Fridays are generally for specific language posts: Greek and Latin. Maybe some others thrown in from time to time.

One of the things it can be hard to learn in a language is things like ‘days of the week’. Actually, if you are using the language daily in communication, these will get high repetition. In this post I present not only days of the week in Greek and Latin, but some simple phrases and questions that are designed for daily usage, not for a one-off “learn the days” exercise. I present Greek first, then Latin.

 

The week            ἡ ἑβδομάς, άδος

or alternatively τοῦ σαββάτου, or τῶν σαββάτων may be used for “of the week”

Sunday                 ἡ κυριακή

Monday               ἡ δευτέρα ἡμέρα

Tuesday               ἡ τρίτη ἡμέρα

Wednesday         ἡ τετάρτη ἡμέρα

Thursday              ἡ πέμπτη ἡμέρα

Friday                   ἡ παρασκευή

Saturday              τὸ σάββατον, ου

 

 

Relative days:

the day before yesterday                              πρῴην

yesterday                                                         χθές, ἐχθές

today                                                                 σήμερον (τήμερον in Attic)

tomorrow                                                        αὔριον

the day after tomorrow                                εἰς ἕνην, τῇ ἕνῃ (*)

the previous day                                             τῇ προτέρᾳ (ἡμέρᾳ)

the following day                                           τῇ ὑστεραίᾳ

* rarely attested, but found in Antiphon’s speechs, 6.21 for instance.

 

Some basic questions

What day is today?                                                       ποία ἡμέρα ἐστὶ σήμερον;

What day was yesterday?                                            ποία ἡμέρα ἦν χθές;

What day is tomorrow?                                               αὔριον ἔσται ποία ἡμέρα;

What will you do on the weekend?                           τοῦ τέλους τοῦ σαββάτου τί ποιήσεις;

What did you do last week?                                        τί ἐποίησας τῆς προτέρας ἑβδομάδος;

What are you doing the day after tomorrow?        τί ποίησεις τῇ ἕνῃ;

Did you go to school the day before yesterday?    πρὸς τὸν διδασκαλεῖον ἤλθες πρῴην;

I’ll do that the following day.                                     τοῦτο τῇ ὕστεραίᾳ ποιήσω

Will you go today?                                                        σήμερον πορεύσει;

 

How to practice?

I would suggest each day just asking oneself, or a partner – what day is it, what was yesterday, what will tomorrow be. And, if you’re writing anywhere, get into the habit of marking the day of the week and the date in Greek (I might do dates in a later post, you want ordinal numbers).

What do you think? If you notice any errors, please point them out.