Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Weekdays in Japanese - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday

In Japan, a week has seven days just like everywhere else in the world (probably). For reference, this is what the weekdays are called in Japanese:

Weekday kanji romaji
Sunday 日曜日 nichiyoubi
Monday 月曜日 getsuyoubi
Tuesday 火曜日 kayoubi
Wednesday 水曜日 suiyoubi
Thursday 木曜日 mokuyoubi
Friday 金曜日 kin'youbi
Saturday 土曜日 doyoubi
The names of the weekdays in Japanese.

Morphology

The words for weekdays are formed by multiple morphemes: the ~youbi ~曜日 suffix that means "weekday" plus a single-kanji morpheme that names that weekday.

Notably, in the word for Sunday, nichiyoubi 日曜日, you have the 日 kanji twice, but with different readings. The nichi 日 reading is an on'yomi 音読み reading which names the weekday, while the ~bi ~日 reading is a kun'yomi 訓読み that's part of the ~youbi suffix.

First Kanji Meaning

The meaning of the first kanji of each weekday appears to be random, but the weekdays are actually named after the seven celestial bodies visible to the naked eye: five "planets," wakusei 惑星, plus the Sun and the Moon.(sendai-astro.jp) Observe:

Single-kanji word. Celestial Body
nichi

Day.
hi (taiyou)
日(太陽)
Sun.
getsu

Month.
tsuki

Moon.
hi

Fire.
kasei
火星
Mars.
mizu

Water.
suisei
水星
Mercury.
ki

Tree.
mokusei
木星
Jupiter.
kin

Gold.
kinsei
金星
Venus.
tsuchi

Soil.
dosei
土星
Saturn.

Basically humans could see these seven celestial bodies, called shichiyuu 七雄, which they considered to be deities, and they could figure out that a single moon phase lasted seven days, so they imagined each weekday was ruled over by a different space-god, and that's where their names come from.

Finally, you may be wondering why are the planets named like this in Japanese. Why is Jupiter "tree"?

The names of the planets in Japanese come from the Chinese Wuxing (five phases, or "five elements"), which would be fire, water, wood, metal (gold), and earth (soil).(eco.mtk.nao.ac.jp:曜日の名前)

By the way, something similar occurs in English: in imperial Rome, the days of the week were named after the planets, which in turn were named after the roman gods, when these weekday names were borrowed, the Roman god's name was replaced by a comparable Germanic god's name, except for Saturday, which retained its original Roman name.(english.stackexchange.com, citing the Oxford English Dictionary) Observe:

Weekday Old English Latin
Sunday Sunnandæg
Day of Sun.
dies Solis
Day of Sol.
Monday Mōnandæg.
Day of Moon.
dies Lunae
Day of Luna.
Tuesday Tīwesdæg
Day of Tīw
dies Martis
Day of Mars.
Wednesday Wōdnesdæg
Day of Odin
dies Mercurii
Day of Mercury.
Thursday Thunresdæg
Day of Thunder.
Day of Thor.
dies Jovis
Day of Jove.
Day of Iupiter.
Friday Frīgedæg
Day of Frigga.
dies Veneris
Day of Venus.
Saturday Sæternesdæg
Day of Saturnus.
dies Saturni
Day of Saturnus.

Mnemonics

If you're having trouble remembering the names of weekdays in Japanese, here are some simple mnemonics:

  • Sunday is nichi 日 just like hi 日 is "Sun."
  • Moon, tsuki 月, comes after the Sun, i.e. getsuyoubi after nichiyoubi, so getsuyoubi is Monday
  • Fire comes before water—kayoubi, suiyoubi.

I don't have a mnemonic for the rest, but you'll probably memorize the names for the Friday and Saturday rather quickly considering they're at the end of the week, so the only thing left will be Thursday. You could try to pretend it's Tree's Day or something to remember it, I guess.

Usage

Every weekday word works as a temporal adverb. They can be used by themselves or followed by the ni に particle.

  • kin'youbi suizokukan ni ikimashita
    金曜日水族館に行きました
    Friday, [I] went to the aquarium.
  • kin'youbi ni suizokukan ni ikimashita
    金曜日に水族館に行きました
    (same meaning.)

They can also be used as nouns:

  • mokuyoubi wa nan'nichi desu ka?
    木曜日は何日ですか?
    Thursday is what day [of the month]?
  • mokuyoubi wa ni-juu-ichi-nichi desu
    木曜日は21日です
    Thursday is the 21st.

Abbreviations

The names for weekdays are often used in abbreviated form. Every weekday, which ends in ~youbi, may be abbreviated so that the ~bi ending is removed and it ends in ~you, or so that the whole ~youbi part is removed. In English something similar occurs, there being a 3-letter representation for every weekday. Observe:

Weekday Minus ~bi Minus ~youbi
Sunday
SUN
nichiyou
日曜
nichi
Monday
MON
getsuyou
月曜
getsu
Tuesday
TUE
kayou
火曜
ka
Wednesday
WED
suiyou
水曜
sui
Thursday
THU
mokuyou
木曜
moku
Friday
FRI
kin'you
金曜
kin
Saturday
SAT
doyou
土曜
do

Generally the entire ~youbi isn't dropped except for specific contexts where it's obvious it's supposed to be a weekday. Dropping the ~bi, however, is rather common.

  • kin'you suizokukan ni ikimashita
    金曜水族館に行きました
    (same meaning as before.)

Multiple Weekdays

Sometimes, multiple weekdays may be referred to all at once in single-kanji abbreviated form, sometimes separated by a middle dot (・) in writing, followed by a single ~youbi, like this:

  • ka, sui-youbi
    火・水曜日
    Tuesday and Wednesday.
    Tuesday or Wednesday.
  • kin, do, nichi-youbi
    金・土・日曜日
    Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
    Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.

