Days of the Week

In pagan nomenclature, each day was dedicated to a planet or a god. The Portuguese language, along with Mirandese, is one of the only two Romance languages that use numerals instead of planet names.This is because, in 563 AD, ‘S. Martinho de Dume’ (St Martin of Dume), a Roman Catholic bishop from Braga, considered that during Holy Week it would be disrespectful to use pagan names for the days. He suggested calling the weekdays ‘feria’ (meaning ‘free day’) and numbering them according to the Catholic liturgy. In Portuguese, the days of the week are written in lowercase and are the following:

• segunda-feira (Monday)
• terça-feira (Tuesday)
• quarta-feira (Wednesday)
• quinta-feira (Thursday)
• sexta-feira (Friday)
• sábado (Saturday)

• domingo (Sunday)It is interesting to note that while the feminine ordinal number for 'third' in Portuguese is 'terceira,' this weekday deviates and takes the form 'terça.' The word ‘sábado’ is derived from the Hebrew ‘Shabbat.’ The word ‘domingo’ originates from the Latin ‘dies dominicus’ or ‘dominica,’ meaning 'the Lord's day.’ The union of Jewish culture with Christian culture resulted in the reservation of two different days (Saturday and Sunday) for rest, according to the Western calendar.

The second word ‘-feira,’ is often omitted in everyday conversations and we simply say: ‘segunda,’ ‘terça,’ etc.

The business days of the week in Portuguese are called ‘dias úteis’ (literally, useful days), and they are all feminine nouns (a segunda-feira, a terça-feira, etc.). The weekend is called ‘fim de semana’ and includes ‘o sábado’ and ‘o domingo’ which are masculine nouns.When these days are preceded by prepositions (a, em), the article before them contracts with the preposition.

The preposition ‘em’ is used to say ‘on’ that day.

• 📆 Na segunda-feira eu tenho uma aula de Inglês. (On Monday I have an English class.)
• 📆 No domingo vou ao cinema. (On Sunday I go/I'll go to the cinema.)
• 📆 No sábado passado fui ao teatro. (Last Saturday I went to the theatre.)
• 🏖️ Na próxima sexta vou de férias. (Next Friday I'm going on vacation.)

The preposition ‘a’ is used when we want to say that every specific day we do something. The contracted forms are ‘à,’ ‘às,’ ‘ao’ and ‘aos.’ Both the singular form (à segunda-feira) and the plural form (às segundas-feiras) have the same meaning (on Mondays), but it’s more common to use the plural form. The phrase ‘todas as segundas-feiras’ (every Monday), or ‘todos os sábados’ (every Saturday) is also possible.

• À segunda estudo inglês. (On Mondays I study English.)
• 🎲 Às terças jogo futebol. (On Tuesdays I play football.)
• 📆 Aos sábados não trabalho. (On Saturdays I don’t work.)
• 📆 Todos os domingos arrumo a casa. (Every Sunday I tidy up the house.)

Using both contractions in one sentence we could say:

• 💼 Não trabalho aos domingos mas no próximo domingo vou trabalhar. (I don't work on Sundays but I will work next Sunday.)