Days of the week in Spanish origin. Days of the week in Spanish. Full review

Let's remember what Spanish words you learned first? Of course, everyone starts with the simple and most important ones, such as: beloved (and not so beloved) relatives, cardinal directions, where they can be beautifully directed immediately after memorizing the words left-right, forward and far. Then we carefully describe the color, shape, size of household items and even try to count their number. In general, we play with words.

This is usually followed by tedious memorization of the days of the week, because they are not at all similar to Russian, except, perhaps, the word “Thursday” (jueves), which sounds quite funny to Russian speakers and is remembered on the fly. We are trying to find associations for other words. And then it dawns on us that the word “Monday” (lunes) is somehow similar to “moon,” which in Spanish sounds almost the same as “la luna.” “An interesting coincidence,” you think and instantly remember the word.

And this is not a coincidence, citizens, this is the etymology of the word! The Spaniards borrowed the names of the days of the week from Latin and the first five days correspond to the names of the planets. Here's how it happened: Luna (Moon) -> Lunes, Marte (Mars) -> Martes, Mercurio (Mercury) -> Miércoles, Júpiter (Jupiter) -> Jueves, Venus (Venus) -> Viernes. And the word “week” itself ( semana) comes from the Latin "septimana", meaning "seven days".

“How are things going with the Spaniards on Saturday and Sunday?” - the young linguist with a burning gaze will politely inquire. We answer: the words Sabado (Saturday) and Domingo (Sunday) were formed from the words “sabat” and “Dominus”.

Anticipating questions, we explain: the word “sabat” meant a day of rest among the ancient Jews (Sabbath), which passed into Latin and turned into sabado in Spanish. And the name domingo comes from "Dominus" (Lord). Initially, this day of the week was dedicated to the Sun, but the ancient Roman emperor ( Constantine the Great) changed the tradition. On the eve of the most important battle, he dreamed of a cross in the sun and an inscription that promised victory with this sign. Constantine actually won and became the sole ruler of the Roman Empire. He moved the capital to Constantinople, proclaimed Christianity as the dominant religion, banned physical labor on Sunday and dedicated it to the Lord.

It must be said that the Romans did not come up with the names of the days of the week themselves, but borrowed them from the ancient Greeks. For the Greeks, each day of the week was dedicated to a deity: Selene (goddess of the Moon), Ares (god of war), Hermes (god of trade and messenger of the gods), Zeus (father of the gods), Aphrodite (goddess of love and beauty), Kronos (god of time) and Helios (Sun God). The Romans simply replaced the names of the ancient Greek gods with their own. And since these deities were the patrons of the planets, the days of the week corresponded to their planets: Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Sun.

"Science triumphs!" - the same young linguist will now exclaim and lovingly open his Latin textbook. And what does he see in the book? No, not that! He sees the Latin names of the days of the week and notes that they contain the word die(day). Thus they are translated as “day of the moon” (die lunae), “day of Mars” (die marti), “day of Mercury” (die mercurii), “day of Jupiter” (die iovis), “day of Venus” (die venus) , “Sabbath day” (die sabbath) and “Lord’s day” (die domini).

But as we know, in Castilian version In Spanish, the particle meaning “day” has been lost:

• Lunes, Martes, Miércoles, Jueves, Viernes, Sabado, Domingo.

And in various regional varieties of Spanish and other Romance languages, the Latin word for “day” has become a prefix.

So, for example, in Catalan language prefix preserved di:

• Dilluns, dimarts, dimecres, dijous, divendres, dissabte, diumenge.

IN Valencian dialect the days of the week have the same names, which is not surprising. After all, the Valencian dialect is similar to the Catalan language.

IN Aragonese dialect Spanish, despite the strong influence of Catalan, the names of the days of the week are related to Castilian and also do not have a particle meaning “day”.

• Luns, martes, miércols, chuebes, biernes, sabado, domingo.

But in French particle di added to the end of the word:

• Lundi, mardi, mercredi, jeudi, vendredi, samedi, dimanche.

The same situation with Italian:

• Lunedí, martedí, mercoledí; giovedí, venerdi, sabato, domenica.

At the same time, in Romanian language the particle "day" has been lost, as in Castilian.

• Luni, marţi, miercuri; joi; vineri; sîmbătă; duminica.

Interestingly, the names of the days of the week are very different in Galician and Portuguese. What's the matter? After all, they are very similar and differ mostly in spelling.

Names of the days of the week in Galician language:

• Luns, martes, miercoles, xoves, venres, sabado, domingo.

While in Portuguese the following names:

• Segunda-feira, terça-feira, quarta-feira, quinta-feira, sexta-feira, sabado, domingo.

Indeed, initially in Portuguese and in Galician the days of the week were called the same, only slightly different in spelling. But the Catholic Church believed that it was not appropriate for Christians to use names associated with pagan deities and therefore the names of the days of the week were changed.

