Days Of The Week In Arabic

I’ll show you how to say the days of the week in Arabic.

There’s a very easy pattern here.

Most of the days of the week in Arabic (MSA and dialects) are based on numbers. You’ll see what I mean.

Here’s a table with the days of the week.

I’ve included the English name, the Arabic in MSA, a simple transliteration, and some notes on common dialect variations.

English	MSA (Arabic)	Transliteration (MSA)	Dialect Notes
Sunday	الأَحَد	al-ʾaḥad	Shortened to الحَد (il-ḥad) in Egyptian and some Levantine dialects.
Monday	الاثْنَيْن	al-ʾithnayn	In Egyptian it sounds like (il-ʾitnēn). In Levantine, التنين (it-tnēn) or لتنين (litnēn).
Tuesday	الثُّلَاثَاء	ath-thulāthāʾ	التلات (it-talāt) in Egyptian and Levantine. Some Gulf dialects might say الثَّلَاث (ath-thalāth).
Wednesday	الأَرْبِعَاء	al-ʾarbiʿāʾ	الأربع (il-ʾarbaʿ) or الرُبع (ir-rubʿ) in Egyptian and Levantine. Some Gulf dialects might say الارْبَع (al-arbaʿ).
Thursday	الخَمِيس	al-khamīs	Generally the same across dialects or pronounced il-khamīs.
Friday	الجُمْعَة	al-jumʿah	il-gumʿa in Egyptian.
Saturday	السَّبْت	as-sabt	is-sabt in Egyptian and Levantine.

What do the names mean?

You might have noticed a pattern from Monday to Thursday.

Al-ʾaḥad (Sunday) comes from the word for “one” (واحد - wāḥid), basically meaning “the first day.”
Al-ʾithnayn (Monday) comes from “two” (اثنين - ithnayn), so “the second day.”
Ath-thulāthāʾ (Tuesday) comes from “three” (ثلاثة - thalāthah), “the third day.”
Al-ʾarbiʿāʾ (Wednesday) comes from “four” (أربعة - ʾarbaʿah), “the fourth day.”
Al-khamīs (Thursday) comes from “five” (خمسة - khamsah), “the fifth day.”

Easy-peasy.

This numbering makes these five days basically effortless to remember.

What about Friday and Saturday?

These are the only two that stand out as different.

Al-jumʿah (Friday) means “the gathering” or “congregation.” This is because Friday is the main day of congregational prayer for Muslims (basically the equivalent of Sunday for church in Christian countries).
As-sabt (Saturday) is related to the idea of “rest” - related to “Sabbath.”

This is why weekends in the Middle East are Friday and Saturday, unlike the typical Saturday and Sunday in Western countries. See below.

Talking about the week

Here are a few more useful words related to time:

Day: يَوْم (yawm)

Plural (days): أَيَّام (ʾayyām)

أي يوم اليوم؟

ʾay yawm al-yawm?

What day is it today?

Week: أُسْبُوع (ʾusbūʿ)

Plural (weeks): أَسَابِيع (ʾasābīʿ)

سَأُسَافِر الأُسْبُوع القَادِم.

sa-ʾusāfir al-ʾusbūʿ al-qādim.

I will travel next week.

Weekend:

MSA: عُطْلَة نِهَايَة الأُسْبُوع (ʿuṭlat nihāyat al-ʾusbūʿ) which literally means “the holiday at the end of the week.”
A more common way to refer to the weekend in MSA is simply an-nihāyah (النهاية), meaning “the end.”
In Egyptian Arabic, they often say: أَجَازَة (ʾagāzah) which can mean any holiday or vacation, including the weekend.
In many places, the weekend is Friday and Saturday. However, some countries like Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco, and the UAE have shifted to a Saturday-Sunday weekend to align more with global business. Saudi Arabia and Oman also shifted from a Thursday-Friday weekend to Friday-Saturday a few years ago.

ماذا ستفعل في عطلة نهاية الأسبوع؟

mādhā satafʿal fī ʿuṭlat nihāyat al-ʾusbūʿ?

What will you do on the weekend?

عندي أجازة.

ʿandī ʾagāzah.

I have a holiday (weekend).

The days of the week in Arabic are pretty logical, especially with most names coming directly from numbers.

Remember al-ʾaḥad for Sunday (the first) through al-khamīs for Thursday (the fifth), with the special names al-jumʿah (Friday, for gathering) and as-sabt (Saturday, for rest).

Learn these, plus words like yawm (day) and ʾusbūʿ (week), and that’s pretty much all you need to talk about days of the week in Arabic.

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