die Tage der Woche – Days of the Week
| der Montag | Monday |
| der Dienstag | Tuesday |
| der Mittwoch | Wednesday |
| der Donnerstag | Thursday |
| der Freitag | Friday |
| der Samstag/Sonnabend (in northern Germany) | Saturday |
| der Sonntag | Sunday |
Each day of the year also is associated with a name – dedicated typically to the day’s patron saint. This day then becomes the day of people who have that name (e.g., all women named Maria celebrate their day on December 24).
To express that today is a particular day, you just use the name of the day:
| Heute ist Sonntag. | Today is Sunday. |
However, to express that an event takes place on a particular day, you use the preposition am:
| Am Sonntag treffe ich meine Freundin. | On Sunday I’ll meet my friend. |
In addition, to express that something happens regularly on a particular day, you use the name of the day, lowercase, and add an -s suffix:
| Naja, sonntags arbeite ich nicht! | Well, on Sundays I don’t work! |
Finally, to say that something happens this/next/each/which days, you use the accusative case endings on the determiners, as these – somewhat redundant – entries from the cat’s diary prove:
| Diesen Sonntag fahre ich nach München und besuche meine Freundin. | This Sunday I’m going to Munich and will visit my friend. |
| Nächsten Sonntag kommt sie dann hier zum Haus. | Then next Sunday she will come here to the Haus. |
| Wir sehen uns fast jeden Sonntag! | We see each other almost every Sunday. |
| Welchen Sonntag sehen wir uns nicht? | Which Sunday don’t we see each other? |
| Letzten Sonntag ist sie nicht gekommen! Sie war krank. | Last Sunday she didn’t come! She was sick. |
List of expressions
There are a few other useful phrases you should learn in order to talk about your everyday life:
| der Tag | the day |
| jeden Tag | each/every day |
| pro Tag | each day (per day) |
| täglich | daily/every day |
| die Woche | the week |
| jede Woche | every week |
| diese Woche | this week |
| nächste Woche | next week |
| das Wochenende | the weekend/on the weekend |
| am Wochenende | on the weekend |
| während der Woche | during the week |
| wochentags | on weekdays |
| die Ferien | vacation |
| in den (Sommer) Ferien | during (summer) vacation |
| der Feiertag | the holiday (e.g., Christmas) |
| Welcher Tag ist heute? | What’s the date?/what day is it today? |
| Den wievielten haben wir heute? | What’s the date? |
| Welches Datum haben wir heute? | What’s the date? |
| Wann hast du Geburtstag? | When is your birthday? |
Dialog| die Studentin | Es ist Freitag. | It’s Friday. |
| der Student | Nein, heute ist Sonntag. | No, today is Sunday. |
| die Studentin | Wieso Sonntag? Was ist mit Samstag passiert? | Why Sunday? What happened to Saturday? |
| der Student | Ja, hast du die Tage vergessen? | Yes, did you forget the days? |
| die Studentin | Oje! Schon Sonntag? Echt??? Schade! | Yikes! Since Sunday? Really??? Bummer! |
| der Student | Das war ein schnelles Wochenende für dich! This was a fast weekend for you! | |
