Back in April I wrote a post on how to say days of the month, such as 20th and 30th. In today’s short post I’ll talk about the days of the week.
I’m sure you know the words for days of the week in English, but I’ll write them down here just in case:
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
And this is me saying them:
Simple, right? Well sort of. A lot of English learners confuse Tuesday and Thursday, both in writing and in speaking. I even saw a sign on a shop that said it was closed early on Thuesday. I wish I’d taken a photo. Perhaps they meant both Tuesday and Thursday! As well as having different spellings, Tuesday and Thursday are pronounced quite differently. In British English (which I speak), the sound at the beginning of Tuesday is similar to the ch in chop or change; Americans say Tuesday with a simple t sound at the beginning. Thursday, however, starts with that difficult th sound, as in the words thick and thin. The vowel sounds in the two words are also different: Tues is like blues; Thurs is like hers.
Here I say just Tuesday and Thursday. It’s important that you make the difference:
Wednesday can also be a difficult day. The spelling is a little crazy. Most English speakers don’t pronounce the first d at all; we say the word as if it was written Wensday:
Finally, Monday, the day that we all hate. Don’t be fooled by the o. The first vowel sound in Monday is exactly the same as in the one in Sunday: the two words rhyme (cue a slightly cheesy hit from the eighties). Here I say Sunday and Monday:
Enjoy your day, whatever day it is!