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Days of the week in Greek: Δευτέρα to Κυριακή, IPA and meaning
The days of the week in Greek are Δευτέρα, Τρίτη, Τετάρτη, Πέμπτη, Παρασκευή, Σάββατο and Κυριακή, Monday to Sunday. Monday to Thursday are ordinal numbers counted from Sunday, Friday is the day of preparation, and Sunday is the Lord's day.
The days of the week in Greek, Monday first
Romanisation follows ELOT 743, the Greek standard behind ISO 843, with the stress accent kept. IPA is the transcription in Wiktionary's Greek entries; short forms are the three-letter and one-letter sets of the Unicode CLDR data for Greek.
| English | Greek | IPA | ELOT 743 | Short | Gender · meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Δευτέρα | /ðeˈfte.ɾa/ | Deftéra | Δευ · Δ | f · second |
| Tuesday | Τρίτη | /ˈtɾi.ti/ | Tríti | Τρί · Τ | f · third |
| Wednesday | Τετάρτη | /teˈtaɾ.ti/ | Tetárti | Τετ · Τ | f · fourth |
| Thursday | Πέμπτη | /ˈpem.pti/ | Pémpti | Πέμ · Π | f · fifth |
| Friday | Παρασκευή | /pa.ɾa.sceˈvi/ | Paraskeví | Παρ · Π | f · preparation |
| Saturday | Σάββατο | /ˈsa.va.to/ | Sávvato | Σάβ · Σ | n · Sabbath |
| Sunday | Κυριακή | /cirʝaˈci/ | Kyriakí | Κυρ · Κ | f · the Lord's |
ð is the th of English this, c the Greek k before e and i, ʝ the Greek g before i. Wiktionary also gives /ˈpem.ti/ for Πέμπτη, with the second p dropped.
Second, third, fourth, fifth: where the Greek names come from
Greek counts its weekdays the way the early Church did. Δευτέρα is the feminine of δεύτερος, second, with the word ἡμέρα, day, understood: the second day. Τρίτη is the third, Τετάρτη the fourth, Πέμπτη the fifth. Wiktionary's etymologies give each one as Hellenistic Koine Greek and explain the count: Monday is the second day after Saturday, because Sunday was day one.
The last three days carry religious names. Παρασκευή is a learned borrowing of Ancient Greek paraskeuḗ, preparation; as a name, Paraskevi, it is also a woman's given name. Σάββατο goes back through Koine σάββατον to Hebrew šabbāṯ, the Sabbath. Κυριακή is the Lord's day, from Koine Κυριακή, built on κύριος, lord.
Greek therefore does not use the planetary names that Latin gave to Spanish, Italian and French. Portuguese is the only Romance language that followed the Church count in the same way; its segunda-feira and Greek Δευτέρα both mean the second day. The Ancient Greek forms on the days of the week in many languages page show the older pattern δευτέρα σαββάτου, the second day of the week.
Capital letters, accents and gender
Unlike most European languages that use lower case for the days, Greek writes them with a capital initial: Δευτέρα, Κυριακή. Wiktionary lists them as capitalised nouns, and the Unicode CLDR data for Greek prints every weekday name and abbreviation with a capital. Learners who come from French, Spanish or Russian carry their lower-case habit over, and a δευτέρα in lower case does not match the Greek norm.
Each name carries one accent, the tonos of the monotonic system introduced in 1982, which replaced the older polytonic marks. It shows the stressed syllable and matters for pronunciation: Δευτέρα is stressed on the second syllable, Κυριακή on the last.
Six of the seven days are feminine, agreeing with the unspoken ημέρα, day. Σάββατο is neuter, like the Koine σάββατον it comes from. The article shows it: η Δευτέρα, η Κυριακή, but το Σάββατο. The plurals are Δευτέρες, Κυριακές and Σάββατα.
How to say on Monday in Greek
On plus a day is the day in the accusative with the article and no preposition: τη Δευτέρα, on Monday, το Σάββατο, on Saturday. For the feminine days the accusative has the same form as the nominative, so only the article changes, from η to τη or την.
Habits use κάθε, every, which does not change: κάθε Κυριακή, every Sunday. The plural with the article also works: τις Κυριακές, on Sundays. To ask the day, Greek says Τι μέρα είναι σήμερα; with the Greek question mark, which looks like an English semicolon. The answer is Σήμερα είναι Τετάρτη.
The Greek word for week is εβδομάδα, from Ancient Greek ἑβδομάς, the word Latin borrowed as hebdomas.
| Greek | ELOT 743 | English |
|---|---|---|
| Σήμερα είναι Δευτέρα. | Símera eínai Deftéra. | Today is Monday. |
| Θα σε πάρω τηλέφωνο την Πέμπτη. | Tha se páro tiléfono tin Pémpti. | I'll call you on Thursday. |
| Κάθε Κυριακή πάμε στη θάλασσα. | Káthe Kyriakí páme sti thálassa. | Every Sunday we go to the sea. |
| Το μαγαζί είναι κλειστό το Σάββατο. | To magazí eínai kleistó to Sávvato. | The shop is closed on Saturday. |
| Τι μέρα είναι σήμερα; | Ti méra eínai símera? | What day is it today? |
Abbreviations and the order of the week
Greek calendars use three-letter forms: Δευ, Τρί, Τετ, Πέμ, Παρ, Σάβ, Κυρ, the abbreviated set in CLDR. On narrow grids CLDR uses a single capital, Δ Τ Τ Π Π Σ Κ, which repeats Τ for Tuesday and Wednesday and Π for Thursday and Friday; the position tells them apart.
The week begins on Monday. CLDR's week data gives Monday as the first day for both Greece and Cyprus, the two countries where Greek is official, so software set to Greek puts Δευτέρα in the first column, as ISO 8601 does. That makes the names awkward to explain: the first day of the Greek calendar week is called the second, because the names keep the older count from Sunday.
Romanised spellings of the days of the week in Greek vary with the system. ELOT 743 writes Deftéra and Kyriakí; a letter-by-letter transliteration would give Deutéra, because ευ is written eu. The Greek spelling is the reference.
Questions about the days of the week in Greek
What are the 7 days of the week in Greek?
Δευτέρα (Monday), Τρίτη (Tuesday), Τετάρτη (Wednesday), Πέμπτη (Thursday), Παρασκευή (Friday), Σάββατο (Saturday) and Κυριακή (Sunday).
Why is Monday called the second day in Greek?
Because the count starts from Sunday, Κυριακή, as day one. Δευτέρα means second, Τρίτη third, Τετάρτη fourth and Πέμπτη fifth.
Are the days of the week capitalized in Greek?
Yes. The days of the week in Greek are written with a capital initial, unlike in French, Spanish or Russian.
What does Paraskevi mean?
Preparation: Παρασκευή is a learned borrowing of Ancient Greek paraskeuḗ. Paraskevi is also a woman's given name.