Days of the Week in Spanish: All 7 in Order + Pronunciation

The seven days of the week in Spanish, in order, are: lunes (Monday), martes (Tuesday), miércoles (Wednesday), jueves (Thursday), viernes (Friday), sábado (Saturday) and domingo (Sunday). In Spanish, the week starts on Monday, day names are never capitalized, and all seven are masculine nouns. Below you’ll find the full list with pronunciation, the “el lunes vs. los lunes” rule that trips up almost every beginner, and the shortcuts our teachers in Málaga and Buenos Aires actually use in class.

Two facts worth knowing before you start: Spanish is an official language in 21 countries with roughly 500 million native speakers, and you’re in good company, because the Instituto Cervantes’ 2024 report counts more than 24 million people studying Spanish as a foreign language, part of the 600+ million total speakers the language passed for the first time that year. Also: five of the seven Spanish day names come directly from Roman planetary gods, lunes (Moon), martes (Mars), miércoles (Mercury), jueves (Jupiter) and viernes (Venus).

What are the days of the week in Spanish and English?

Here is the complete list, los días de la semana en inglés y español, in the order a Spanish speaker would say it, starting with Monday, not Sunday. The abbreviations are the ones you’ll see on real calendars in Spain, where Wednesday is shortened to X so it doesn’t clash with martes.

Three facts about the Spanish days of the week worth memorizing before anything else:

• Days of the week in Spanish are never capitalized (unless they start a sentence).
• All seven days are masculine: el lunes, el martes, el sábado.
• The Spanish week begins on lunes, so calendars run L-M-X-J-V-S-D.

How do you pronounce the days of the week in Spanish?

Spanish spelling is phonetic, so once you know a few rules, every day of the week sounds exactly the way it looks. Listen to a native speaker say all seven days:

The three sounds that give English speakers trouble:

• jueves, the Spanish j sounds like a strong English “h”: HWEH-bes, never “joo-eves”.
• viernes, the Spanish v is pronounced like a soft “b”: BYER-nes.
• miércoles and sábado, the written accents tell you where the stress goes: mi-ÉR-co-les, SÁ-ba-do. The other five days are stressed on the second-to-last syllable, which is the Spanish default.

If accents and stress rules are still fuzzy, our guide to Spanish pronunciation basics covers them step by step.

How do you say each day in Spanish? (Monday, Friday, and the rest)

Each day answered on its own, with pronunciation, an example sentence and the usage note that matters most:

Monday in Spanish

Monday in Spanish is lunes, pronounced LOO-nes, and it’s the first day of the week on every Spanish-language calendar, not the second. Lunes comes from Luna, the Moon. Example: “El lunes empiezo un curso de español.” (On Monday I’m starting a Spanish course.) Usage note: never write “Lunes” with a capital L unless it opens a sentence, and don’t say “en lunes”: it’s el lunes for one specific Monday or los lunes for every Monday. Lunes doesn’t change in the plural, only its article does.

Tuesday in Spanish

Tuesday in Spanish is martes, pronounced MAR-tes, named after Mars, the Roman god of war. Example: “¿Tienes clase de español el martes?” (Do you have Spanish class on Tuesday?) Usage note: martes 13, not Friday the 13th, is the unlucky date across the Spanish-speaking world, and like all the weekday names ending in -s, martes stays exactly the same in the plural: los martes.

Wednesday in Spanish

Wednesday in Spanish is miércoles, pronounced myer-KOH-les, named after the planet Mercury. Example: “El museo está cerrado los miércoles.” (The museum is closed on Wednesdays.) Usage note: the written accent on the first e shows you where the stress falls, mi-ÉR-co-les, and on printed calendars in Spain you’ll usually see it abbreviated to a single X, so it can’t be confused with martes.

Thursday in Spanish

Thursday in Spanish is jueves, pronounced HWEH-bes, named after Jupiter. Example: “Nos vemos el jueves que viene.” (See you next Thursday.) Usage note: the Spanish j is a strong English “h” sound, never “joo-eves”, and jueves keeps the same spelling whether you mean one Thursday (el jueves) or every Thursday (los jueves).

Friday in Spanish

Friday in Spanish is viernes, pronounced BYER-nes, named after Venus. Example: “¡Por fin es viernes!” (Finally it’s Friday!) Usage note: the Spanish v is pronounced like a soft b, and viernes is one of the five day names that never adds an -s in the plural: it’s los viernes, not “los vierneses”.

