Days of the week and months in Spanish: dates, seasons, and why it is el lunes
The days and months in Spanish are close enough to English that you can guess half of them. The trouble is in how they are used. There is no word for “on” in “on Monday”, they are written in lower case, and the seasons depend on which hemisphere you are in.
The days of the week
| English | Spanish | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | el lunes | From luna, the moon |
| Tuesday | el martes | From Mars |
| Wednesday | el miércoles | Accent on the first e. From Mercury |
| Thursday | el jueves | From Jupiter. The j is a throaty h: HWEH-bes |
| Friday | el viernes | From Venus |
| Saturday | el sábado | Accent. Plural los sábados |
| Sunday | el domingo | “The Lord’s day”. Plural los domingos |
All seven are masculine. The Spanish week starts on Monday, and on printed calendars in Spain Monday comes first. In Latin America you will see calendars that start on either day.
The months
| English | Spanish | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| January | enero | |
| February | febrero | |
| March | marzo | MAR-soh in Latin America, MAR-thoh in most of Spain |
| April | abril | |
| May | mayo | |
| June | junio | HOO-nyoh |
| July | julio | HOO-lyoh. The same spelling as the name Julio |
| August | agosto | |
| September | septiembre | Also written and said setiembre. Both are correct |
| October | octubre | |
| November | noviembre | |
| December | diciembre |
Months are masculine too, though you rarely need the article: en enero, a finales de marzo, a mediados de agosto.
The seasons
| English | Spanish | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| spring | la primavera | |
| summer | el verano | |
| autumn | el otoño | With ñ. Otono is not a word |
| winter | el invierno | |
| the rainy season | la temporada de lluvias | Mexico and much of Latin America |
| the dry season | la temporada seca |
What trips learners up
No capital letters. Days, months and seasons are written in lower case in Spanish: el lunes, en marzo, en verano. They have a capital only at the start of a sentence or in a name, like the Argentine revolution of Mayo or the street Avenida 9 de Julio in Buenos Aires.
No word for “on”. “On Monday” is el lunes. “On Mondays”, every week, is los lunes. Saying en el lunes is a common learner mistake. The same goes for dates: el 15 de junio, on the fifteenth of June.
The plural of days ending in s. Lunes to viernes are the same in the singular and the plural. You tell them apart only by the article: el martes is this Tuesday, los martes is every Tuesday. Sábado and domingo have an s in the plural.
Hoy es lunes. When you say what day it is, drop the article: hoy es lunes, mañana es viernes. Keep it when you mean an event on that day: la reunión es el lunes.
Mañana means two things. Mañana is tomorrow and la mañana is the morning. Mañana por la mañana is tomorrow morning. You will also hear mañana en la mañana in Mexico and Colombia and mañana a la mañana in Argentina.
Dates run day, month, year. 03/04/2026 is the 3rd of April in all four countries, as in the UK. Write 3 de abril de 2026, with de twice.
Saying the date
| You want to say | Spanish | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| What’s the date today? | ¿Qué fecha es hoy? | Everywhere |
| What’s the date today? | ¿A qué día estamos? or ¿A cuántos estamos? | Spain |
| What day is it today? | ¿Qué día es hoy? | Can mean the weekday or the date |
| Today is the 23rd | Hoy es 23. or Estamos a 23. | The second is common in Spain |
| It’s Tuesday the 23rd | Es martes 23. | No de between the day and the number |
| On the 3rd of May | el 3 de mayo | el tres de mayo |
| In 2026 | en 2026 or en el 2026 | The article is more common in Latin America |
| When is your birthday? | ¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños? | |
| It’s on the 9th of July | Es el 9 de julio. |
The first of the month is the only date you can say with an ordinal. In Spain people mostly say el uno de enero. In Mexico, Colombia and Argentina they mostly say el primero de enero. For every other date you use the plain number: el dos, el veinte, el treinta y uno.
