Days of the week in Arabic
Arabic · Early Years · The School
Counting the days
Most Arabic days use a number, counted from Sunday. يَوْم الأَحَد (yawm al-aḥad) is Sunday, day one. يَوْم الاثْنَيْن (yawm al-ithnayn) is Monday, day two. يَوْم الثُّلاثاء (yawm ath-thulāthāʾ) is Tuesday, day three. Say all three names slowly, one after another.
Spotting the pattern
Notice ithnayn sounds like ithnān, the word for two. Notice thulāthāʾ sounds like thalātha, the word for three. Most Arabic day names are simply built on numbers you already know, said in almost the same way.
Friday breaks the pattern
يَوْم الجُمُعة (yawm al-jumʿa) is Friday. It does NOT come from a number. Jumʿa means "gathering". Friday is the day of the weekly communal prayer. It is the one day of the week with its own special name, not a counted one.
Find out today's day using the count. Say it is Tuesday. Count: aḥad (Sunday, one), ithnayn (Monday, two), thulāthāʾ (Tuesday, three). So today is yawm ath-thulāthāʾ. Try the same for tomorrow. Only stop and switch to the special word if you land on Friday. This one pattern gets you most of the week, almost for free, once you already know how to count.