Days of the week in French: lundi to dimanche

The seven days of the week in French are lundi, mardi, mercredi, jeudi, vendredi, samedi and dimanche. They are all masculine (le lundi, le dimanche) and, unlike in English, they are written in lowercase — lundi, not Lundi — even in the middle of a sentence.

The French week starts on Monday (lundi), so the weekend (le week-end) comes at the end, with samedi and dimanche. The trickiest part is not the words but the article: on its own, lundi means “on Monday” (one specific day), while le lundi means “on Mondays / every Monday”. The sections below give you the days with audio, that le distinction, the surrounding calendar words, and the mistakes to avoid.

The seven days

Reading from the start of the week, the days are lundi (Monday), mardi (Tuesday), mercredi (Wednesday), jeudi (Thursday), vendredi (Friday), samedi (Saturday) and dimanche (Sunday). Six of them end in -di, which comes from the Latin word for “day”, so once you notice the pattern the list is easy to remember: lun-di, mar-di, mercre-di, jeu-di, vendre-di, same-di. Only dimanche breaks the shape — it puts the di- at the front.

Aujourd’hui, c’est lundi et demain, c’est mardi.
Today is Monday and tomorrow is Tuesday.

Because the days are ordinary common nouns in French, they stay lowercase. You write a capital letter only when a day happens to open a sentence, exactly as you would with any other word.

Mon jour préféré, c’est samedi.
My favorite day is Saturday.

All seven days are masculine, so any article or adjective that goes with them takes the masculine form: le vendredi, un beau dimanche (a lovely Sunday).

Saying “on Monday” with lundi and le lundi

Here is the point where English speakers slip. French does not use a preposition like “on” before a day. Instead, the presence or absence of le changes the meaning:

• lundi (no article) = on Monday, one particular day — the coming Monday or the one just past.
• le lundi (with the article) = on Mondays, that is, every Monday as a habit.

Notice that this is the opposite of the trap in some other languages: in French the singular le lundi is the habitual “every Monday”, not a plural. You can say les lundis, but the standard way to express a weekly routine is le + the singular day. To add a clock time, combine the day with telling time in French, as in lundi à neuf heures (on Monday at nine).

Le samedi, je fais les courses.
On Saturdays, I do the shopping.

Je t’appelle jeudi.
I’ll call you on Thursday.

The weekend and the wider calendar

The two weekend days are samedi and dimanche, and the weekend itself is le week-end — borrowed straight from English, hyphen included. The working stretch of the week is la semaine (the week), and a single day is le jour. Three time words pin an action to the calendar without naming a day at all: aujourd'hui (today), demain (tomorrow) and hier (yesterday).

To say “from Monday to Friday”, French drops the articles just like English drops “the”: du lundi au vendredi.

Je travaille du lundi au vendredi et je me repose le week-end.
I work from Monday to Friday and rest on the weekend.

En semaine, je me lève tôt.
On weekdays, I get up early.

Common mistakes

Capitalizing the day

In French the days are common nouns, so they stay lowercase in the middle of a sentence. The English habit of capitalizing them is the most common slip.

Je pars Lundi. → Je pars lundi.
I’m leaving on Monday.

Adding a preposition for “on a day”

There is no French word for “on” before a day. Use the bare day for a specific date, or le for a habit — never a preposition like à or sur.

Je travaille sur lundi. → Je travaille lundi.
I work on Monday.

Mixing up lundi and le lundi

Dropping or adding le flips the meaning between one day and every week, so keep them apart.

Le lundi prochain, je pars. → Lundi prochain, je pars.
Next Monday, I’m leaving.

In Fluera you meet the days inside real plans — saying le samedi, je fais les courses or je travaille du lundi au vendredi — so choosing between lundi and le lundi becomes a reflex instead of a rule you translate each time. Put a week of your own routine into French when you practice French.

Practice