Saturday in Spanish

Saturday in Spanish is sábado, pronounced SAH-ba-do, from the Hebrew Sabbath. Example: “El sábado vamos a la playa.” (On Saturday we’re going to the beach.) Usage note: sábado is one of only two day names that add an -s in the plural, los sábados, and the written accent on the first syllable marks the stress: SÁ-ba-do.

Sunday in Spanish

Sunday in Spanish is domingo, pronounced do-MEEN-go, from the Latin dies Dominicus, “the Lord’s day”. Example: “Los domingos no hay clases.” (There are no classes on Sundays.) Usage note: like sábado, domingo adds an -s in the plural, los domingos, and it’s the day most small shops in Málaga close, so it’s worth learning “¿Abren los domingos?” (Are you open on Sundays?)

A classroom aside: in several Latin American countries, “¡miércoles!” doubles as a polite stand-in for a much ruder word that starts with the same letters, the way English speakers say “sugar!” Say it with feeling and any porteño will smile.

How do you say “week” and “weekend” in Spanish?

“Week” in Spanish is la semana, pronounced lah seh-MAH-nah, and “weekend” is el fin de semana. Example: “Esta semana tengo mucho trabajo.” (This week I have a lot of work.) In everyday speech in both Spain and Argentina you’ll constantly hear the clipped version el finde: “¿Qué hacés el finde?” (What are you doing this weekend?) The plural is regular (dos semanas, two weeks), and the weekdays in Spanish (Monday to Friday) are los días laborables. Other expressions you’ll use daily:

• entre semana: on weekdays / during the week
• la semana que viene / la próxima semana: next week
• la semana pasada: last week
• todos los días: every day

Two idioms that confuse learners: Spanish speakers often say en ocho días (“in eight days”) to mean “in a week” and quince días (“fifteen days”) to mean “two weeks”: the counting includes today. Two more worth knowing: una semana laboral is a work week, and a mitad de semana means midweek, as in “Nos vemos a mitad de semana.” (See you midweek.) When you need to point at a specific week rather than a day, Spanish puts a number before semana: la primera semana de agosto (the first week of August), la última semana del curso (the last week of the course). Once you’re comfortable with the week, the months of the year in Spanish follow the same lowercase, no-fuss logic.

How do you say “on Monday” in Spanish? The el / los rule

This is the single most common mistake we correct in beginner classes: Spanish never uses “en” with days of the week. The definite article does the job instead:

• el + day = “on” that specific day → Te veo el lunes. (I’ll see you on Monday.)
• los + day = “on” that day habitually → Trabajo los lunes. (I work on Mondays.)

So “en lunes” is always wrong; it’s el lunes or los lunes, depending on whether you mean once or every week.

The plural rule is just as tidy. Days that already end in -s (lunes, martes, miércoles, jueves, viernes) never change: only the article does. Only sábado and domingo add an -s:

And when you state what day it is, drop the article entirely and use the verb ser: ¿Qué día es hoy? Hoy es miércoles. Mañana es jueves. If you’re wondering why it’s ser and not estar here, our guide to ser vs. estar explains exactly when each “to be” applies.

Once el/los feels automatic, the next step is pointing at a specific Monday, this one, the next one, the last one. Same no-preposition logic throughout:

Notice that “en” never appears in any of them, the article (or este / todos) carries the whole meaning of “on”.

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MálagaBuenos Aires

Written by Raquel CobosSchool Manager, Vamos Academy

Why does the week start on Monday in Spanish-speaking countries?

In Spain, Argentina and the rest of the Spanish-speaking world, Monday is the first day of the week, both on calendars and in people’s heads. This matches the international ISO 8601 standard, first published in 1988, which most of Europe and Latin America follows; the Sunday-first calendar is mainly a US convention. Practically, it means every printed planner, phone calendar and gym timetable you see in Málaga or Buenos Aires starts with L for lunes and ends with D for domingo.

One detail that catches newcomers in Spain: because both martes and miércoles start with M, Spanish calendars abbreviate Wednesday as X. If your Málaga gym schedule says “L-X-V”, that’s Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

Where do the Spanish day names come from?

Five of the seven Spanish day names come from Roman gods and their planets. English took a different route and named several days after Norse gods, which is why the two languages match in structure but not in sound:

Knowing the planet connection is more than trivia. It’s a built-in mnemonic. Martes is Mars, jueves is Jupiter, viernes is Venus: three days memorized for free.

