Russian · русский · Cyrillic script
Days of the week in Russian: the seven names in Cyrillic, stress, IPA
The days of the week in Russian are понедельник, вторник, среда, четверг, пятница, суббота and воскресенье, Monday to Sunday. They are written in lower case, the week starts on Monday, and four of the names simply count: second, middle, fourth, fifth.
The days of the week in Russian, Monday first
The second line under each word marks the stressed vowel with an acute, which ordinary Russian text leaves out. Transliteration follows the BGN/PCGN system; IPA is the transcription in Wiktionary's Russian entries; the short forms are the two-letter abbreviations of the Unicode CLDR data for Russian.
| English | Russian | IPA | BGN/PCGN | Short | Gender · meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | понедельникпонеде́льник | [pənʲɪˈdʲelʲnʲɪk] | ponedelʹnik | пн | m · after the week |
| Tuesday | вторниквто́рник | [ˈftornʲɪk] | vtornik | вт | m · second |
| Wednesday | средасреда́ | [srʲɪˈda] | sreda | ср | f · middle |
| Thursday | четвергчетве́рг | [t͡ɕɪtˈvʲerk] | chetverg | чт | m · fourth |
| Friday | пятницапя́тница | [ˈpʲætʲnʲɪt͡sə] | pyatnitsa | пт | f · fifth |
| Saturday | субботасуббо́та | [sʊˈbotə] | subbota | сб | f · Sabbath |
| Sunday | воскресеньевоскресе́нье | [vəskrʲɪˈsʲenʲje] | voskresenʹye | вс | n · resurrection |
In BGN/PCGN the prime ʹ stands for the soft sign ь. A final -г in четверг is devoiced to [k], and the в of вторник to [f].
Counted days: where the Russian names come from
Russian never used the planetary names of the Roman week. Its weekdays count from a fixed point, and that point was Sunday, which in Old East Slavic was неделя, the day of no work: Wiktionary analyses it as не- (not) plus дел- (work). Monday, понедельник, is literally the day after неделя: по- (after) plus неделя plus the suffix -ник.
From there the count runs on. Вторник is the second day, from второй (second); четверг the fourth, from the same root as четыре; пятница the fifth, from пять. Wednesday breaks the pattern because it is the middle: среда was borrowed from Old Church Slavonic срѣда, the middle, and displaced a native word for the third day. Every Slavic language has a near relative of these forms, which the Slavic and Baltic word list lines up side by side.
The weekend came from religion. Суббота goes back through Greek sábbata to Hebrew or Aramaic for the Sabbath; Wiktionary notes that the double бб copies Western spellings. Воскресенье means resurrection, the day of Christ's rising. When it took over Sunday, the old word неделя moved to mean the whole week, which is its only meaning in modern Russian. Its neighbours kept the old sense: Sunday is неділя in Ukrainian, нядзеля in Belarusian, неделя in Bulgarian and niedziela in Polish, all listed in the days of the week in many languages table.
Lower case, stress and gender
Russian writes the days of the week in lower case: сегодня понедельник, today is Monday. A capital letter appears only at the start of a sentence or in a fixed name. A capital П in mid-sentence is an English habit that Russian spelling does not share.
Stress is free in Russian and not marked in normal writing, so it has to be learned word by word. Понедельник is stressed on the third syllable, вторник on the first, среда on the last, четверг on the last, пятница on the first, суббота on the second and воскресенье on the third. Stress also moves inside the paradigm: среда́ in the nominative, but в сре́ду, on Wednesday.
The genders are mixed. Понедельник, вторник and четверг are masculine, среда, пятница and суббота feminine, воскресенье neuter. Gender decides the endings of every adjective that goes with the day: каждый понедельник, каждую среду, каждое воскресенье, every Monday, every Wednesday, every Sunday.
How to say on Monday in Russian
On plus a day is в plus the accusative case. For the masculine and neuter days the accusative looks like the nominative: в понедельник, в четверг, в воскресенье. The feminine days change their ending to -у: в среду, в пятницу, в субботу. Before вторник the preposition becomes во for easier pronunciation, во вторник, on Tuesday. These are the forms given in Wiktionary's entries for each day.
Habits use по plus the dative plural: по понедельникам, on Mondays, по субботам, on Saturdays. To ask the day, Russian says Какой сегодня день? and the answer needs no verb, since Russian drops is in the present tense: сегодня пятница.
Ranges take с … по: с понедельника по пятницу, from Monday to Friday, with the first day in the genitive and the second in the accusative. The short form of the same range is пн–пт.
| Russian | BGN/PCGN | English |
|---|---|---|
| Сегодня понедельник. | Segodnya ponedelʹnik. | Today is Monday. |
| Я позвоню во вторник. | Ya pozvonyu vo vtornik. | I'll call on Tuesday. |
| Встретимся в пятницу. | Vstretimsya v pyatnitsu. | Let's meet on Friday. |
| По субботам я играю в футбол. | Po subbotam ya igrayu v futbol. | I play football on Saturdays. |
| Магазин работает с понедельника по пятницу. | Magazin rabotayet s ponedelʹnika po pyatnitsu. | The shop is open Monday to Friday. |
| Какой сегодня день? | Kakoy segodnya denʹ? | What day is it today? |
Abbreviations and the order of the week
Calendars, timetables and opening hours use two-letter forms without a full stop: пн, вт, ср, чт, пт, сб, вс. These are the abbreviated forms in Unicode CLDR for Russian, and on the narrowest calendar grids CLDR reduces each day to its first capital letter, П В С Ч П С В, which leaves three pairs of identical letters to be told apart by position.
The Russian week begins on Monday, and CLDR's week data gives Monday as the first day for Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the countries where Russian is official. A Russian calendar therefore opens with понедельник in the left column, in line with ISO 8601.
Transliteration choices produce different Latin spellings of the days of the week in Russian. BGN/PCGN gives pyatnitsa and voskresenʹye; the scholarly system used by Wiktionary writes pjatnica and voskresenʹje. The Cyrillic is the reference, and the Latin form should always name its system.
Questions about the days of the week in Russian
What are the 7 days of the week in Russian?
Понедельник (Monday), вторник (Tuesday), среда (Wednesday), четверг (Thursday), пятница (Friday), суббота (Saturday) and воскресенье (Sunday).
Are the days of the week capitalized in Russian?
No. The days of the week in Russian are written in lower case unless they open a sentence.
How do you say on Monday in Russian?
В понедельник. The feminine days change their ending: в среду, в пятницу, в субботу. Tuesday takes во: во вторник.
What does voskresenye mean?
Resurrection. Sunday is named after Christ's rising; the older word for Sunday, неделя, now means week.
Why does Monday mean after the week?
Because неделя once meant Sunday, the day without work. Понедельник is the day after it.