Days of the Week in Spanish (with Pronunciation)

---

The days of the week are among the first Spanish words you'll use to make plans. Here are all seven, with an English-friendly pronunciation guide, the grammar and capitalisation rules that matter, their origins and useful phrases to build around them.

There are only seven words to learn, but you will meet them on calendars, shop signs, class schedules and invitations. Learn the basic pattern, then start using one or two of the words in your own plans.

I use this vocabulary when I'm arranging to meet someone, booking a class or checking when shops are open. Having the words ready removes one small obstacle from those everyday conversations.

The Seven Days of the Week in Spanish

Spanish	Approximate pronunciation	English
lunes	LOO-ness	Monday
martes	MAR-tess	Tuesday
miércoles	MYEHR-koh-less	Wednesday
jueves	HWEH-bess	Thursday
viernes	BYEHR-ness	Friday
sábado	SAH-bah-doh	Saturday
domingo	doh-MEEN-goh	Sunday

Two of these carry written accents, and they are part of the spelling. Miércoles has an accent over the e in its first syllable (miér), and sábado has one over the first a (sá). In both words, the accent marks stress that the usual spelling rules would not predict.

The table is only an approximation for English speakers. The j in jueves can sound like a strong breathy sound in Spain and closer to an English h in many Latin American accents. Spanish b and v represent the same phoneme and are pronounced alike in the same surroundings, so the first sound in viernes is closer to English b than v. The single r in martes, miércoles and viernes is a quick tap, not an English r. For more listening practice, our SpanishPod101 review explains how its audio lessons work.

Spanish Days Are Not Capitalised

In Spanish, the days of the week normally begin with a lowercase letter. You write lunes, not Lunes, in the middle of an ordinary sentence. A day takes a capital when punctuation requires it at the start of a sentence or when it forms part of a proper name, historical date or festival, as in Viernes Santo.

This can feel unfamiliar to English speakers because English capitalises weekday names. Spanish normally treats weekdays, months and seasons as common nouns, so lowercase is the safe default.

Does the Spanish Week Start on Monday?

The international ISO week runs from lunes (Monday) to domingo (Sunday), and Monday-first calendars are standard in Spain. Calendar conventions are regional, though. Sunday-first layouts are common in several Latin American countries, and an app may also follow your device settings.

Check the column headings before you choose a date rather than assuming every Spanish-language calendar uses the same layout.

How to Use Days of the Week in a Sentence

For the standard pattern “on + weekday”, Spanish normally uses the definite article rather than translating English “on” with a preposition.

• el lunes = on Monday
• los lunes = on Mondays

So el lunes voy al gimnasio means “on Monday I'm going to the gym”, while los lunes voy al gimnasio means “on Mondays I go to the gym”. Use this article pattern as your safe default. You can also make the date more specific with este lunes (this Monday) or el próximo lunes (next Monday).

All seven weekday names are masculine. Lunes through viernes are invariable in the plural, meaning the word itself does not change and only the article shows the difference:

• el lunes → los lunes
• el martes → los martes
• el miércoles → los miércoles
• el jueves → los jueves
• el viernes → los viernes

Sábado and domingo, on the other hand, take a normal plural -s:

• el sábado → los sábados
• el domingo → los domingos

This follows a wider noun pattern: words of more than one syllable that end in an unstressed -s are generally unchanged in the plural. Sábado and domingo end in vowels, so they add -s.

One more useful phrase is el fin de semana, “the weekend”, literally “the end of the week”. Its plural is los fines de semana.

Where the Names Actually Come From

The weekday names also carry traces of Latin. Five are linked to Latin names for the moon, planets and Roman deities.

• lunes comes from Latin Lunae dies, “day of the Moon”.
• martes comes from Latin Martis dies, “day of Mars”.
• miércoles comes from Latin Mercurii dies, “day of Mercury”.
• jueves comes from Latin Iovis dies, “day of Jupiter”.
• viernes comes from Latin Veneris dies, “day of Venus”.

The final two have religious roots. Sábado comes through Latin sabbatum, ultimately from Hebrew šabbāt, the Sabbath. Domingo comes from Latin dies dominicus, “the Lord's day”.

The links between martes and Mars or viernes and Venus can work as memory cues. Related Latin roots also appear in other Romance languages, although the modern forms are not identical.

A Bank of Useful Time Phrases

Once the days themselves are solid, these phrases let you actually talk about time in a natural way:

• hoy = today
• mañana = tomorrow
• ayer = yesterday
• anteayer = the day before yesterday; antier is a common regional alternative in much of Latin America
• pasado mañana = the day after tomorrow
• esta semana = this week
• la semana que viene / la próxima semana = next week
• la semana pasada = last week
• entre semana = during the week, on weekdays
• el fin de semana = the weekend
• todos los días = every day
• todas las semanas = every week
• de lunes a viernes = Monday to Friday
• cada dos días = every two days
• ¿Qué día es hoy? = What day is it today?

¿Qué día es hoy? is worth learning as one complete phrase. If you use flashcards, our Anki flashcard guide explains how to schedule repeated reviews instead of testing the list only once.

Days of the Week in Example Sentences

Here are a few sentences to show the days doing real work:

• Tengo clase de español los lunes y los miércoles. (I have Spanish class on Mondays and Wednesdays.)
• Nos vemos el sábado. (See you on Saturday.)
• ¿Qué día es hoy? Hoy es jueves. (What day is it today? Today is Thursday.)
• Trabajo entre semana, pero descanso el fin de semana. (I work during the week, but I rest at the weekend.)
• El domingo pasado fui a la playa. (Last Sunday I went to the beach.)

In the examples about plans and habits, the article supplies the pattern that English expresses with “on”. When you identify the day after ser, as in hoy es jueves or mañana es viernes, you leave the article out.

To attach a date to your plans, continue with our guides to Spanish numbers and the months of the year in Spanish.

Put Your Days to Work

The words become easier to recall when you use them to make plans, arrange a class or say what you did last weekend.

That's the idea behind how I teach languages: speak from day one instead of waiting until you feel ready. If you want more structure, the Fluent in 3 Months Bootcamp is a 90-day programme with weekly coaching calls, a private community and a focus on speaking from day one.

For now, choose one day and put it into a real plan this week.