Days of the Week in Korean: 월요일 to 일요일

Quick answer: The days of the week in Korean are 월요일 (Monday), 화요일 (Tuesday), 수요일 (Wednesday), 목요일 (Thursday), 금요일 (Friday), 토요일 (Saturday) and 일요일 (Sunday). Every one ends in 요일 (yoil), which simply means "day of the week," and the first syllable is the part you actually have to learn — 월요일 (woryoil) starts with 월, "moon."

That's the one idea worth walking away with: you are not memorizing seven long words. You are memorizing seven single syllables and gluing 요일 onto each of them. Once you see what those syllables mean, the list stops looking random.

The seven days and what they literally mean

The day names come from Sino-Korean roots — the same seven natural elements used in the traditional East Asian week.

Moon, fire, water, wood, metal, earth, sun. Say that order out loud a few times — 월화수목금토일 — because Koreans recite it exactly that way, as one chant, and you'll hear it that way when someone is counting off days on their fingers.

Those same syllables show up elsewhere, which is a free bonus: 수 "water" appears in 수영 (swimming), 금 "gold" in 금색 (gold color). This is also why Korean, Japanese and Chinese day names look related — they share the Sino root. If that connection interests you, we wrote about how the three writing systems differ.

Watch the pronunciation

Several of these don't sound the way they look, because of linking:

• 월요일 sounds like [워료일]
• 금요일 sounds like [그묘일]
• 목요일 sounds like [모교일]
• 일요일 sounds like [이료일]

The final consonant slides into the 요. This is standard Korean linking, not sloppiness, and it's the same process you hear all over sung Korean — more on that in our piece on sound changes you can practice by singing.

Asking what day it is

오늘 무슨 요일이에요? — What day is it today?

오늘은 수요일이에요. — Today is Wednesday.

Note 무슨 요일 is written as two words. And be careful: 무슨 요일이에요? asks for the day name, while 며칠이에요? asks for the date number.

오늘 며칠이에요? — What's the date today?

If you ask 며칠이에요 when you wanted to hear "Thursday," you'll get a number instead, and vice versa. Koreans keep these two questions strictly separate.

This week, next week, last week

The word for week is 주.

Yes, 지난주 is written as a single word while 이번 주 and 다음 주 are not. It looks inconsistent and it is — it's just how the dictionary settled. Koreans themselves sometimes get it wrong in texts, but in anything written carefully it matters. Korean spacing rules trip up almost every learner at some point.

Putting them together: big unit first

Korean stacks time expressions from the largest unit to the smallest, and the particle 에 ("on, at") goes on the very end of the whole chunk.

다음 주 월요일에 다시 올게요. — I'll come back next Monday.

지난주 토요일에 친구를 만났어요. — I met a friend last Saturday.

이번 주 금요일에 약속이 있어요. — I have plans this Friday.

Say 다음 주 월요일에, never 월요일 다음 주에. Week first, day second, 에 last.

When 에 disappears

Here's the mistake I hear most often. 오늘, 내일 and 어제 never take 에.

• ❌ 내일에 금요일이에요.
• ✅ 내일은 금요일이에요. — Tomorrow is Friday.

Saying 내일에 sounds to a Korean ear roughly like "on tomorrow" does in English — understandable, clearly foreign. But day names do take 에, because they're ordinary nouns: 금요일에 ✅.

Every Monday, Mondays, weekends

Two ways to say "every Monday," and natives use both:

월요일마다 회의가 있어요. — There's a meeting every Monday.

매주 수요일에 한국어 수업을 들어요. — I take a Korean class every Wednesday.

-마다 feels a bit more spoken and compact; 매주 + day + 에 feels slightly more formal and is what you'd write on a schedule. Neither is wrong.

For schedules, Koreans chop the 요일 off entirely and run the syllables together:

수업은 월수금이에요. — The class is Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

저는 화목에 운동해요. — I work out on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

월수금 and 화목 are the two combinations you'll hear constantly — gym classes, academies, part-time shifts. A calendar in Korea usually prints just 일 월 화 수 목 금 토 across the top, with the week starting on Sunday.

Two week-words Koreans actually say

월요병 — literally "Monday disease," the Monday blues.

저는 월요병이 심해요. — I get the Monday blues badly.

불금 — short for 불타는 금요일, "burning Friday." It's casual slang for Friday night out.

오늘 불금이다! — It's Friday night! (반말 — say this to friends only)

If you like this register of Korean, there's more in our round-up of slang young Koreans actually say.

And the single most useful week phrase of all, said every Friday afternoon in every Korean office:

주말 잘 보내세요. — Have a good weekend.

This is 해요체 with the polite -세요 ending, safe with anyone. On Monday, the matching line is 주말 잘 보내셨어요? — "Did you have a good weekend?"

FAQ

What does 요일 mean in Korean?

요일 means "day of the week." It's the shared ending on all seven day names, so 월요일 is literally "moon day" and 일요일 is "sun day." On its own, 요일 is also used in the question 무슨 요일이에요? — "What day of the week is it?"

How do you say "next week" in Korean?

다음 주, written as two words. For a specific day, put the week first and the day second: 다음 주 화요일 means "next Tuesday." Add 에 to the end when you're saying something happens then — 다음 주 화요일에 시험이 있어요 (I have a test next Tuesday).

How do you ask what day it is in Korean?

Say 오늘 무슨 요일이에요? for the day of the week, and 오늘 며칠이에요? for the date. They are not interchangeable — the first gets you "목요일," the second gets you a number. Both are 해요체 and polite enough for a stranger.

Practice

1. Say "I have class next Tuesday" in Korean.
2. Fix this sentence: 내일에 금요일이에요.
3. Which spelling is correct — 지난 주 or 지난주?
4. Say "What day is it today?" in Korean.
5. Your class meets Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Say it the short way Koreans say it.

Answers

1. 다음 주 화요일에 수업이 있어요.

2. 내일은 금요일이에요. (오늘/내일/어제 don't take 에.)

3. 지난주 — one word. But 이번 주 and 다음 주 are two.

4. 오늘 무슨 요일이에요?

5. 수업은 월수금이에요.