Learn about the days of the week
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| Hi, everyone! I'm Alisha. |
| みなさん、こんにちは。Alisha です。 (Mina-san, kon'nichiwa. Alisha desu.) |
| Welcome to another Whiteboard Lesson! |
| In this lesson, we'll learn the days of the week in Japanese. Please pay attention to how they're pronounced. |
| Let's start by looking at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Okay, let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. Let's go through the days of the week one by one. First, we have… |
| げつようび (getsu-yōbi) |
| [Slowly] げつようび (getsu-yōbi) |
| げつようび (getsu-yōbi) |
| This means "Monday." |
| You'll see with all of the words of the week in this lesson, they end with ようび (yōbi), this ようび (yōbi). Make sure to pronounce the う (u) in ようび (yōbi). So not よび (yobi), but ようび (yōbi). |
| Let's look at this word again: げつようび (getsu-yōbi), "Monday" |
| Let's move to the next word now. |
| かようび (ka-yōbi) |
| [Slowly] かようび (ka-yōbi) |
| かようび (ka-yōbi) |
| This means "Tuesday." |
| かようび (ka-yōbi) |
| Next, we have… |
| すいようび (sui-yōbi) |
| [Slowly] すいようび (sui-yōbi) |
| すいようび (sui-yōbi) |
| This means "Wednesday." |
| すいようび (sui-yōbi) |
| Next is… |
| もくようび (moku-yōbi) |
| [Slowly] もくようび (moku-yōbi) |
| もくようび (moku-yōbi) |
| もくようび (moku-yōbi) means "Thursday." |
| Next is… |
| きんようび (kin-yōbi) |
| [Slowly] きんようび (kin-yōbi) |
| きんようび (kin-yōbi) |
| This means "Friday." |
| Note, in this one we have this ん (n) sound, so きんようび (kin-yōbi), make sure to pronounce this ん (n) clearly as well. |
| きんようび (kin-yōbi) |
| Next is… |
| どようび (do-yōbi) |
| [Slowly] どようび (do-yōbi) |
| どようび (do-yōbi) |
| This means "Saturday." |
| Be careful with this one, notice there is no う (u) after the ど (do) here, so not どうようび (dō-yōbi), but どようび (do-yōbi), "Saturday." |
| And finally, we have… |
| にちようび (nichi-yōbi) |
| [Slowly] にちようび (nichi-yōbi) |
| にちようび (nichi-yōbi) |
| This means "Sunday." |
| So, as you can see, each day of the week ends with this ようび (yōbi). So, you can make sure to practice this pronunciation a lot in this lesson. With these vocabulary words in mind, let's take a look now at the dialogue for this lesson. |
| Okay, now let's take a look at the dialogue for this lesson. So, this dialogue is between two people. The first person asks a question. |
| きょうは なんようびですか。(Kyō wa nan-yōbi desu ka.) |
| きょうは なんようびですか。(Kyō wa nan-yōbi desu ka.) |
| Which means "What day of the week is it today?" |
| So, here we have きょうは (kyō wa). きょう (kyō) means "today," and は (wa) tells us this is the subject of the sentence. |
| きょうは なんようびですか。(Kyō wa nan-yōbi desu ka.) |
| Maybe you can already see right here, this ようび (yōbi) is the same ようび (yōbi) that we saw in all of the vocabulary words for the days of the week in this lesson. Before this, we have なん (nan), so you might recognize this as "what". You might also know the word なに (nani), which also means "what." |
| But in this sentence, we have きょうは なんようびですか (kyō wa nan-yōbi desu ka), we end it with this ですか (desu ka); so か (ka) shows us it's a question, and です (desu) is kind of our "to be" verb here. |
| So, きょうは なんようびですか。(Kyō wa nan-yōbi desu ka.) "What day of the week is it today?" |
| We respond with a pattern like this: |
| きょうは すいようびです。(Kyō wa sui-yōbi desu.) |
| きょうは すいようびです。(Kyō wa sui-yōbi desu.) |
| So "today is Wednesday." |
| In red, we have すいようび (sui-yōbi). |
| すいようび (sui-yōbi), which means "Wednesday." |
| We have the same ようび (yōbi) to mark the day of the week here. すいようび (sui-yōbi) makes it "Wednesday." Again, we end this with です (desu). |
| So, "today is Wednesday." |
| Next, let's take a look at some more example responses to the question きょうは なんようびですか (kyō wa nan-yōbi desu ka), and then we'll take a look at a sample pattern that you can use to make your own responses. |
| Okay, let's take a look at some example responses that you can use to answer the question きょうは なんようびですか (kyō wa nan-yōbi desu ka). So, the first example is… |
| きょうは げつようびです。(Kyō wa getsu-yōbi desu.) |
| きょうは げつようびです。(Kyō wa getsu-yōbi desu.) |
| Which means "Today is Monday." |
| So again, in response to the question "What day is it today?" or "What day of the week is it today?", we have きょうは (kyō wa) or "today", and then げつようび (getsu-yōbi), げつようび (getsu-yōbi), which means "Monday," and we end it with です (desu) or "is", in this case. |
| So, きょうは げつようびです。(Kyō wa getsu-yōbi desu.) "Today is Monday." |
| Let's take a look at the second example here: |
| きょうは どようびです。(Kyō wa do-yōbi desu.) |
| きょうは どようびです。(Kyō wa do-yōbi desu.) |
| Or "Today is Saturday." |
| So again, we have きょうは (kyō wa) at the beginning of the sentence, so "today," and then we follow this with the day of the week vocabulary word, どようび (do-yōbi), in this case. |
| どようび (do-yōbi) |
| どようびです(do-yōbi desu) |
| So, "today is Saturday." |
| Great! So finally, let's take a look next at the sentence pattern that you can use to make your own responses to the question きょうは なんようびですか (kyō wa nan-yōbi desu ka). |
| Okay, let's take a look at the sentence pattern for this lesson. This sentence pattern is a sentence that you can use to respond to the question きょうは なんようびですか (kyō wa nan-yōbi desu ka). |
| So, the pattern is: |
| きょうは (Kyō wa), and then the day of the week vocabulary word, and finally, です (desu). |
| So, |
| きょうは (Kyō wa), [day of the week] です。 |
| (Kyō wa [day of the week] desu.) |
| This means "today is [day of the week]." |
| So you can enter in this part right here, the day of the week, any vocabulary word from the vocabulary section that we talked about earlier. Of course, it should be the day of the week that it is on that day. So, きょうは (Kyō wa [day of the week] です (desu), "today is [this day of the week]." |
| Okay, great. Let's take a look at an interesting cultural point related to the vocabulary words for this lesson. |
| So earlier, when we looked at the vocabulary, we looked at how each word has ようび (yōbi) in it. So this ようび (yōbi) refers to the day of the week. It means "day of the week," right? Each word has ようび (yōbi) in it. The interesting point here is about the part that comes before ようび (yōbi) in each word. So we have げつ (getsu), か (ka), すい (sui), きん (kin), ど (do), and にち (nichi), so yes, these are used with ようび (yōbi) to mark the day of the week, but these sounds that come before ようび (yōbi) also have a connection with astronomical words in Japanese. So they do have this connection to the day of the week, yes, but they also have an interesting connection to astronomy words in Japanese. |
| Also, in more advanced situations like when you're making plans or you're making schedules, you might hear native speakers dropping the ようび (yōbi) part of the word of the week and just using the げつ (getsu), か (ka), すい (sui) to refer to specific days of the week when they're making very quick plans for their schedule. So this is a very interesting cultural point about these simple vocabulary words. |
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