Days of the Week in Russian: Their History, Useful Vocabulary and More

Were you aware that there was a time when the уикенд (weekend) was banned in Russia?

Sundays were considered a day of rest until the end of September 1929, when Stalin introduced a continuous, seven-day work week to ensure factories and workers in the Советский Союз (Soviet Union) would never stop. Luckily, this policy concluded in June 1940, after 11 years.

With that historical context, learning the Russian days of the week is quite important. Explore the guide below to discover the origins of their names, related vocabulary, and other details.

The Russian Days of the Week

Unsurprisingly, there are seven дни недели (days of the week) in Russian.

The Russian week begins on Monday, not Sunday, which is the case in some parts of the world. Remember this, as you'll see Monday listed first on a Russian calendar.

Between the 9th and 12th centuries, when Russia was known as Русь, the term for week was седмица, stemming from the word семь (seven). Today, the word for week is неделя.

As noted in the introduction, you can use the word уикенд for "weekend." However, the more common term for "weekend" is выходные (note that this word is plural).

Before we dive into the days of the week, it's important to remember that they are not capitalized in Russian, unless a day happens to start a sentence.

понедельник (Monday)

This word is so old that when it originated, неделя still meant "Sunday," not "week" as it does in modern Russian. In fact, in all other Slavic languages, a form of неделя means Sunday because it literally translates to "not doing," referring to not working.

Abbreviations are commonly used on a календарь (calendar), so the short form for Monday is Пн .

вторник (Tuesday)

Does the word второй (second) look familiar? Most students learn cardinal numbers first, but if you know ordinal numbers, you likely recognize второй. Since Tuesday is the second day of the week, the word вторник makes sense. The abbreviation for Tuesday is Вт .

среда (Wednesday)

The word среда is connected to the word средний, meaning "middle." Wednesday is in the middle of the workweek, which explains the name. Wednesday's abbreviation is Ср .

четверг (Thursday)

Are you starting to see a pattern? Think back to your ordinal numbers and the word for "fourth." If you thought of четвёртый, you're right! Unsurprisingly, the abbreviation for Thursday is Чт .

пятница (Friday)

That's correct: пять means "five," and Friday is the fifth day. The abbreviation for Friday is Пт .

суббота (Saturday)

While most weekday names are easy to recall based on numbers, the weekend names are a bit different. The word for Saturday, суббота, comes from ancient times when Saturday was the шаббат (Sabbath), a day of покой (rest). Saturday's abbreviation is Сб .

воскресенье (Sunday)

For воскресенье, dictionaries generally agree it's linked to an obsolete root that meant "to get well" or "to recover."

This day of the week sounds very similar to the word воскресение, which means "to rise from the dead," or "resurrection."

The USSR was regarded as one of the world's most atheist nations, but despite this, Sunday continued to be called воскресенье. Even with the suppression of religion during the Soviet Era, more than 70% of Russians now practice Russian Orthodoxy. As you might guess, Sunday's abbreviation is Вс .

Note: Observe the slight spelling difference between воскресенье and воскресение? This is simply to distinguish the day of the week from "resurrection."

To review the days of the week, check out this video by Antonia Romaker.

Before we continue to how the days of the week are used grammatically, it's useful to note that Russian days of the week have a gender and can be declined according to case.

Several prepositions are used with the days of the week to indicate when something is scheduled to happen. Let's examine them more closely.

Prepositions Used with the Days of the Week

On x day: В(о) + day in the accusative case

As previously stated, в(о) + the day in the accusative case is used to express "on x day."

All days of the week use в except for Tuesday, which is written as:

во вторник (on Tuesday).

This is because it's difficult to pronounce в + a word starting with в or ф, followed by another consonant. Here, the о is added to в to make it easier to say correctly. You can find more about this on Russian for Everyone’s website .

There's an informal way to say "on the weekend" that's slightly different from referring to individual days because it uses the prepositional case with the preposition на instead of в:

на выходных (on the weekend)

Note that if you prefer the standard way of saying "on the weekend," you'd say:

в выходные (on the weekend)

This functions exactly like with individual days, meaning в + accusative case.

