Days of the Week in Spanish — an Easy Way to Learn All the Days in Spanish

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Here’s an easy way to learn the days of the week in Spanish. By the time you’ve finished reading this article, you’ll know how to remember all the days in Spanish.

Learning how to say the Spanish days of the week is an important first step for beginners. It’s how you’ll read the calendar and make plans with your language exchange partner.

When I first start learning a language, one of my favourite things to do is create a home immersion environment. And the first thing I do to establish this environment? Change my phone and computer settings to my target language! Then I’m greeted with the days of the week every time I log on.

It’s a quick way to learn, by seeing it every day.

But… When you first make that switch, if you don’t know your basic Spanish words to read the calendar… Well, that can get a bit frustrating, fast.

So if you’re starting out, here’s how to say the days of the week in Spanish to get you going.

Spanish Days of the Week

Monday – lunes

“Monday” in Spanish is lunes, which comes from the word luna for “moon”. In fact, Monday stems from “moon” in German, English, Japanese, and many other languages. Keeping that in mind will help you remember Monday is lunes!

And, like with German, the Spanish calendar starts on lunes instead of Sunday. This makes sense if you think about it — Saturday and Sunday are “the weekend” and the days of rest. It makes more sense that the week starts on Monday when you get back to work.

Tuesday – martes

Many of the days of the week come from the names of gods of mythology. “Tuesday” in Spanish is martes, and it comes from the dies Martis, or Mars, the Roman god of war. This is different than in English. “Tuesday” stems from the Norse god, Tyr. Both were gods of war, though, so if you’re interested in mythology, remember Tuesday is the god of war’s day.

Wednesday – miércoles

“Wednesday” is miércoles, named after Mercury, the Roman god of financial gain and trickery. El miércoles can also be used to say “midweek” in Spanish, or you could say la entresemana.

Thursday – jueves

“Thursday” is Jupiter's day — jueves in Spanish. In English, it’s Thor’s day, and both are the gods of thunder. Since the days of the week in Spanish aren’t cognates (similar words to English), it may help to make the associations between the gods they’re named after. So think of Thor as jueves in Spanish, to… ahem… Spark a connection. (Excuse the bad pun!)

Friday – viernes

“Friday” in Spanish is viernes. Can you guess which famous Roman god this day is named after? The goddess of love and beauty, Venus.

Although lesser known, Venus is also the goddess of prosperity. In that sense, if you think of Friday as Pay Day, bringing you wealth and prosperity, it could help you remember viernes.

Saturday – sábado

“Saturday” in Spanish is sábado. Breaking tradition here, it’s named after the “Sabbath” instead of a god. (In English, Saturday stems from the Roman god, Saturn.)

In biblical terms, the Sabbath is a day of rest, without work. Even if you aren’t religious, Saturdays are usually the first day off work for many people.

Sunday – domingo

“Sunday” in Spanish is domingo, and it comes from the Latin root Domenica. It means “the Lord’s Day,” so both weekend days tie to biblical roots.

How to Say “Today” in Spanish

Of course, there are other date-related Spanish words you should know. To talk about “today” in Spanish, you say hoy. You can use it to ask about the day or date, such as:

• What day is today? – ¿Qué día es hoy?
• What’s today’s date? – ¿Cuál es la fecha de hoy?
• Today is Sunday. – Hoy es domingo.
• Today is January 1st. – Hoy es primero de enero.

How to Say “Tomorrow” in Spanish

“Tomorrow” in Spanish is mañana. It can be a bit confusing because mañana also means “morning” in Spanish. You have to learn the difference through context, so keep that in mind.

If you want to talk about “the day after tomorrow,” it’s pasado mañana. It translates as “the day past tomorrow.” But anything past two days from now, and you would use en ___ días. For instance, “in five days” would be en cinco días.

