Days of the Week in German

Saying that something happens on a day

For one specific day, use am: am Montag means on Monday.

For something that repeats, lowercase the day and add -s: montags means on Mondays, every Monday.

Every German day is a noun, so it is always capitalised, even mid-sentence. The only time you write one in lowercase is that repeating -s form.

• Wir treffen uns am Freitag.We're meeting on Friday.
• Ich arbeite samstags nicht.I don't work on Saturdays.

Capitalised? Masculine? The two questions everyone asks

Yes, always capitalised: every day is a noun, and German capitalises every noun. The only lowercase forms are the adverbs montags, dienstags and so on, which mean on Mondays in general.

All seven are masculine, der, because they are compounds of der Tag, the day. Mittwoch keeps der too, even though it is built on die Woche, the week. Saturday has two names: Samstag in the south and west, Sonnabend, literally Sunday eve, in the north and east; both are der.

How to say them

The -tag ending sounds like tahk: a final g in German is pronounced like k. Mittwoch ends in the throaty ch of Bach, not a sh. The ie in Dienstag is a long ee, and the ei in Freitag is the English eye.

Stress is on the first syllable in every day.

Where the names come from

Montag is the moon's day and Sonntag the sun's, exactly as in English. Dienstag is the day of Tiw, the Germanic god of war, the same god who gives English its Tuesday. Donnerstag belongs to Donar, the German Thor, and Freitag to Frija, the goddess English calls Frigg.

Mittwoch is the odd one out: it simply means mid-week. It replaced Wodan's day, the origin of Wednesday, when the church preferred a name without a pagan god in it. Samstag comes from Sabbath by way of Greek, and Sonnabend, the northern name, means Sunday eve.