Around the calendar
| You want to say | Spanish | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| the weekend | el fin de semana | Plural los fines de semana |
| on weekdays | entre semana | |
| Monday to Friday | de lunes a viernes | |
| yesterday | ayer | |
| the day before yesterday | anteayer | antier in Mexico and Colombia |
| the day after tomorrow | pasado mañana | |
| next week | la semana que viene or la próxima semana | |
| last month | el mes pasado | |
| two weeks ago | hace dos semanas | |
| in a fortnight | dentro de quince días | Spanish counts two weeks as fifteen days |
| in a week | dentro de ocho días | Colloquial. Monday to Monday counts both ends |
| a working day | un día hábil or un día laborable | |
| a public holiday | un día festivo or un feriado | See the table below |
| the beginning / end of the month | a principios de mes / a finales de mes | Also a fin de mes |
Regional differences
| Mexico | Spain | Colombia | Argentina | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public holiday | un día festivo or un día feriado | un festivo | un festivo | un feriado |
| Long weekend | un puente | un puente | un puente | un fin de semana largo |
| The day before yesterday | antier | anteayer | antier | anteayer |
| The 1st of March | el primero de marzo | el uno de marzo | el primero de marzo | el primero de marzo |
| Tomorrow morning | mañana en la mañana | mañana por la mañana | mañana en la mañana or por la mañana | mañana a la mañana |
A puente, a bridge, is the day or two off that links a holiday to the weekend. In Spain, if a holiday falls on a Thursday, many people take Friday off and call it hacer puente. By law, many Colombian holidays move to the following Monday, so there are many puentes.
In Mexico, la quincena is the fortnightly payday, around the 15th and the last day of the month.
Seasons by hemisphere
Spain and Mexico are in the northern hemisphere, so the seasons match the UK and the US. Summer is June to August.
Argentina is in the southern hemisphere. El verano runs from December to February, Christmas falls in the heat, and the long school holiday runs from December to the end of February. El invierno is June to August, and it snows in Patagonia and the Andes.
Colombia sits near the equator and has no four seasons in the usual sense. The temperature depends on altitude and changes little through the year. People say invierno for the rainy spells and verano for the dry ones, whatever the date. If a Colombian says estamos en invierno in April, they mean it has been raining.
In much of Mexico, the rainy season runs from about June to October, with storms in the afternoon and clear mornings. Mexicans also use invierno and verano in the calendar sense.
Tuesday the 13th
The unlucky day in Spanish-speaking countries is martes 13, Tuesday the 13th. The saying is “En martes, ni te cases ni te embarques”, on a Tuesday, do not marry or set sail. Friday the 13th is known from films, but people do not take it as seriously.
The words in real sentences
- Los lunes voy al gimnasio. On Mondays I go to the gym.
- Nos vemos el viernes. See you on Friday.
- Hoy es miércoles 23 de septiembre. Today is Wednesday the 23rd of September.
- Mi cumpleaños es el 4 de febrero. My birthday is on the 4th of February.
- En Argentina hace calor en diciembre. It’s hot in Argentina in December.
- Trabajo de lunes a viernes, y los sábados por la mañana. I work Monday to Friday, and on Saturday mornings.
- El lunes es festivo, así que hay puente. Monday is a holiday, so it’s a long weekend. (Colombia)
- Llegué antier. I arrived the day before yesterday. (Mexico, Colombia)
- Nos mudamos a finales de marzo. We’re moving at the end of March.
- ¿Qué hacés este fin de semana? What are you doing this weekend? (Argentina)
Questions people ask
Are days of the week capitalised in Spanish? No. Days, months and seasons are lower case, except at the start of a sentence or as part of a name.
How do you say “on Monday” in Spanish? El lunes, with no preposition. Los lunes means every Monday.
Is it septiembre or setiembre? Both are correct. Septiembre is the usual spelling in all four countries, and many people drop the p when they speak.
How do you write the date in Spanish? Day, month, year: 23 de septiembre de 2026, or 23/09/2026. The month is in lower case.
What is the Spanish abbreviation for Wednesday? On calendars and timetables you will often see X for miércoles, so it does not clash with the M of martes. The others are L, M, J, V, S, D.
Why is Sunday domingo? It comes from the Latin dies Dominicus, the Lord’s day. Saturday, sábado, comes from the Sabbath. The other five are named after the moon and the planets, as in French and Italian.
What are the seasons in Argentina? The reverse of Europe and North America. Summer is December to February and winter is June to August.
Practise these words
lunes, martes, miércoles, viernes, domingo, enero, septiembre, semana, fecha, primavera, invierno, cumpleaños, festivo. Vozelu is a free website for practising Spanish, and it has each of these. You see a sentence with one word missing, you type the word, and a native voice reads the sentence back. Practise the words on this page.