angekommen ist, war ich zufrieden‘ (When my mother arrived, I was happy). Now for an example with a period of time: ‘Als ich jünger war, las ich gern’ (When I was younger, I liked reading).