Between Parentheses in Dates

Sometimes when a date is written in Japanese the single-kanji representation of a weekday is written between parentheses at the end, e.g. (土) after a date means it's a doyoubi 土曜日, "Saturday." It's like if (SAT) for Saturday were written.

See also: Japanese Date Format.

ポプ子 「カベドンしてェ❤」
Anime: Pop Team Epic, Poputepipikku ポプテピピック (Episode 4, Collage)
  • Popuko "Kabedon shitee ❤"
    ポプ 「カベドンし❤」
    Popuko: "do a kabedon [on me] ❤"
  • [ni-sen-]juu-yon-nen juu-ichi-gatsu ni-juu-hachi-nichi (sui)
    14年11月28日(
    2014, month 11, day 28, (WED).

A Day's Weekday

The word youbi 曜日 can be used alone to mean the "weekday" of something. For example:

  • Context: explaining what a device or computer program does.
  • kyou no youbi wo hyouji suru
    今日の曜日は表示する
    [It] displays today's weekday.
  • Context: talking about a day in the future when something happen.
  • {dono youbi ni} naru ka wakaranai
    どの曜日になるかわからない
    [I] don't know {what weekday} [it] will be.
    • What weekday it will land on.

What Weekday?

To say "what weekday" in Japanese there are two ways:

  • dono youbi
    どの曜日
    What weekday. Which weekday of the seven.
  • nan'youbi
    何曜日
    What weekday.

For example:

  • kyou wa nan'youbi desu ka?
    今日は何曜日ですか?
    What weekday is today?
  • mokuyoubi desu
    木曜日です
    It's Thursday.
  • teikyuubi wo {nan'youbi ni} suru?
    定休日を何曜日にする
    [You] will make the closing day what weekday?
    • teikyuubi - literally "fixed rest day," in the sense of a day when a store closes that occurs at fixed, regular intervals, e.g. every Sunday.

Weekend

The terms to refer the weekend and days off would be:

  • shuumatsu
    週末
    Weekend.
  • shuusho
    週初
    Weekstart.
  • kyuujitsu
    休日
    Day off. (e.g. the weekend.)
  • heijitsu
    平日
    "Ordinary day." A non-holiday. A day in which you work.

In English, sometimes a day that isn't in the weekend is called a "weekday." In this case, "weekdays" would likely translate to heijitsu, because it's in the sense of a day when you work, as opposed to the weekend when you have the day off.

Specifying The Week

Sometimes it's not enough to specify the weekday, it's also necessary to specify which week we're talking about. There are multiple ways to do this.

Deitic

We can refer to a week or weekday relative to today like this:

  • konshuu
    今週
    This week.
    • konshuumatsu
      今週末
      This weekend.
    • konshuu no kayoubi
      今週の火曜日
      This week's Tuesday.
  • tsugi no kayoubi
    次の火曜日
    Next Tuesday.
  • kondo no kayoubi
    今度の火曜日
    (same meaning.)
  • raishuu
    来週
    Next week.
    • raishuumatsu
      来週末
      Next weekend.
    • raishuu no kayoubi
      来週の火曜日
      Next week's Tuesday.
  • kono mae no kayoubi
    この前の火曜日
    The Tuesday before this. (literally.)
    Last Tuesday.
  • senshuu
    先週
    Previous week.
    • senshuumatsu
      先週末
      Previous weekend.
    • senshuu no kayoubi
      先週の火曜日
      Previous week's Tuesday.

For non-immediate weeks:

  • isshukan-mae no kayoubi
    1週間前の火曜日
    The Tuesday of one week ago. (previous week's.)
  • nishuukan-mae no kayoubi
    2週間前の火曜日
    The Tuesday of two weeks ago. (the week before the previous.)
  • sanshuukan-mae no kayoubi
    3週間前の火曜日
    The Tuesday of three weeks ago.
  • ishuukan-go no kayoubi
    1週間後の火曜日
    The Tuesday of one week later. (next week's.)
  • nishuukan-go no kayoubi
    2週間後の火曜日
    The Tuesday of two weeks later. (the week after the next.)
  • sanshuukan go no kayoubi
    3週間後の火曜日
    The Tuesday of three weeks later.

Ordinal

We can refer to the nth weekday of a month by using dai~ 第~ followed by a number (ichi, ni, san) followed by the weekday, like this:

  1. san-gatsu dai ichi kayoubi
    3月第1火曜日
    The first Tuesday of March.
  2. san-gatsu dai ni kayoubi
    3月第2火曜日
    The second Tuesday of March.
  3. san-gatsu dai san kayoubi
    3月第3火曜日
    The third Tuesday of March.
  4. san-gatsu dai yon kayoubi
    3月第4火曜日
    The fourth Tuesday of March.

References

4 comments:

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  1. Overall a good article, but not all of our English days are named after the Roman gods. Thursday, for example, stems from Thor's day and Wednesday stems from Woden's day. And Sunday isn't really named after a god, just after the Sun.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good point, I didn't know that. I saw that some of them were and I just assumed they all were. Thanks.

      Delete
  2. Ah.... sort of.... close but not 100% accurate. Your’re quite right, Wednesday & Thursday are named after Woden and Thor... but they are both Norse gods and have nothing to do with Rome... Saturday named after Saturn is a Roman god. I can’t remember about Monday, Tuesday or Sunday. I think Friday was after Freya Norse goddess of fire and other stuff, but I would put my head on the chopping block over it.

    On another note... loving this site...like the content, like the discussion.

    Cheers TimC

    ReplyDelete
  3. "And before you say it I know the Moon and the Sun are not planets"
    You wouldn't believe how many people don't know that.

    ReplyDelete
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