In Portuguese, the naming of os dias da semanathe days of the week does not take inspiration from the planets and gods, as is the case for many other languages. Instead, they are simply numbered.
The origin of the names of the days of the week in Portuguese
The numbering of each weekday in Portuguese might have to do with ancient Easter celebrations, in which people were granted seven days of rest, starting from Sunday. Sunday would then be called, in Latin, feria prima (first free day), while the day after would be feria secunda (second free day) and so on. These Latin roots are evident today in the Portuguese words for the days of the week.
Domingo and sábado didn’t remain numbered. DomingoSunday would never be referred to as primeira-feira! But they still mark the first and last day of the week, respectively, as you’ll notice in most calendars. The word sábadoSaturday is related to the Jewish Shabbat, or Sabbath, a day of rest and worship.
Business Days vs. Weekends
The business days of the week are called dias úteisweekdays , which translates literally to “useful days”. These include all of the days that end in -feira, from segunda-feiraMonday to sexta-feiraFriday
Sábado and domingo are the days of o fim de semanathe weekend , when most schools and workplaces are closed.
Apart from os fins de semanathe weekends , the only times people are free from school or work is on feriadospublic holidays or during as fériasholidays, vacations or if you can tirar um dia de folgatake a day off . Férias is another Portuguese word that comes directly from the Latin term feria.
The days of the week in everyday life
“Que dia é hoje?” “Hoje é sexta-feira.””What day is it today?” “Today is Friday.”
In informal situations, the -feira, is often omitted, because the first part of the name is enough to identify it. Being shared by all five business days, -feira doesn’t do much to differentiate them, so it’s perfectly normal to shorten this to:
Hoje é sextaToday is Friday
Similar to English, the days of the week in Portuguese can also be abbreviated. You can shorten all of them to their first three letters to get:
- Dom.
- Seg.
- Ter.
- Qua.
- Qui.
- Sex.
- Sáb.
Since the days are named sequentially, an even shorter abbreviation can be used for Monday through Friday:
- 2.ª
- 3.ª
- 4.ª
- 5.ª
- 6.ª
Because all dias úteisweekdays are considered feminine nouns, the abbreviations in the latter group end with a feminine indicator (ª). Sábado and domingo are masculine nouns, however. Pay attention to the gender agreement in each of the following examples:
Na próxima terça, tenho um teste de Inglês.Next Tuesday, I have an English test.
No próximo sábado, tenho um encontro!Next Saturday, I have a date!
I found the history of how the days became numbered as they are and information about everyday use interesting. Knowing this type of background and use in the context of everyday life helps me anchor my learning.
Concordo! 🙂
Si!
Sim, saber o porque é muito útil. Acho que ja nao vou estar con tão confusão. Obrigada!
I enjoyed learning the history of the days of the week and I agree with Maureen in that it does help with retaining the words. I hope where relevant, that you will continue to give us this information.
I have just begun learning Portuguese and I find your teaching tips to be very useful and interactive. Thank you
Thank you so much, we’re glad to hear it!
Very interesting background info.
You might like to change the audio with ‘hoje é sexta’ because he actually says ‘hoje é sexta-feira’
Thank you! I just flagged that audio to be corrected.
Hello,
Please kindly confirm. So in Portuguese, we say: ‘Domingo eu vou a tua casa’ but not ‘No Domingo eu vou a tua casa’?
Thank you.
Hello,
And one more thing please.
Here we have: ‘O novo ano começa amanhã de manhã’.
And we also have: ‘Feliz Ano Novo’.
Please explain the difference in use of order of nouns and adjectives.
Many thanks.
And happy new year.
Olá, feliz ano novo!
‘Domingo eu vou a tua casa’ and ‘No Domingo eu vou a tua casa’ are both perfectly fine. We can omit the preposition ‘no’ or just leave it there, with no difference in meaning. As for word order, adjectives are generally quite flexible in this regard. The most usual order would be noun first and then adjective, which is what you see in “Feliz Ano Novo”, but the adjective may also come before. With some adjectives (not many), this affects the meaning of the sentence, as you can read here: Introduction to Portuguese Adjectives
Muito obrigada pela sua explicação. Bom ano!
“Féria” can also be used as a synonym of “Mercado” “market”. I think it more likely that Saturday was historically market-day, and that the numbers refer to how many days “after market-day” it is: Monday being the 2nd day after market, Tuesday 3rd day, etc. Sábado and Domingo got changed at a later date after the influence of the church grew.
Wow I didn’t know about the shorter abbr becomes numbers 2a, 3a, 4a, 5a, etc. I have seen them before on some portuguese paperwork document and did wonder what they mean! That explains that mystery now.
Well, AAs far asI AM concerned the fact that Portuguese uses 2a Feira,3a Feira,etc Shows that Portuguese people are a Country of Merchants otherwise the data of the week would be named after Gods like in other languages .
I have allways seen this great difference.
Naming the dates in Portuguese like Segunda Feira , Terça Feira etc. Shows the Country to be one of Merchants.
Olá Maureen! Concordo contigo! 🙂
According to Marco Neves book on the Portuguese almanac the names originate from a bishop in the 9th century who thought the Latin names weren’t christian and therefore came up with segunda-feira etc.
I think this article was very interesting as well as informative. I hope you keep up the good work 👍🙂
Fascinating info and abbreviations! I love the background you give on some of the words and expressions. 😉
Good.
Hi,
Could you tell me how I would say ” My birthday is on the sixth of October”?
Would it be :- O meu aniversário é no dia seis de outubro? Thanks in advance.
Olá! Yes, that’s perfect. The more casual, shortest option would be “Faço anos a seis de outubro” 🙂