Learning basic French is not that difficult and by now you probably already know several French words such as BONJOUR-Hello or OUI- Yes among others. If you do know these simple French words, it is now upon you to build on you french vocabulary. One of the fundamental areas in learning basic French is to learn the French days of the week or le jours de la semaine (pronounced : jur de la soh mah) which is part of the French Calendar or Le Calendrier. It is important to note that although the days of the week have been capitalized for grammar purposes, in French they are not capitalized. In the French language asking what day it is, would be said as ‘It is which day today?’ or C’est quel jour aujourd’hui?”(Pronounced: say kel jur oh jur du ee)
Monday in English translates to Lundi in French (pronounced ‘Luhn dee’) and it is considered by the French people to be the first day of the week as opposed to Sunday in other regions. It could be used in a sentence as follows, Aujourd’hui nous sommes Lundi which is directly translated as today we are Monday but actually means today is Monday. The name Lundi is derived from the moon. The second day of the week, Tuesday is Mardi (pronounced Mahr Dee). The name mardi happens to be derived from Mars which is one of the planets within the solar system. It could be used in a phrase as follows Hier nous étions Dimanche meaning ‘tomorrow will be Tuesday’.
Wednesday, which is the third day of the week, is mercredi (pronounced mare cra dee). The term Mercredi is a derivative connotation of the planet Mercury. Jeudi is the French name for Thursday which is the fourth day of the week. It is pronounced as juh – dee with the ‘j’ being pronounced as very softly. It can be used as follows in a phase, C’est quel jour aujourd’hui? C’est aujord hui jeudi. The fifth day of the week on the French calendar is Friday which is known as venredi (pronounced von druh dee.) The term venredi originates from the planet Venus. The first day of the weekend is Saturday which is known as Samedi (pronounced sam dee) in French. The planet which is denoted by the name samedi is Saturn. The last day of the week in the French calendar is known as dimanche (pronounced deemahnsh). The term dimanche denotes the sun which is the source of life and In relation to this, Sunday represents not only the end of a week but the birth or source of a new week.
Other terms that relate to the days of the week are; today – aujourd’hui (pronounced: oh jur du ee), Yesterday – hier (pronounced: ee err) and tomorrow – demain (pronounced: doh mah). The French days of the week are clearly related to the astrological perspective which the ancient Latin and Greek civilizations revered very much and which was later adopted by the French. Once one is able to grasp these terms and phrases, it will be possible to move on to other areas of the French language.