Go to the homepage of our German Course Chapter 8: Telephone Calls University of Portsmouth
8.10 Days of the week

Sonntag
(Sunday)
    Donnerstag 
(Thursday)
Montag 
(Monday)
    Freitag
(Friday)
Dienstag 
(Tuesday)
    Samstag /
Sonnabend
Mittwoch 
(Wednesday)
(Saturday)

N.B. Samstag is the word used to translate "Saturday" in southern Germany, whereas Sonnabend is used in certain parts of northern Germany (including Berlin).


On Monday(s)
To translate "on Monday" etc., you should precede the day of the week by "am" - i.e. am Montag, am Dienstag, am Mittwoch etc.

This is because all days of the week are masculine. Most of them are compound nouns whose final element is der Tag, the German word for "day", but the other two - Mittwoch and Sonnabend - are also masculine.

There are specific adverbs to translate "on Mondays" etc., when this implies "every Monday". Note that the fact that these words do not start with a capital letter:

sonntags
(on Sundays)
    donnerstags 
(on Thursdays)
montags 
(on Mondays)
   freitags
(on Fridays)
dienstags 
(on Tuesdays)
   samstags /
sonnabends
mittwochs 
(on Wednesdays)
(on Saturdays)


Notable days in the calendar
A number of notable days in the calendar are compounds of the names of German days of the week.They are therefore used the same way grammatically - "am Karfreitag" means "on Good Friday":

Ostersonntag
(Easter Sunday)
   Aschermittwoch 
(Ash Wednesday)
Pfingstmontag 
(Whit Monday)
   Gründonnerstag
(Maundy Thursday)
Rosenmontag 
(Monday before Ash Wednesday)
   Karfreitag
(Good Friday)
Faschingsdienstag 
(Shrove Tuesday)

Test yourself!
You can test yourself on your knowledge of this vocabulary by clicking on the bar below:


Weiter! Chapter 8.11: Modal Verbs


Go back to the top of the page Nach oben

Print this Document Print This Page

Homepage: Paul Joyce German Course
© Paul Joyce