Days of the week in Russian

Hello, dear student!

Today I would like to devote our time to the names of days of the week in the Russian language. I'd like to give special consideration to the prepositions, which Russian-speaking people use for proper understanding of their speech and writing. Let's look at this more in detail:

Days of the week: Every day has its name in the Russian language. We have 7 days of the week like in all other languages, 2 of them are usually called "Выходные" [Vykhadnye] Weekend, and other days when people study, work, run in a rush and solve different urgent problems – are called "Будние дни" [Budnie dni] Weekdays or just "Будни" [Budni]. Every workday has its own interesting name, which has been made up historically and still exists.

Понедельник [Panidel'nik] - Monday
Вторник [Ftornik] - Tuesday
Среда [Srida] - Wednesday
Четверг [Chitverg] - Thursday
Пятница [Pyatnitsa] - Friday

Two last days are referred to weekend, when people usually rest, go to cinema, parks, skating rinks, meet with friends in cafes, make visits or stay at home and do the cleaning. But there are also exceptions, when you can see a lot of people who hastily head to work or study both on Saturday and Sunday.

Суббота [Subota] - Saturday
Воскресенье [Vaskrisen'e] – Sunday

So what prepositions should we use with the Russian names of days of the week? Usually we use the preposition "B" / "ON", when we want to say that we are going to do something on one of these days, for example:

Я пойду в кино в воскресенье, а на работу - в понедельник. [Ya pajdu f kino f vaskrisen'e, a na rabotu - v panidel'nik] – I will go to the cinema on Sunday, but at work - on Monday.

Or another example with the preposition "B"/"ON":
В среду светило яркое солнце, а в четверг выпал снег. [F sredu svitila yarkae sontse, a f chitverg vypal snek] – It was shining brightly on Wednesday, but on Thursday the snow fell.

I'd like to note one interesting moment, which you should learn: all days of the week are used with the preposition "B"/"ON", except Вторник (Tuesday). This day of the week decided to stand out and be used in pair only with the preposition "BO"/"ON", for example:

Во вторник будет жарко [Fa ftornik budet zharka] – It is going to be hot on Tuesday.

If you say or write: В вторник – it would be a mistake.

One more preposition which is used with days of the week – "K" (BY) or "KO" (only with Tuesday). We use it when we want to know a result or time:

Я выполню эту работу ко вторнику [Ya vypalnyu ehtu rabotu ka ftorniku] – I will do this work by Tuesday.

К субботе я приготовлю пельмени [K subote ya prigatovlyu pil'meni] – I am going to cook pelmeni by Saturday.

I hope you will memorize all names of days of the week in Russian, and in the next articles I'm going to tell you why every day has such interesting name. After all, everything is logically related in the Russian language, and though it is difficult to learn, the language has many cognitive facts.