The days of the week are one of the fundamental things to learn for Spanish beginners, but thankfully (and obviously), there are just seven of them to learn:
- Monday – lunes
- Tuesday – martes
- Wednesday – miércoles
- Thursday – jueves
- Friday – viernes
- Saturday – sabado
- Sunday – domingo
Notice that miércoles (Wednesday) has an accent on the é, while none of the other days of the week carry accent marks.
When pronouncing the words, the stress or emphasis for each day of the week goes on the penultimate syllable (e.g. lunes, viernes), apart from miércoles and sabado, where the stress goes on the second from last syllable (miercoles, sabado).
All of the days of the week are masculine (e.g. el lunes).
Although in English we’d use the preposition ‘on’, there is (usually) no need to use ‘en’ before the days of the week in Spanish.
When talking about an event taking place on a particular day, use the article (el) before the day instead, e.g. Tengo una cita el lunes.
However, if you’re talking about an event ‘falling on’ a certain day, e.g. ‘This year, Christmas falls on a Tuesday,’ you would use the preposition ‘en’ instead – ‘Este año, el Día de Navidad cae en martes.’
Here are some examples of how to use the days of the week in various tenses and regional differences:
- lunes – Monday
- Present tense: Hoy es lunes (Today is Monday)
- Past tense: Ayer fue lunes (Yesterday was Monday)
- Future tense: Mañana será lunes (Tomorrow will be Monday)
- With an article: Tengo una cita el lunes (I have a date on Monday)
- martes – Tuesday
- Present tense: Hoy es martes (Today is Tuesday)
- Past tense: Ayer fue martes (Yesterday was Tuesday)
- Future tense: Mañana será martes (Tomorrow will be Tuesday)
- Events falling on a specific day: Este año, el día de Navidad cae en martes (This year, Christmas falls on a Tuesday)
- miércoles – Wednesday
- Present tense: Hoy es miércoles (Today is Wednesday)
- Past tense: Ayer fue miércoles (Yesterday was Wednesday)
- Future tense: Mañana será miércoles (Tomorrow will be Wednesday)
- jueves – Thursday
- Present tense: Hoy es jueves (Today is Thursday)
- Past tense: Ayer fue jueves (Yesterday was Thursday)
- Future tense: Mañana será jueves (Tomorrow will be Thursday)
- viernes – Friday
- Present tense: Hoy es viernes (Today is Friday)
- Past tense: Ayer fue viernes (Yesterday was Friday)
- Future tense: Mañana será viernes. (Tomorrow will be Friday)
- sábado – Saturday
- Present tense: Hoy es sábado (Today is Saturday)
- Past tense: Ayer fue sábado (Yesterday was Saturday)
- Future tense: Mañana será sábado (Tomorrow will be Saturday)
- domingo – Sunday
- Present tense: Hoy es domingo (Today is Sunday)
- Past tense: Ayer fue domingo (Yesterday was Sunday)
- Future tense: Mañana será domingo (Tomorrow will be Sunday)
Regional differences in the usage of the days of the week are minimal, although there may be some colloquial variations or regional expressions for certain days.