Days of the week in French: make all seven stick

The days of the week in French are lundi, mardi, mercredi, jeudi, vendredi, samedi and dimanche. This page gives you each name with a recording, then the writing rules from Québec’s language office, then a short quiz. To hear the sounds on their own, read French pronunciation practice. For more first words, see Basic French words, and to count the hours of a day, Numbers in French.

What are the days of the week in French?

Here are the seven names, Monday to Sunday, with a rough English sound guide. The guide is an approximation for beginners, not a phonetic standard. Capital letters mark the syllable to stress, and “n” in a vowel sound means a nasal vowel, said through the nose without a hard n.

Every name except dimanche ends in -di. That ending is the quickest clue that a word is a weekday.

How do you write the French days of the week?

Write them in lowercase. The Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) says the names of the days of the week are written with a lowercase letter, and that they take an s in the plural [1]. So it is vendredi in the middle of a sentence, not Vendredi, and les lundis for more than one.

A programme or calendar can print a date on its own line, such as “Mercredi 1er janvier 2025”, and the OQLF describes that layout as one that usually leaves out the word le before the date [2].

How do you say Tuesday in French?

Tuesday is mardi. It sits right before mercredi, Wednesday, and the two look alike on the page. Both start with m and both end in -di.

Say them out loud in a row: mardi is two syllables, mercredi is three. Press the buttons in the table above and count the beats.

How do you say Thursday in French?

Thursday is jeudi. It starts with the same j sound as in “je”, so it opens with a soft zh, not a hard j as in “jump”. The first sound is the same as the start of “jour”, day. There is no recording for jeudi on this page yet, so lean on the sound guide in the table.

How do you say Friday in French?

Friday is vendredi. It has three syllables, with a soft, nearly silent middle: vahn-druh-DEE. A sentence you can use right away: “Je suis libre vendredi.” It means “I am free on Friday”, and it uses no word for “on”.

How do you say Saturday and Sunday in French?

Saturday is samedi and Sunday is dimanche. Dimanche is the only one that does not end in -di, and the final e is not pronounced in the way a beginner expects: it closes the sound as a soft “sh”. Together they make the weekend, so a list of plans reads “samedi et dimanche”.

How do you say “on Mondays” or a date in French?

For a habit, use the plural or le before the day. The OQLF says the names of the days take an s in the plural, and that a generic singular with le can carry the same idea: its own example reads “En vente le jeudi et le samedi de chaque semaine” [1]. So “les lundis” and “le lundi” are both ways to talk about every Monday.

For a date in running text, the OQLF puts le before the day: “la prochaine réunion se tiendra le samedi 9 septembre 2023” [2]. There is no comma, and the day name stays lowercase [1][2].

When a day is followed by matin, midi or soir, the traditional rule keeps the second word unchanged: des lundis matin. The OQLF adds that it is increasingly accepted to make matin and soir agree, as in des dimanches matins, and that midi stays unchanged [1].

Try the quiz

Four quick questions on what the page covers.

Common mistakes

• Capitalizing the days. French writes lundi, not Lundi, unless it starts a sentence [1].
• Mixing up mardi and mercredi. Same first letter, same ending. Say them aloud in order until the three-syllable one feels longer.
• Forgetting the plural s. More than one Monday is les lundis [1].
• Adding a comma in a date. Running text takes le samedi 9 septembre 2023, with no comma after the day [2].
• Trusting a guide without a recording. Sound guides in letters, including ours, are approximations. Use the audio.
• Relying on a page from a language site, including this one. Rules get revised. Check the official page’s date against ours.

See also: weather and seasons in French.

See also: happy birthday and holidays in French.

See also: telling time in French.

Sources