Days of the Week in German: Names, Grammar and Memory Tips

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Guten Tag! The German word Tag means “day”, and the seven weekday names turn up everywhere from calendars to opening hours.

This guide covers the names, their origins, the grammar you need around them, and a few ways to practise them.

Before we get started, if you’re looking for an online German course, here’s the course I recommend: German Uncovered – Learn German Through the Power of Story, a course with a fascinating new method by my friend Olly. You can try it for free for 7 days!

German Days of the Week

“Monday” in German: Montag

“Monday” in German is Montag. The name is built from an old form of Mond, “moon”, and Tag, “day”. English “Monday” has the same moon-day idea.

German calendars normally begin the week with Monday. That also matches ISO 8601, the international date-and-time standard, which numbers Monday as day one and Sunday as day seven.

“Tuesday” in German: Dienstag

“Tuesday” in German is Dienstag. Its history is not simply “service day”, despite the modern word Dienst. Duden traces it through older forms such as dingesdach to Ziu, a Germanic god associated with the Thing, or assembly. English “Tuesday” is related through the cognate name Tiw.

“Wednesday” in German: Mittwoch

“Wednesday” in German is Mittwoch, literally “midweek”. Unlike the six other standard weekday names, it does not end in -tag. The name replaced an older reference to Wodan.

“Thursday” in German: Donnerstag

“Thursday” in German is Donnerstag. Donner means “thunder”, and the historical name refers to Donar, the Germanic thunder god. English “Thursday” makes a comparable reference to Thor.

“Friday” in German: Freitag

“Friday” in German is Freitag. Duden traces the name to the goddess Frija, who was equated with the Roman goddess Venus when the weekday names were formed. The resemblance between Freitag and “Friday” can help you pair them.

“Saturday” in German: Samstag

“Saturday” in German is Samstag. You may also hear Sonnabend, especially in northern and central Germany. Samstag is particularly common in western and southern Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Samstag comes through Greek from sábbaton, “Sabbath”. Sonnabend originally meant the evening before Sunday.

“Sunday” in German: Sonntag

“Sunday” in German is Sonntag. It combines an old form of Sonne, “sun”, with Tag. English “Sunday” follows the same pattern.

How to Say “Yesterday”, “Today” and “Tomorrow” in German

The basic time words are gestern (“yesterday”), heute (“today”), and morgen (“tomorrow”). They are lowercase when used as adverbs.

Morgen with a capital letter is the noun “morning”. That gives you heute Morgen for “this morning”. For “tomorrow morning”, say morgen früh.

German also has single words for “the day before yesterday” and “the day after tomorrow”: vorgestern and übermorgen. For example, Ich werde es übermorgen tun means “I’ll do it the day after tomorrow”.

“Week” is die Woche, while “weekend” is das Wochenende. To say “at the weekend”, use am Wochenende.

What Gender Are the German Days of the Week?

All seven weekday nouns are masculine: der Montag, der Dienstag, and so on. The compounds ending in -tag take their gender from der Tag. Mittwoch is masculine too, even though die Woche is feminine.

How to Ask “What Day of the Week Is It?” in German

The clearest way to ask for the weekday is Welchen Wochentag haben wir heute? (“What day of the week is it today?”).

You may also hear:

• Welchen Tag haben wir heute? (“What day is it today?”)
• Welcher Tag ist heute? (“What day is today?”)
• Was ist denn heute für ein Tag? (“What day is it today, then?”)

Those versions can refer to the weekday or the date, depending on context. If you need the calendar date, ask Welches Datum haben wir heute? (“What’s today’s date?”).

For a little more practice with dates, watch our short lesson:

How to Say “On Monday”, “On Tuesday”, etc. in German

English uses “on Monday”. German uses am Montag. The word am contracts an dem, and dem is the dative masculine or neuter form of “the”.

For example, “I ate meat on Tuesday” is Ich habe am Dienstag Fleisch gegessen.

Related learning: our German articles guide

When to Capitalise Days of the Week in German

Weekday nouns are capitalised: Montag, Dienstag, and the rest. This includes phrases such as am Dienstag.

The habitual adverbs ending in -s are lowercase: montags, dienstags, mittwochs, donnerstags, freitags, samstags, and sonntags. “I eat meat on Tuesdays” is Ich esse dienstags Fleisch.

How to Say “From Monday to Friday” in German

Use von … bis for “from … to”. For example, Von Montag bis Mittwoch studiere ich Deutsch means “I study German from Monday to Wednesday”. Do not put a comma after Mittwoch.

Abbreviations for German Days of the Week

The standard written abbreviations use two letters and a full stop:

• Mo. for Montag
• Di. for Dienstag
• Mi. for Mittwoch
• Do. for Donnerstag
• Fr. for Freitag
• Sa. for Samstag or Sonnabend
• So. for Sonntag

Calendars, timetables, and signs may omit the full stops, so you will also see forms such as Mo, Di, and Fr.

How to Remember the German Days of the Week

Start by using the words in a real weekly routine. Change your phone or computer calendar to German, or add the German name beside each day on a paper calendar. Our guide to creating language immersion on your phone has more ideas.

Then practise retrieving the words instead of only rereading the list. Cover the German column in the table, name each day, and check your answers. Repeat in the other direction. A short review on several different days gives you more chances to recall the words.

You can keep these seven words in a small flashcard deck. For a broader vocabulary practice system, have a look at the Vocab Vault.

You can also listen to a German children’s song about the weekdays and use its sequence for pronunciation practice.

Make Your Own Weekday Mnemonics

If one name keeps slipping, connect its sound or meaning with a personal image. For Montag, you might picture the moon above your Monday calendar. For Donnerstag, you might picture thunder during a Thursday activity you know well.

The image only needs to make sense to you. Test it by looking away from the list and recalling the German word. If it does not prompt the word, change it and try again.