Days of the Week and Months in Turkish: Names, Dates and 'On Monday'

The days of the week in Turkish are pazartesi (Monday), salı, çarşamba, perşembe, cuma, cumartesi and pazar (Sunday), and the months run from ocak (January) to aralık (December). They are written in lowercase unless they are part of a specific date such as 14 Ekim 2026.

The week starts on Monday in Türkiye. Below are both lists with pronunciation hints, followed by the grammar you need to use them: “on Monday”, “in May”, “every Friday”, and how to say and write dates.

Pronunciation hints are rough English approximations: uh stands for the Turkish ı, ö and ü are as in German, and ğ lengthens the vowel before it. To hear the real sounds, use the Turkish alphabet tool.

Days of the week (günler)

A memory trick: ertesi means “the following one”, so the two “after” days, pazartesi and cumartesi, come straight after pazar and cuma.

Related time words

Months (aylar)

The word for “month” is ay (which also means “moon”), and “year” is yıl or sene.

“On Monday”, “in May”: the grammar

Days

• The natural form: pazartesi günü (lit. “Monday day”). Pazartesi günü işe başlıyorum. — I start work on Monday.
• The bare form: Pazartesi görüşürüz. — See you on Monday.
• Habits: pazartesileri, pazartesi günleri or her pazartesi (on Mondays, every Monday). Cumartesileri pazara gidiyoruz. — We go to the market on Saturdays.
• Next / last: haftaya salı or gelecek salı (next Tuesday); geçen salı (last Tuesday).
• Until and from: cumaya kadar (until Friday) uses the dative case; pazartesiden cumaya kadar (from Monday to Friday) adds the ablative.
• Moved to: Toplantı perşembeye ertelendi. — The meeting was postponed to Thursday.

You will occasionally hear the locative on days (cumada), but cuma günü is the standard form.

Months

Months take the locative case for “in”: ocakta, ekimde, mayısta, ağustosta. The suffix follows vowel harmony (ekim-de, ocak-ta) and starts with t after a voiceless consonant like k or s. You can also say ocak ayında (“in the month of January”), which is common in formal speech and news.

• Mayısta İstanbul’a gidiyorum. — I’m going to Istanbul in May.
• Ekim ayında okul başlıyor. — School starts in October.
• Eylül sonunda taşınıyoruz. — We’re moving at the end of September.
• Ayın başında kira ödenir. — Rent is paid at the beginning of the month.

Dates

Turkish dates go day, month, year: 14 Ekim 2026 (on dört ekim iki bin yirmi altı). In a specific date the month and day names are capitalised: 29 Ekim 1923, 18 Kasım Çarşamba. When you add a suffix to a specific date, use an apostrophe: 14 Ekim’de (on 14 October). Without a number there is no capital and no apostrophe: ekimde (in October).

Ayın on dördü is a possessive structure, “the fourteen of the month”, built with the genitive case. Dates use ordinary numbers (bir, on dört), not ordinals, so 1 October is bir ekim or ekimin biri, never “birinci ekim”. Ordinals (birinci, ikinci, üçüncü) are for things like ayın ilk haftası (the first week of the month) or ikinci pazartesi (the second Monday). The numbers page covers both, and the number converter spells out any number for you.

Seasons and “how often”

The four seasons round out the calendar vocabulary:

Yazın (in summer) and kışın (in winter) are fixed adverbs; the other two use the locative. For weather words to go with them, see weather and seasons in Turkish.

To say how often something happens, Turkish puts the period in the locative and the count after it:

• Haftada iki kez yüzüyorum. — I swim twice a week.
• Ayda bir annemi arıyorum. — I call my mother once a month.
• Yılda bir tatile çıkıyoruz. — We go on holiday once a year.
• Her gün Türkçe çalışıyorum. — I study Turkish every day.
• İki günde bir spor yapıyorum. — I exercise every other day.

Cultural notes

• Friday: many people send Hayırlı cumalar (“blessed Friday”) messages. Shops and offices are open as usual; the weekend is Saturday and Sunday.
• Market days: neighbourhood markets are often named after their day: salı pazarı (the Tuesday market), cumartesi pazarı. Here pazar means “market”, not Sunday. Our bazaar shopping guide has the phrases you need there.
• National days are often referred to by their date alone: 29 Ekim is Republic Day and 23 Nisan is National Sovereignty and Children’s Day.

Dialogue: scheduling a lesson

Öğrenci: Hocam, haftaya dersimiz hangi gün? Teacher, which day is our lesson next week?

Öğretmen: Salı günü işim var. Çarşamba saat beşte olur mu? I’m busy on Tuesday. Is Wednesday at five OK?

Öğrenci: Olur. Kasımda da ders yapacak mıyız? Fine. Will we have lessons in November too?

Öğretmen: Kasımın ilk iki haftasında tatildeyim. Ayın 17’sinde dönüyorum. I’m on holiday for the first two weeks of November. I’m back on the 17th.

Öğrenci: Tamam, o zaman 18 Kasım Çarşamba başlayalım mı? OK, shall we start again on Wednesday 18 November then?

Öğretmen: Olur, görüşürüz! Sounds good, see you!

Hocam (“my teacher”) is how students address teachers, and it is also used for doctors and academics.

Common mistakes

• Capitalising in running text. Salı günü geliyorum, not Salı Günü, unless it starts the sentence.
• Apostrophes on plain day and month names. pazartesiden, mayısta (no apostrophe). The apostrophe only appears after a number: 14 Ekim’de.
• Mixing up pazar and pazartesi. Pazar is Sunday; pazartesi is Monday, the day after.
• Mayısda. After s, the locative becomes -ta: mayısta.
• Ordinals in dates. 1 October is 1 Ekim (bir ekim), not birinci ekim.
• Misreading haftaya. It means “next week”, not “a week”.

Mini-quiz

1. Say “on Thursday”.
2. Say “in August”.
3. Write “on 23 April” in Turkish.
4. What does pazartesileri mean?
5. Which day comes after cuma?
6. Answer Bugün ayın kaçı? for the 5th.

Answers: 1. Perşembe günü. 2. Ağustosta (or ağustos ayında). 3. 23 Nisan’da. 4. “On Mondays”, every Monday. 5. Cumartesi. 6. Bugün ayın beşi.

Next steps

Dates and appointments always need a time too, so continue with telling time in Turkish, and practice reading numbers aloud with the number converter.