Days of the week in Spanish: example sentences

These are the sentence patterns you’ll actually need in your first weeks of Spanish, one for each day:

Martes 13, closed Sundays and the sacred asado: how the days actually work

A few cultural notes from our two cities that no vocabulary list will teach you:

• The unlucky day is Tuesday the 13th, not Friday the 13th. Across the Spanish-speaking world, martes 13 carries the bad-luck superstition, and the old proverb warns: “En martes, ni te cases ni te embarques”: on a Tuesday, neither marry nor set sail. (Brushing up on numbers in Spanish helps with dates like these.)
• In Málaga, plan around domingo. Most small shops close on Sunday, the Atarazanas food market runs Monday to Saturday only, and plenty of family-run restaurants take Monday as their weekly rest day. Learn “¿Qué días abren?” (What days are you open?) early. You’ll use it.
• In Buenos Aires, Sunday means asado. The domingo barbecue with family is close to a national institution, and long weekends created by public holidays, los feriados, are planned around obsessively. If a porteño invites you to an asado el domingo, clear your calendar.

What’s the best way to memorize the days of the week in Spanish?

What works for our students, in rough order of effectiveness:

• Switch your phone’s language to Spanish. You check the date dozens of times a day; every glance becomes a micro-review of lunes through domingo.
• Use the planet hooks. Martes = Mars, miércoles = Mercury, jueves = Jupiter, viernes = Venus. That’s four of seven anchored to something you already know.
• Say tomorrow’s day out loud every night. “Mañana es jueves.” One sentence, real context, seven days to a full cycle.
• Write your weekly plans with Spanish abbreviations (L, M, X, J, V, S, D), the way a Spanish planner does.

The other thing that makes vocabulary stick is simply using it out loud, every day, with someone who answers back:

“I took a four-week course at Vamos and was delighted with the experience. The course is conversation-intensive, which was incredibly useful given that speaking tends to be the most difficult skill.”

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Frequently asked questions

What are the 7 days of the week in Spanish in order?

In order: lunes, martes, miércoles, jueves, viernes, sábado, domingo. The Spanish week starts on Monday (lunes) and ends on Sunday (domingo).

Are the days of the week capitalized in Spanish?

No. Unlike English, Spanish never capitalizes days of the week unless the word starts a sentence: “Hoy es lunes,” but “Lunes es mi día favorito.”

What does martes mean in English?

Martes means Tuesday. It’s named after Mars, the Roman god of war, and in Spanish-speaking cultures martes 13 (Tuesday the 13th) is the unlucky date, not Friday the 13th.

Which day does the Spanish week start on?

The Spanish week starts on lunes (Monday), not Sunday. That’s why printed calendars, planners and gym timetables across Spain and Latin America run Monday to Sunday, L to D, following the international ISO 8601 standard.

How do you say “on Monday” vs. “on Mondays” in Spanish?

“On Monday” is el lunes and “on Mondays” is los lunes. Spanish uses the article el or los instead of a preposition, never say “en lunes.”

What is “weekend” in Spanish?

Weekend is el fin de semana. In casual speech in Spain and Argentina, people shorten it to el finde.

Why don’t lunes and martes change in the plural?

Days ending in -s (lunes through viernes) stay the same in the plural; only the article changes (el lunes → los lunes). Only sábado and domingo add an -s: los sábados, los domingos.

Are the days of the week masculine or feminine in Spanish?

All seven days are masculine, so they always take el or los: el lunes, los sábados. Adjectives agree accordingly, “los lunes son largos” (Mondays are long). There are no feminine day names in Spanish, which makes this one of the few gender rules with zero exceptions.

How do you ask what day it is in Spanish?

Ask “¿Qué día es hoy?” and answer with ser and no article: “Hoy es martes.” For the date rather than the day, ask “¿A qué fecha estamos?” or “¿Qué fecha es hoy?”, the reply pairs the day with a number, as in “Hoy es martes 13.”

Why is Wednesday abbreviated with an X in Spain?

Because martes already claims the M. Spanish calendars in Spain use X for miércoles so the two days can’t be confused, giving the week the sequence L-M-X-J-V-S-D. In most of Latin America you’ll see “Mi” or “Mié” instead.

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