{"id":1450,"date":"2012-06-24T09:00:38","date_gmt":"2012-06-24T13:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/?p=1450"},"modified":"2014-08-06T10:07:32","modified_gmt":"2014-08-06T14:07:32","slug":"the-days-of-the-week-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/the-days-of-the-week-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"The Days of The Week – Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy Sunday everyone!<\/p>\n

I am sure you all know the names of the days of the week in English already as these are some of the most common words people learn in a new language, but there is a lot more to know about the days of the week in English than just their names!\u00a0 So, today I am going to start a three-part series looking at the days of the week in English.<\/p>\n

To begin let’s look at where the seven days of the week get their names.\u00a0 Before reading any further you should know that the English language is part of the a group of languages that are called ‘Germanic languages’ and that means many of the words in English relate back to the culture that surrounded the speakers of Germanic languages in the past.<\/p>\n

The days of the week:<\/p>\n

Sunday<\/strong>
\nThis day traces its name back to the original connection between the sun and the sun’s connection to the beginning of things; in this case ‘the beginning’ the sun is connected to is the beginning of the week.\u00a0 This day was originally called “the sun’s day.”<\/p>\n

Monday<\/strong>
\nThis day is connect to another celestial* body, the moon.\u00a0 This day was originally considered to be “the moon’s day.”\u00a0 Can you see how \u201cmoon’s day\u201d came to be pronounced ‘moonsday’ and then ‘Monday’?<\/p>\n

Tuesday<\/strong>
\nIn old English this day was called “Tiw’s day.” Tiw was a one-handed god associated with combat or fighting.<\/p>\n

Wednesday<\/strong>
\nThis is the ancient day of the Germanic god ‘Woden’ who was a prominent god of the Anglo-Saxons in England until the seventh century.\u00a0 Again here you can see how the word slowly changed over time: Woden’sday –> Wodensday –> Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Thursday<\/strong>
\nWhat was once known as “Thor’s day” is now known as Thursday.\u00a0 This day is named for the Germanic god of thunder.<\/p>\n

Friday<\/strong>
\nThis day is named for the Norse goddess Frige.\u00a0 The Norse name for the planet Venus was Friggjarstjarna, which means “Frigg’s star.”\u00a0 In Latin languages the name for\u00a0 this day is also connect to the planet Venus, as in the French “vendredi” or Italian “venerd\u00ec.”<\/p>\n

Saturday<\/strong>
\nThis is the only day of the week in English to maintain any connection to and influence from Roman times.\u00a0 Saturday is named after the Roman god Saturn.\u00a0 Saturn is also of course a celestial body; it is the name of a planet.<\/p>\n

These are the days of the week in English, but which day of the week is the first day of the week to English speakers?\u00a0 This depends on who you ask.\u00a0 Generally Sunday is considered the first day of the week as most calendars in the United States start on Sunday and end on Saturday (with the days of the week running horizontally across the page).\u00a0 Some people do think of Monday as the first day of the week because it is the first day of the working week in Western culture.\u00a0 The workweek in America (and most Western cultures) runs from Monday to Friday.\u00a0 Saturday and Sunday are the weekend and many people have these days off from work.<\/p>\n

No matter what day of the week it is, it is always a good day to practice your English.\u00a0 Reading this blog is a great way to practice English, but be sure to also check out the many resources Transparent Language<\/a> has to help you learn English<\/a>.<\/p>\n

*celestial = related to outer space or the heavens<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Happy Sunday everyone! I am sure you all know the names of the days of the week in English already as these are some of the most common words people learn in a new language, but there is a lot more to know about the days of the week in English than just their names!\u00a0…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":1451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[135139,135370],"tags":[218770],"class_list":["post-1450","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-language","category-english-vocabulary","tag-the-days-of-the-week"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/85"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1450"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4127,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450\/revisions\/4127"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}