How to Say “Yesterday” in Spanish

“Yesterday” is ayer in Spanish. And “the day before yesterday” is anteayer, literally “before yesterday”. To talk about the days previous, you use hace ___ dias. So, again, if it was “five days ago,” it’s hace cinco dias.

When you’re talking about the past, though, you have to use fue. For example, Ayer fue mi cumpleaños, which means “Yesterday was my birthday.” So for hoy you use es (“is”) and use fue (“was”) with ayer.

“Week” in Spanish and Other Related Phrases

Of course, if we’re going to be talking about days and dates, there are quite a few helpful words and phrases to know. For instance, “week” in Spanish is la semana, and “day of the week” is día de la semana.

• Day – El día
• Date – La fecha
• Month – El mes
• Year – El año
• Weekend – El fin de semana
• Now – Ahora
• Next – La próxima
• Last – Pasado
• Soon – Pronto
• Early – Temprano
• Late – Tarde
• Earlier – Más temprano
• Later – Más tarde
• Some days – Algunos días
• Everyday – Todos los días
• Every Saturday – Cada sábado
• On Saturday – El sábado
• On Saturday morning – El sábado por la mañana
• Tomorrow afternoon – Mañana por la tarde
• Tomorrow evening – Mañana por la tarde
• Tomorrow night – Mañana por la noche

Spanish Grammar using the Days of the Week

Let’s talk a bit about the grammar that goes with the days of the week in Spanish.

The first thing you should know is the gender of the days of the week. All the days of the week are masculine, so you’ll pair them with the masculine un, el, and los. This makes it easy: You don’t have to try to remember what gender they are!

When talking about a day in plural form, when you would use los, only Saturday and Sunday change. That’s because Monday – Friday already end in -s. So when talking about several Mondays, it’s made plural just by using los lunes instead of el lunes. Since Saturday and Sunday don’t end in -s, you add -s to make them plural. They become los sábados and los domingos.

If you want to say “every Monday” you could use todos los lunes or cada lunes. They’re almost the same, but cada means “each” and todos means “every”. It’s more common to say todos los días, but cada lunes is fine, too. It has a bit of a nuanced meaning that “each Monday” you do something, or something happens, that’s habit or routine. And with cada, you drop the article los.

Another thing to notice is that “on Saturday” or “on” whatever day of the week, you don’t use en for “on”. It isn’t en sábado, but * el sábado. And if you want to say “from Monday to Friday” you use *de lunes a viernes. “De _ a __” is the pattern for “from _ to __”.

You may have noticed this point by now: In Spanish, the days aren’t capitalised. They’re always written in lower case unless they’re written at the beginning of a sentence. In that case, it follows the standard grammar rule of capitalising the first word.

Abbreviations for Days of the Week in Spanish

In Spanish, the days of the week are abbreviated to L, M, X, J, V, S, D. Miércoles, depending on the country and preference, is abbreviated to either “M” or “X”, and the “X” is used to avoid confusion with martes. Sometimes Wednesday is even “Mx”.

You’ll also see Lu, Ma, Mi. Ju, Vi, Sá, Do, or sometimes, the three-letter abbreviations Lun, Mar, Mié, Jue, Vie, Sáb, Dom.

Tips for Remembering all the Days in Spanish

As I mentioned above, most of the days of the week in Spanish relate to Roman mythology. Or, if that doesn’t help, remember that the planets were named after Roman gods, so they’re also based on our solar system. Lunes for our lunar moon, martes for Mars, miércoles for Mercury, jueves for Jupiter, viernes for Venus. The weekend is the Sabbath (sábado) and the Lord’s Day — his dominion (domingo).

I highly recommend trying my language hack of changing your phone and laptop to Spanish so you’re exposed to the day and date every single day. The more you see it, the easier it’s going to be to remember it. If you aim for Spanish immersion on your phone, try downloading a Spanish calendar app. Start writing down the day on the top of your notes at work or school, too.

You could also use mnemonics to help you remember them, or come up with an acronym using the abbreviations for the days of the week.