1.3 Days of the Week and Months of the Year

Days and months are essential building blocks in Spanish. They help you talk about schedules, events, and important dates. Knowing these words lets you plan activities, set appointments, and discuss your daily routine with Spanish speakers.

In this part of the chapter, we'll cover the days of the week and months of the year in Spanish. You'll learn how to use them correctly with articles and prepositions, making your conversations more natural and accurate.

Days of the week in Spanish

Naming and sequencing the days

• The days of the week in Spanish are: lunes (Monday), martes (Tuesday), miércoles (Wednesday), jueves (Thursday), viernes (Friday), sábado (Saturday), domingo (Sunday)
• The week begins on lunes and ends on domingo
• Sábado and domingo are considered the weekend (el fin de semana) in Spanish-speaking countries
• The days of the week are not capitalized in Spanish unless they appear at the beginning of a sentence

Using definite articles with days

• When referring to a specific day of the week, the definite article "el" is used before the day (el lunes, el martes)
• The definite article "los" is used when referring to multiple days of the week (Los martes y jueves tengo clase de español.)

Months of the year in Spanish

Naming and listing the months

• 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), diciembre (December)
• Months in Spanish are always masculine and not capitalized unless they appear at the beginning of a sentence

Using prepositions with months

• The preposition "de" is used between the month and the year when expressing a specific date (enero de 2023)
• The preposition "en" is used when referring to an event or action happening in a specific month (Mi cumpleaños es en mayo.)

Prepositions and articles for days and months

Using "en" for events and actions

• The preposition "en" is used when referring to an event or action happening on a specific day of the week or in a specific month (La fiesta es en sábado., La conferencia es en marzo.)
• "En" is followed by the day or month without an article when expressing a general time frame

Using "de" for possession and relationships

• The preposition "de" is used when expressing possession or relationship between a day or month and another noun (El examen del lunes es difícil., Las vacaciones de julio son divertidas.)
• "De" is followed by the definite article "el" for singular days and "los" for plural days

Describing events with days and months

Expressing dates and times

• When expressing the date of an event, the format in Spanish is: el + day + de + month + de + year (El festival es el 15 de agosto de 2023.)
• Ordinal numbers are used when referring to a specific day within a month (Mi cumpleaños es el primer día de mayo., La boda es el vigésimo segundo día de junio.)
• The verb "ser" is used to describe the date or time of an event (La fiesta es el sábado a las 8:00 pm.)

Describing recurring events and schedules

• The construction "tener lugar" can be used to express that an event is taking place on a specific day or month (La conferencia tendrá lugar el lunes., El festival tendrá lugar en septiembre.)
• When describing a recurring event or schedule, the days of the week are used in the plural form (Las clases son los lunes, miércoles y viernes., La tienda está abierta de lunes a viernes.)