🇩🇪 German Days of the Week
Learn and practice german days of the week with Web Speech API. Click the play button to hear the correct pronunciation.
How to pronounce the German days of the week
Six of the seven German weekday names end in -tag, which makes them easier to learn as a set — but that ending is not pronounced the way it looks. Read the transcriptions before using the audio above.
| German | IPA | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Montag | /ˈmoːn.taːk/ | Long /oː/; the final g is /k/ |
| Dienstag | /ˈdiːns.taːk/ | ie is a long /iː/, not a diphthong |
| Mittwoch | /ˈmɪt.vɔx/ | w is /v/; ch is /x/ as in Bach |
| Donnerstag | /ˈdɔ.nɐs.taːk/ | The -er is a vowel /ɐ/, not an English r |
| Freitag | /ˈfʁaɪ.taːk/ | ei is always /aɪ/ |
| Samstag | /ˈzams.taːk/ | Initial s before a vowel is /z/ |
| Sonntag | /ˈzɔn.taːk/ | Also /z/; short /ɔ/ |
Two rules that fix most of the errors
Final devoicing. German devoices b, d and g at the end of a word or
syllable. That is why -tag is /taːk/ rather than /taːɡ/. Learners who pronounce
a clear g there sound immediately non-native, and the same rule explains Tag, und and
halb.
Initial s is /z/. Before a vowel, German s is voiced, so Samstag and
Sonntag begin with the sound of English zoo. English speakers almost always use /s/
here, which is the single most noticeable error in these two words.
Grammar and usage
- Always capitalised, because German capitalises every noun.
- All seven are masculine: der Montag.
- "On Monday" is am Montag, a contraction of an dem Montag.
- "On Mondays" is montags — lowercase, because it is now an adverb rather than a noun. This is a genuine spelling trap: Ich arbeite montags.
- Saturday has two names. Samstag is standard in southern and western Germany, Austria and Switzerland; Sonnabend is used in northern and eastern Germany. Both are correct.
Where the names come from
German mostly follows the Germanic gods rather than the Roman ones: Dienstag is associated with the god Tiwaz and Donnerstag with Donner, the thunder god known in English as Thor. Freitag belongs to the goddess Frigg. Mittwoch is the outlier and the most interesting: it simply means mid-week, replacing an earlier name connected with Wodan — which English kept as Wednesday.
Useful phrases for practice
- Welcher Tag ist heute? — What day is it today?
- Heute ist Donnerstag. — Today is Thursday.
- Bis Freitag! — See you on Friday!
- Ich habe montags frei. — I have Mondays off.
- am Wochenende — at the weekend.
- letzte Woche / nächste Woche — last week / next week.