Days of the Week in Japanese

For the last 6 Word of the Day posts, you've been learning kanji that will help you write the days of the week in Japanese. By learning just one more kanji, you will be able to write out every day. I'll also show you some tips and tricks to memorize and use them in everyday life.

The New Kanji

There is a new kanji you can learn to write the days of the week. It is optional whether you write the kanji or just use hiragana but I want you to have the option. This character is only used for days of the week and has no meaning by itself.

Kanji: 曜
Kana: よう
Romaji: you

All days of the week will end using 曜日 (ようび）with a kanji you've already learned in front of it.

The Days of the Week

Sunday

Kanji: 日曜日
Kana: にちようび
Romaji: nichiyoubi

The first day of the week should be very easy to remember since it used the kanji 日.The translation from Japanese is literally "sun day".

Remember, you don't have to write the kanji 曜 if you're finding it to be too difficult. Instead, write 日よう日 and it will still be completely understandable.

Monday

Kanji: 月曜日
Kana: げつようび
Romaji: getsuyoubi

The second day of the week is "moon day" and uses the kanji 月. It uses the same pronunciation as the Japanese word for month.

Tuesday

Kanji: 火曜日
Kana: かようび
Romaji: kayoubi

The third day of the week is "fire day" and uses the kanji 火. From this point, you'll notice the kanji you've learned before have a different pronunciation than what you've learned. This is because Kanji can have different readings depending on what word they are used in. I'll talk more about this another time.

Wednesday

Kanji: 水曜日
Kana: すいようび
Romaji: suiyoubi

The fourth day of the week is "water day" and uses the kanji 水. It is easy to remember this day if you can remember that water puts out fires.

Thursday

Kanji: 木曜日
Kana: もくようび
Romaji: mokuyoubi

The fifth day of the week is "wood day" and uses the kanji 木. Another trick is to remember water grows trees.

Friday

Kanji: 金曜日
Kana: きんようび
Romaji: kinyoubi

The sixth day of the week is "metal day" and uses the kanji 金. If you remember from before, this kanji also means money. So just remember that Friday is payday.

Saturday

Kanji: 土曜日
Kana: どようび
Romaji: doyoubi

The last day of the week is "earth day" and uses the kanji 土. I found the easiest way to remember this day is remembering you find metal in the earth.

Tips and Tricks

• The kanji used for five of the days of the week are the same as the five elements.
• On most calendars and day planners, the days of the week are not written out in full. Instead only the first kanji is used to represent that day.
• If you're referring to a two days or more, it's acceptable to just say the first character of each day. For example, "I'm free Friday and Saturday" would be 金土に暇です (きんどにひまです)

Congratulations! You now know all the days of the week in Japanese. Please feel free to contract me or leave a comment if you have any questions or if there's anything you want me to cover in the future.