Days, months and dates in Italian

The days of the week

In Italy the week starts on Monday. Unlike in English, days are written with a small letter. They are all masculine except la domenica (Sunday). From lunedì to venerdì the stress falls on the last syllable, which carries an accent.

With or without the article? Without the article it is one particular day, the next one: sabato vado al cinema (this Saturday). With the article it is a habit, every week: il sabato vado al cinema (on Saturdays). No preposition is needed before the day: ci vediamo venerdì (see you on Friday).

In the plural the days with an accent do not change: il lunedì, i lunedì. Sabato and domenica do: i sabati, le domeniche.

Where do the names come from? Lunedì is the day of the Moon (Luna), martedì of Mars, mercoledì of Mercury, giovedì of Jupiter, venerdì of Venus: -dì comes from Latin dies, day. Sabato comes from Hebrew shabbat and domenica from Latin dies dominica, the Lord’s day.

Months and seasons

Months are also written with a small letter and are all masculine: un gennaio freddo, un agosto caldo. There are four seasons.

In or a? With months both are fine: in agosto or ad agosto (ad before a vowel), a maggio or in maggio. With seasons you say in estate, in inverno, but also d’estate, d’inverno.

The gender of the seasons. La primavera (spring) and l’estate (summer) are feminine, l’autunno (autumn) and l’inverno (winter) are masculine. Astronomical seasons start around the 21st of the month (il 21 marzo), but in everyday life people think of the months in the table.

How to say the date

The date is said like this: article, day, month and year, always in this order. The day is an ordinary number (il tre maggio), not “the third”; only the first day of the month uses the ordinal: il primo maggio.

Day first, then month. In Italy 05/12 is il cinque dicembre (5 December), not May 12.

L’otto and l’undici. Otto and undici begin with a vowel, so the article becomes l’: l’otto marzo, l’undici settembre.

Years take the article: nel 2019 (in + il, in 2019), dal 2020 al 2024. In a full date, though, the year follows the month with no article: il 3 marzo 2026. In a letter or a document the day has no article either: Roma, 3 marzo 2026.

Yesterday, today, tomorrow

Stamattina and stasera are single words: questa mattina → stamattina (this morning), questa sera → stasera (this evening). In the same way you say stanotte (tonight).

Scorso (last) and prossimo (next) agree with the noun: il mese scorso, la settimana scorsa. Prossimo can also go before the noun: la prossima settimana = la settimana prossima.

How often?

Fa, tra and da

Fa (ago) looks back into the past and comes after the time expression: due anni fa. Tra (or fra: they are the same) looks forward into the future and comes before it: tra due anni (in two years).

Da + time, with the present tense. When an action started in the past and is still going on, Italian uses the present with da: studio italiano da due anni (I have been studying Italian for two years). You do not say per due anni.

Common mistakes

Exercises with instant feedback

30 sentences in three parts. Type only what is missing: your answer is checked as you type.

Part 1 · Days, months and seasons

Write the missing word.

Part 2 · Dates

Complete the date. Write numbers in words.

Part 3 · Yesterday, today, tomorrow, fa and tra

Write the missing word.

Use it in conversation