Learning days and months in Spanish opens up a world of time-related communication. You'll master the vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar rules for discussing dates and schedules in everyday conversations.
Understanding these basics helps you talk about events, make plans, and navigate calendars in Spanish-speaking contexts. It's a crucial foundation for expressing time and organizing your life in the language.
Days of the week in Spanish
Vocabulary and pronunciation
- The days of the week in Spanish are lunes (Monday), martes (Tuesday), miércoles (Wednesday), jueves (Thursday), viernes (Friday), sábado (Saturday), and domingo (Sunday)
- The stress in pronunciation falls on the last syllable for lunes, martes, miércoles, jueves, and viernes, while sábado and domingo are stressed on the second-to-last syllable
- Practice pronouncing each day of the week with the correct stress and intonation to improve fluency and comprehension
Grammar and usage
- The names of the days in Spanish are not capitalized, unlike in English
- The days of the week in Spanish are masculine nouns, so they are preceded by the masculine definite article "el" (el lunes, el martes)
- In Spanish, the week begins on Monday (lunes) and ends on Sunday (domingo), which differs from some countries where the week starts on Sunday
Months of the year in Spanish
Vocabulary and pronunciation
- The months of the year in Spanish are enero (January), febrero (February), marzo (March), abril (April), mayo (May), junio (June), julio (July), agosto (August), septiembre (September), octubre (October), noviembre (November), and diciembre (December)
- The stress in pronunciation falls on the last syllable for abril, while all other months are stressed on the second-to-last syllable
- Practice pronouncing each month with the correct stress and intonation to improve fluency and comprehension
Grammar and usage
- The names of the months in Spanish are not capitalized, unlike in English
- The months of the year in Spanish are masculine nouns, but they are not preceded by the definite article "el" when referring to a specific date or time period
- When using a month in a sentence, it is not necessary to include "el" before the month (enero es un mes frío, January is a cold month)
Dates with ordinal numbers
Ordinal numbers
- Ordinal numbers in Spanish are used to express the order or sequence of things, including dates
- The ordinal numbers for 1st through 10th are primero (1st), segundo (2nd), tercero (3rd), cuarto (4th), quinto (5th), sexto (6th), séptimo (7th), octavo (8th), noveno (9th), and décimo (10th)
- For ordinal numbers above 10th, the ending "-o" is replaced with "-avo" for numbers ending in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 (undécimo, duodécimo, decimotercero)
- Ordinal numbers must agree in gender with the noun they modify (el primer día, the first day; la segunda semana, the second week)
Expressing dates
- When expressing dates, the preposition "de" is used between the day and the month (el primero de enero, January 1st; el quince de agosto, August 15th)
- The definite article "el" is used before the ordinal number when expressing dates (el primero de enero, el quince de agosto)
- When writing dates numerically, the format in Spanish is day/month/year (01/01/2023 for January 1, 2023; 15/08/2023 for August 15, 2023)
- In spoken Spanish, the year is often divided into two parts (dos mil veintitrés for 2023, mil novecientos ochenta y cinco for 1985)