Days, dates and time in Arabic
The Arabic week is counted rather than named: Sunday is day one. Dates and the clock then reuse the cardinal and ordinal numbers you already know, with the endings that come with a following noun.
Updated 8 October 2026
A week that counts from Sunday
| Day | Arabic | Said | Means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday | الأحد | al-aḥad | the first (أحد, one) |
| Monday | الاثنين | al-ithnayn | the second (اثنان, two) |
| Tuesday | الثلاثاء | ath-thulāthāʾ | the third (ثلاثة) |
| Wednesday | الأربعاء | al-arbiʿāʾ | the fourth (أربعة) |
| Thursday | الخميس | al-khamīs | the fifth (خمسة) |
| Friday | الجمعة | al-jumʿa | the gathering, the day of congregational prayer |
| Saturday | السبت | as-sabt | the sabbath |
Usually with يوم (day) in front: يوم الخميس, on Thursday. In much of the Arab world the weekend is Friday and Saturday and the working week starts on Sunday, the day the name calls first; a few countries, the UAE among them, have moved to a Saturday and Sunday weekend.
The months
The same Gregorian month has different names across the Arab world. The fourth column is the Islamic (Hijri) calendar, a lunar year of twelve months that moves against the Gregorian one, so its months do not line up with the others.
| Month | Egypt and the Gulf | The Levant and Iraq | Hijri month (in order) |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | يناير | كانون الثاني | محرم |
| February | فبراير | شباط | صفر |
| March | مارس | آذار | ربيع الأول |
| April | أبريل | نيسان | ربيع الآخر |
| May | مايو | أيار | جمادى الأولى |
| June | يونيو | حزيران | جمادى الآخرة |
| July | يوليو | تموز | رجب |
| August | أغسطس | آب | شعبان |
| September | سبتمبر | أيلول | رمضان |
| October | أكتوبر | تشرين الأول | شوال |
| November | نوفمبر | تشرين الثاني | ذو القعدة |
| December | ديسمبر | كانون الأول | ذو الحجة |
Reading a date
In writing, the day is often an ordinal: في الخامس من مايو, on the fifth of May. In speech and on forms, the cardinal is common too. The year is a full number after عام or سنة; see the questions below for 2026. Big numbers in that position change their endings, which is set out on hundreds, thousands and a million.
The clock
- الساعة الواحدة: one o’clock (the cardinal, feminine)
- الساعة الثانية to الساعة الثانية عشرة: two to twelve o’clock (ordinals, feminine)
- والربع quarter past, والنصف half past, إلا ربعا quarter to
The ordinals themselves are on the ordinal numbers page.
Questions
What are the days of the week in Arabic?
الأحد (Sunday), الاثنين (Monday), الثلاثاء (Tuesday), الأربعاء (Wednesday), الخميس (Thursday), الجمعة (Friday), السبت (Saturday). Five of them are numbers: the week counts from Sunday as day one, so Monday is literally the second and Thursday the fifth. Friday and Saturday have names of their own.
Which month names should I learn?
It depends on the country. Egypt, Sudan and the Gulf use names taken from the European months (يناير, فبراير). Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Iraq use the older Syriac names (كانون الثاني, شباط). Algeria and Tunisia use French-derived forms such as جانفي for January. Newspapers often print two sets side by side. The Hijri months (محرم to ذو الحجة) are a separate, lunar calendar used for religious dates.
How do you tell the time in Arabic?
With الساعة and an ordinal that agrees with it in the feminine: الساعة الثالثة, three o’clock. One o’clock is the exception, الساعة الواحدة. Add والنصف for half past, والربع for quarter past, والثلث for twenty past, and إلا ربعا for quarter to: الساعة الخامسة إلا ربعا is a quarter to five.
How do you say a year such as 2026?
As an ordinary number after عام or سنة: عام ألفين وستة وعشرين. Because the number follows a noun in a construct, the dual ألفان becomes ألفين and the ten takes -īn. Years are not read in pairs of digits as in English twenty twenty-six.