In this section, we will learn how to talk about days of the week, times of the day, and how to count in Japanese. This is essential for daily conversations and understanding schedules.
📅 Days of the Week - ようび (you bi)
In Japanese, the days of the week follow a consistent pattern: they all end in ～ようび, which means "day (of the week)." You can simply memorize the word stem that comes before it. Here are the days:
| Japanese | Romaji | English |
|---|---|---|
| にちようび | nichiyoubi | Sunday |
| げつようび | getsuyoubi | Monday |
| かようび | kayoubi | Tuesday |
| すいようび | suiyoubi | Wednesday |
| もくようび | mokuyoubi | Thursday |
| きんようび | kinyoubi | Friday |
| どようび | doyoubi | Saturday |
📆 Talking About Days - きのう (kinou)、きょう (kyou)、あした (ashita), ...
In addition to the days of the week, you'll often hear words like today, tomorrow, and yesterday. These are short but important!
| Japanese | Romaji | English |
|---|---|---|
| きのう | kinou | Yesterday |
| きょう | kyou | Today |
| あした | ashita | Tomorrow |
| あさって | asatte | The Day After Tomorrow |
| おととい | ototoi | The Day Before Yesterday |
| まいにち | mainichi | Every Day |
When using days of the week in sentences, you treat them like nouns and construct the sentences using the form AはBです (A wa B desu), where A is the topic and B is the day of the week. More exactly, you can use the following structure: (relative day word) は (day of the week) です (でした for words in the past). For example:
| Japanese | Romaji | English |
|---|---|---|
| きのうはにちようびでした。 | Kinou wa nichiyoubi deshita. | Yesterday was Sunday. |
| きょうはげつようびです。 | Kyō wa getsuyōbi desu. | Today is Monday. |
| あしたはすいようびです。 | Ashita wa suiyōbi desu. | Tomorrow is Wednesday. |