Perhaps you need to tell someone about a recurring appointment, so every Monday, you do something. You could say:

По понедельникам у меня уроки русского с Катей. (On Mondays, I have Russian lessons with Katya.)

On x days: По + day in the dative plural

Remember that for each day, the ending is ам, except for the word "Sundays," which ends with ям. It's written as:

по воскресеньям (on Sundays).

Also, the word "weekends" is already plural, so the ending is ым, which looks like:

по выходным (on weekends)

Another common phrase when discussing days of the week is the expression "from x to x."

Со вторника по пятницу я буду в Минске по работе. (From Tuesday to Friday, I will be in Minsk for work.)

From x day until x day: С(о) + day in the genitive case + до + day in the genitive case

This structure is quite simple. One example of using this formula is:

со вторника до среды (from Tuesday until Wednesday)

Again, similar to how в becomes во before вторник, the с becomes со before вторник here. But unlike with в(о), the same change applies to среда. This means you say:

в среду (on Wednesday) but со среды (from Wednesday)

Additional Russian Day Vocabulary

While mastering the seven days of the week is essential, you'll need some extra vocabulary to talk about the days in relation to each other.

Here are some basic terms that will help you discuss the chronological order of days, along with example sentences. Additionally, you can look up these words and phrases in a program like Lingflix to see how native speakers use them in authentic contexts.

день (day)

Сегодня красивый день на улице. (Today is a beautiful day outside.)

позавчера (the day before yesterday)

Позавчера я написал новое сообщение в блоге. (The day before yesterday, I wrote a new blog post.)

вчера (yesterday)

Вчера я говорила с моим братом по Скайпу. (Yesterday, I spoke with my brother on Skype.)

сегодня (today)

Сегодня пятница. (Today is Friday.)

завтра (tomorrow)

У нас завтра контрольная в школе. (We have a test in school tomorrow).

послезавтра (the day after tomorrow)

Экзамен был отложен. Теперь экзамен послезавтра. (The exam was postponed. Now, the exam is the day after tomorrow.)

рабочий день (workday)

Я работаю в ресторане, поэтому суббота для меня рабочий день. (I work in a restaurant, so Saturday is a workday for me.)

выходной день (day off)

Ресторан закрыт в понедельник, поэтому у меня выходной день. (The restaurant is closed on Monday, so I have the day off.)

Similar to discussing days in relation to one another, it's useful to be able to talk about the chronology of weeks as well. Below are the most important phrases.

на прошлой неделе (last week)

На прошлой неделе я купила новый дом. (Last week, I bought a new home.)

на этой неделе (this week)

На этой неделе у меня встреча в банке. (This week, I have a meeting at the bank.)

на следующей неделе (next week)

На следующей неделе я переезжаю! (Next week, I’m moving!)

In addition to the phrases and day vocabulary above, there are a couple of questions you should know for talking about the days of the week. They are as follows:

Какой сегодня день? (What day is today?)

This one is quite straightforward and self-explanatory.

В какой день? (On which day?)

You might use this phrase when speaking to someone about making plans. In response to "В какой день?" you would answer with the preposition в(о) + the day in the accusative case. For example:

Мой день рождения в среду. (My birthday is on Wednesday.)

Now that you're familiar with the days of the week, you might think it's a good idea to immediately start making appointments with all your new Russian friends. Perhaps. But probably not.

Russians aren't generally known for being as strictly bound to a calendar or watch as many English speakers are. The concept of time can be more relaxed in Russia than in some other countries. Plans can change as the arranged date gets closer, so it's always wise to call and confirm a day or two ahead.

However, many people do still make plans well in advance (like vacations and business trips), and arriving more than 15 minutes late to a meeting is seen as impolite. Of course, Russian trains also usually run on schedule (98% of the time), so if nothing else, you can reliably schedule your travel times.

And in any case, knowing the Russian days of the week is essential, so this is one task you can check off your list!