Thus, Saturday and Sunday retained their previous names, and the other days of the week were simply called “second day,” “third day,” etc. Word feira means "day" in liturgical language. We see that in Portuguese, Monday is the second day and Sunday is the first. This happened historically thanks to Arab influence.

And finally, let's get acquainted with the names of the days of the week in the language Euskera (Basque). This is a linguistic bonus for those who read the article to the end.

The days of the week in Spain are some of the easiest words to remember, so you can easily master not only them, but also stable expressions. This lesson contains not only useful words and expressions, but also several grammatical nuances, as well as a short story about where the names of the days of the week in Spanish come from.

The first thing we start with is to remember the names of all the Spanish days of the week:

The names of the days of the week are used quite often, so it is advisable to know them well. They are all masculine.

• El lunes, el martes, el miércoles, el jueves, el viernes, el sábado, el domingo.

The days listed above are in the singular. To convert them to the plural, you need to use the standard rule of adding the ending "s".

• Los lunes, los martes, los miércoles, los jueves, los viernes, los sábados, los domingos.

In all days of the week in the plural, the original form is retained, with the exception of Saturday and Sunday, where, nevertheless, an ending is added.

This is the most important thing in learning any foreign language. You must know 100% the most basic things, such as: days of the week, seasons, etc. Let's now encourage those who have just come to us and those who still think that knowing the days of the week in Spanish is not important.

In Spanish-speaking countries, the week starts on Monday.

If you subscribe to our newsletter or our Video channel on Youtube, then most likely you already know this very well, if not, then be sure to subscribe to our channel and watch these videos right now:

If you can’t watch the video, then let’s go over the material here and now. Days of the week in Spanish are no more difficult than days of the week in Russian. The whole point is that you need to remember a few basic points that will keep these words in your memory.

I offer you a wonderful scheme for remembering the days of the week in Spanish, namely, come up with similar words and make a story out of them, see:

The following story is already emerging: Moon in March (Lunes, Martes)

Miércoles [mierkoles] - Wednesday (Reminds Angela Merkel)
Jueves [hueves] - Thursday (hereinafter you can come up with consonant words yourself :))
Viernes [bjernes] - Friday
Sábado [sabado] - Saturday
Domingo [domingo] - Sunday

In Spain, the days of the week are written with a small letter.

Please note that in Spanish, days of the week do not have to be capitalized as they are in English. Also, if you read our lesson "", then you will be interested that all days of the week in Spanish are masculine. This means that the article EL is used.

All days of the week in Spanish are masculine. For example: el lunes, el martes, etc.

Besides, there's something else you should know. When we write a sentence in Spanish where we use the days of the week, the definite article EL is translated as the preposition “on”, “by” or “in”.

For example:

You can also speak in the plural, and it is worth noting a very interesting nuance: in the plural, only the article changes, but the day of the week: Lunes, Martes, etc. remain unchanged.

In the plural, the days of the week do not change, only the article changes. For example:
El lunes - Monday (singular)
Los lunes - Mondays (plural)

Let's look at another interesting point, how do you think you can ask what day it is in Spanish? This may be difficult for you now, but it’s not scary. Soon you will be able to speak Spanish without any problems. For now, just remember:

Answering the question what day it is is just as easy by using the word Hoy - which translates into Russian as "Today".

Hoy es lune. [Oh es lyunes] - Today is Monday
Hoy es martes. [Oh es martes] - Today is Tuesday
Hoy es miércoles. [Oh es mierkoles] - Today is Wednesday

It should be clear, but another question arises, how then to ask what day is tomorrow? in Spanish. The answer is obvious:

You can answer this question like this:

Mañana es martes. [Mañana es Martes] - Tomorrow is Tuesday.
Mañana es domingo. [Mañana es Domingo] - Tomorrow is Sunday.

Please note that in Spanish, you can use the present tense to describe actions in the near future.

As you can see, this is easier in Spanish; we speak the same way.

Another option:

Spanish self-test tasks

Choose the correct answer To answer, just click on the blocks. Red color is an error. Green is correct.
Monday
El Lunes	la lune
Tuesday
el miércoles	la jueves
El Martes	El Martes
Wednesday
el Miércoles	la sabado
el domingo	el miércoles
I work on Sunday
Trabajo en domingo.	Trabajo en el domingo.
Trabajo la domingo.	Trabajo el domingo.
I don't work on Sunday
No trabajo el domingo.	No trabajo en el domingo.
No trabajo la domingo.	No trabajo en domingo.
We study on Mondays
Estudiamos en lune.	Estudiamos en los lunes.
Estudiamos los lunes.	Estudiamos las lunes.
Hoy es miércoles. Mañana es _______
Lunes.	Sabado.
Jueves.	Domingo.