Days of the Week in Czech

It's time for my first blog concerning the Czech language and in this post I'm going cover the days of the week and their origins. The days of the week and, more noticeably, the months of the year, are very different in Czech. When I was learning them I found them quite tricky to memorise and produce instantly in everyday conversation.


I'll give the days in the nominative form, to be used in phrases such as 'Friday is a good day', where the day of the week is the subject of the sentence.  I'll also give it in the locative form, used in phrases such as 'On Saturday', which is obviously much more common.

Monday

Nominative- pondělí

Locative (on Monday)- v pondělí

Origin: Literally 'po nedělí' meaning 'after Sunday.

Tuesday

Nominative- úterý

Locative- v úterý

Origin: From an old slavonic root meaning 'second', similar to Russian 'vtoroj'.

Wednesday

Nominative- středa

Locative- v středu

Origin: 'Střed' is the Czech word for 'the middle', so 'the middle of the week'. Easy to remember!

Thursday

Nominative- čvrtek

Locative- ve čvrtek

Origin: From 'čvrtý' meaning 'fourth', so literally 'čvrtek' is the fourth day of the week.

Friday

Nominative- pátek

Locative- v pátek

Origin: From 'pátý' meaning 'fifth' so like 'čvrtek', 'pátek' means the fifth day of the week.

Saturday

Nominative- sobota

Locative- v sobotu

Origin: The Sabbath day.

Sunday

Nominative- nedělí

Locative- v nedělí

Origin: From the negative of the verb 'dělat' meaning 'to do' so 'nedělat - nedělí' the day of doing nothing!


In my next language post I'll cover the months of the year and their derivations, if you thought the days of the week were strange, just wait 'till you see the months!

References- Hola, Lida- Czech Step By Step p. 34