Days of the week in Vietnamese

The days of the week in Vietnamese are mostly numbers: Monday is thứ Hai ("second day"), Tuesday is thứ Ba ("third day") and so on up to Saturday, thứ Bảy. Sunday is the odd one out, called Chủ Nhật, and once you know that, the whole week falls into place.

The full list

• Monday: thứ Hai (tuh HIGH)
• Tuesday: thứ Ba (tuh BAH)
• Wednesday: thứ Tư (tuh TUH)
• Thursday: thứ Năm (tuh NUHM)
• Friday: thứ Sáu (tuh SOW, rising tone)
• Saturday: thứ Bảy (tuh BAI, dipping tone)
• Sunday: Chủ Nhật (choo NYUHT)

The word thứ marks an ordinal, a bit like "-th" in English. The pronunciation hints are rough. Vietnamese has six tones, and its vowels don't match English perfectly, so listen to a native speaker when you can. The six tones guide is a good companion to this list.

Why does Monday count as the second day?

In this system the week starts on Sunday, so Monday is day two. Sunday gets a name instead of a number. Chủ Nhật is usually explained as "the Lord's day," a naming pattern linked to the Catholic calendar that came into wide use in Vietnam. You don't need the history to use it, but it explains why the count starts at two and why there's no "thứ Một."

The Wednesday trap

If you've already learned Vietnamese numbers, you know that four is bốn. So you'd expect Wednesday to be "thứ Bốn." It isn't. It's thứ Tư, using an older, Sino-Vietnamese word for four that survives in ordinals and a few fixed phrases.

The same thing happens with "fourth" in general: "the fourth" is thứ tư, not "thứ bốn." So learning Wednesday correctly also teaches you how to say "fourth" anywhere.

The other days use the ordinary numbers you already know: hai, ba, năm, sáu, bảy.

Useful phrases with days

• Hôm nay là thứ mấy? – What day is it today? (hohm nay lah tuh MAY)
• Hôm nay là thứ Sáu. – Today is Friday.
• Thứ Hai tuần sau – next Monday (literally "Monday of next week")
• Thứ Bảy tuần trước – last Saturday
• Cuối tuần – the weekend (literally "end of the week")
• Ngày mai – tomorrow; hôm qua – yesterday

Notice the question word mấy ("how many" or "which number"). Because the days are numbers, you're really asking "today is the how-many-th day?" That pattern pays off later, since you'll use mấy again for asking the time ("Mấy giờ rồi?" means "What time is it?").

Writing days the short way

On calendars, school timetables, shop signs and text messages, days are often abbreviated:

• T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, T7 for Monday through Saturday
• CN for Sunday

A sign that says "Mở cửa T2 – T7" means "Open Monday to Saturday." A shop that lists "CN: nghỉ" is closed Sunday (nghỉ means rest or off).

Capitalization varies. You'll see "thứ hai," "Thứ Hai" and "thứ Hai" in real writing. Style guides differ, so don't stress about it as a learner.

Putting days with dates

Vietnamese dates run from small to big: day, then month, then year. A full date often starts with the weekday:

Thứ Bảy, ngày 6 tháng 2 năm 2027 – Saturday, February 6, 2027.

That date happens to be Tết, the Lunar New Year, in 2027. Months follow the same number pattern as the days: tháng Một (January), tháng Hai (February), and so on. Watch for the same "four" quirk: April is tháng Tư. You'll also hear tháng Giêng for the first month of the lunar calendar, which comes up a lot around Tết.

An easy way to remember them

Hold up fingers as you count from Monday. Monday is two fingers ("hai"), Tuesday three ("ba"), and so on to Saturday at seven ("bảy"). Sunday is the day you put your hand down and rest, and it gets its own name.

Then drill only the two things that break the pattern: Wednesday is tư, not bốn, and Sunday is Chủ Nhật. Everything else is plain counting.

Regional notes

The day names are the same across Vietnam. What changes is the accent. Southern speech merges some tones that Northern speech keeps apart, so thứ Bảy can sound a little different in Saigon than in Hanoi, and Southern speakers often pronounce the "v" or "gi" sounds in other words differently too. If you hear the same day said two ways, you're probably hearing a North-South difference, which the accent guide explains.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Saying "thứ Một" for Sunday. It doesn't exist; Sunday is always Chủ Nhật.
• Saying "thứ Bốn" for Wednesday. Use thứ Tư.
• Dropping thứ. "Hai" alone just means two, so keep thứ in front when you mean a day.

Practice by saying today's day in Vietnamese every morning: "Hôm nay là thứ..." takes five seconds and sticks fast.