JLPT N5 Grammar: Days of the Week – Counting days and Months in Japanese

Days of the Week・Counting days and Months

 ABOUT: 

■  The days and months in Japanese are pretty straight forward. Let's learn the days of the week, the months, and then a few "special" words to expand our vocabulary.

■ Main kanji: 日 day; 週 week; 月 month; 年 year

■ Days of the Week: You'll notice the ending stays the same: 曜日(ようび)

For more on days and time, see here.

Names of the Month: For the name of the month, simply add がつ after the number. Pay special attention to the bold areas.

Days of the Month: The first ten days of the month have a number of unexpected variations.

OTHER FORMS: 

Here are a few other words that are useful for telling the date.

■ 何曜日(なんようび) What day of the week? [What "ようび"?]
■ 先(せん) (previous): 先週(せんしゅう) last week; 先月(せんげつ) last month; [But, "last year" is the irregular 去年(きょねん).]
■ 来(らい) (next): 来週(らいしゅう) next week; 来月(らいげつ) next month; 来年(らいねん) next year
■ 毎(まい) (every): 毎日(まいにち) every day; 毎週(まいしゅう) every week; 毎月(まいつき) every month; 毎年(まいとし) every year

And within a few days. These are all irregular and often written in hiragana too.

■ 明日(あした) tomorrow [明 (bright; clear) + 日 (day)]

■ 昨日(きのう) yesterday [昨 (past; previous) + 日 (day)]

■ 明後日(あさって) day after tomorrow; two days from now [明 (bright; clear) + 後 (after; behind) + 日 (day)]

■ 一昨日(おととい) day before yesterday; two days ago [一 (one) + 昨 (past; previous) + 日 (day)]