Days of the week: lundi or le lundi?

French days and months are lower case, all masculine, and mostly easy to recognise. Dates are simpler than in English: le 14 juillet is the 14th of July, with no "th" and no "of". The one exception is the 1st, le premier.

The whole system on one screen

Each row is one section below.

Days of the week

The French week starts on Monday, and calendars print it that way. All seven days are masculine and written in lower case.

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1. 1lundi
2. 2mardi
3. 3mercredi
4. 4jeudi
5. 5vendredi
6. 6samedi
7. 7dimanche

Lundi to dimanche, Monday first, all lower case. The book on lundi is the school or work week starting; dimanche is the lie-in.

Five of the names come from the Roman sky: lundi is the moon's day, mardi Mars's, mercredi Mercury's, jeudi Jupiter's, vendredi Venus's. The -di is the Latin for day.

lundi or le lundi?

English says "on" for both a single Monday and every Monday. French splits them.

No article means one Monday, normally the next one. Le means the habit, every week. There is never a word for "on": not sur, not en.

Next, last and every

Days take a plural like any other noun: tous les lundis. It means the same as le lundi, said louder.

Asking what day it is

• Quel jour sommes-nous ? - What day is it? (standard)
• On est quel jour ? - What day is it? (everyday speech)
• On est lundi. - It's Monday.
• C'est lundi. - It's Monday. (just as common)

Nous sommes lundi is also correct, a touch more formal.