German › Vocabulary › Days of the Week in German
The quick answer: Montag, Dienstag, Mittwoch, Donnerstag, Freitag, Samstag (or Sonnabend), Sonntag. Six are gods. Mittwoch means mid-week — the Church renamed it from Woden’s day in the 10th century, and unlike most such attempts it stuck.
All seven, spoken
Six are named after gods and planets. One was deliberately renamed, and there are two competing words for Saturday depending on where in Germany you are standing.
| German | Say it like | Where it comes from | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Montag | MOHN-tahk | Monday — moon day. Final g hardens to a k, in every day of the week. | |
| Dienstag | DEENS-tahk | Tuesday — from the god Tiwaz, the same root as English Tuesday. | |
| Mittwoch | MIT-vokh | Wednesday — and it means mid-week. The only one not named after a god. | |
| Donnerstag | DON-uhrs-tahk | Thursday — thunder day. Donner is thunder, and it is Thor. | |
| Freitag | FRY-tahk | Friday — the goddess Frija. | |
| Samstag | ZAHMS-tahk | Saturday, in the south and west. From the Sabbath. | |
| Sonnabend | ZON-ah-bent | Saturday, in the north and east. Literally “Sunday eve”. | |
| Sonntag | ZON-tahk | Sunday — sun day. Still legally quiet across Germany. | |
| heute | HOY-tuh | Today. | |
| morgen | MOR-gen | Tomorrow — and also morning. Context decides. | |
| gestern | GEH-stuhrn | Yesterday. | |
| die Woche | dee VOKH-uh | The week. Throaty ch, then a soft final e. | |
| das Wochenende | dahs VOKH-en-en-duh | The weekend. | |
| am Montag | ahm MOHN-tahk | On Monday. Days take am, not an dem. |
Mittwoch: the day the Church took back
Every other German day is a god. Monday is the moon, Tuesday is Tiwaz, Thursday is Donner — thunder, which is Thor — Friday is the goddess Frija, Sunday is the sun.
Wednesday was Wodanstag, Woden’s day. The same god sits inside the English word Wednesday, which is why the spelling makes no sense in English either.
Around the 10th century the Church replaced it with Mittwoch — mid-week — and unlike most such attempts, this one stuck. It is the only German day with no -tag ending, and the only one that is a description rather than a name.
English kept its Woden. German did not. A thousand years later you can still see exactly where the argument landed.
Samstag or Sonnabend — and what it tells you
Germany genuinely has two words for Saturday, and which one someone uses places them.
Samstag is the south and west — Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, the Rhineland — and it comes from the Hebrew Sabbath, travelling through Greek and into southern German.
Sonnabend is the north and east, and it means Sunday eve, the evening before the holy day. It was standard in the former East and is still common in Hamburg and Berlin.
Both are correct. Samstag is more widespread now and is what most learners are taught, but if your family came from the north, Sonnabend is the word they used.
💡 Every day ends in a k sound. Montag is MOHN-tahk, Freitag is FRY-tahk, Sonntag is ZON-tahk. German hardens a final g to a k — the spelling keeps the soft letter and the mouth does not. The same rule turns Abend into AH-bent.
Saying these out loud
Initial S before a vowel is a z. Samstag is ZAHMS-tahk, Sonntag is ZON-tahk.
Mittwoch has the throaty ch. MIT-vokh, because the vowel in front is an o. Also note the w is a v.
Woche ends in a soft uh. VOKH-uh. A written e at the end of a German word is always sounded.
heute is HOY-tuh. The eu pair is always oy — the same sound in Deutsch, DOYTCH.
Saying when something happens
The seven names are the easy half. These are the words you need to actually arrange anything.
The day after tomorrow is übermorgen — over-morning. The day before yesterday is vorgestern. Both are single words, and English needs four.
This week is diese Woche; next week nächste Woche; last week letzte Woche.
On Mondays, meaning every Monday, is montags — lower case, with an s on the end. Am Montag is one specific Monday. The difference is one letter and it changes the whole sentence.
At the weekend is am Wochenende.
In three days is in drei Tagen — note the noun takes an -n, which catches people out.
Sunday is still legally quiet
Not a language point, but the thing most likely to surprise a visitor, and the reason the word Sonntag carries weight in German that it does not in English.
Germany has a constitutionally protected day of rest — Sonntagsruhe. Shops close. Supermarkets close. You are not supposed to mow a lawn, drill a wall, or put glass in the bottle bank, and a neighbour will mention it if you do.
It is written into the Basic Law, and attempts to loosen it have repeatedly been struck down in the courts. For German-American families this is often the thing a grandparent kept longest — the Sunday where nothing gets done.
Key facts
- The seven days are Montag, Dienstag, Mittwoch, Donnerstag, Freitag, Samstag / Sonnabend, Sonntag.
- Mittwoch means mid-week and is the only day not named after a god — the Church renamed it from Wodanstag in the 10th century.
- Saturday is Samstag in the south and west, Sonnabend in the north and east.
- Every day ends in a k sound because German hardens a final g.
- “On Monday” is am Montag; “on Mondays” is montags, lower case with an s.
- The German week starts on Monday.
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