Days and Months in Hindi

In Brief

Hindi names the day with आज सोमवार है (“Today is Monday”). Use को after a day or a complete date when saying when something happens, but normally use में with a month: सोमवार को (“on Monday”), 15 जनवरी को (“on 15 January”), and जनवरी में (“in January”). For a repeated day, हर सोमवार को means “every Monday.”

Overview

Days and months are among the first time expressions learned at A1. They let you arrange meetings, describe routines, give birthdays, and understand signs, tickets, and schedules. Hindi uses the familiar seven-day week and the Gregorian calendar in most everyday, school, business, and official contexts.

The main challenge for an English-speaking learner is not the calendar itself but the small words placed after the time expression. These are called postpositions (words that come after a noun and do work similar to English prepositions): सोमवार को literally has “Monday + on,” while जनवरी में has “January + in.” English puts “on” or “in” first; Hindi puts को or में last.

Hindi also has traditional Indian calendar month names. You may meet them in festivals, religious calendars, agriculture, literature, and regional speech. They are useful to recognize, but beginners should first become comfortable with the Gregorian month names used in everyday dates.

How It Works

The days of the week

All seven standard weekday names end in -वार, a word connected with “day of the week.” They are treated as masculine nouns.

Hindi	Transliteration	English
सोमवार	somvār	Monday
मंगलवार	maṅgalvār	Tuesday
बुधवार	budhvār	Wednesday
गुरुवार	guruvār	Thursday
शुक्रवार	śukravār	Friday
शनिवार	śanivār	Saturday
रविवार	ravivār	Sunday

In careful pronunciation, बुधवार is roughly budh-vār, not “bud-hu-vār.” गुरुवार is the very common everyday name for Thursday; बृहस्पतिवार is a longer alternative often found in calendars and more formal contexts.

To identify the current day, use this simple pattern:

आज + weekday + है

• आज सोमवार है। — Today is Monday.
• आज कौन-सा दिन है? — What day is it today?
• आज शुक्रवार है। — Today is Friday.

Here है means “is.” Hindi does not need an equivalent of English dummy “it” in “It is Monday.”

Saying “on Monday”: weekday + को

When an event happens on a particular day, put को after the weekday:

weekday + को + event

• हम सोमवार को मिलेंगे। — We will meet on Monday.
• दुकान रविवार को बंद रहती है। — The shop is closed on Sundays.
• परीक्षा बुधवार को है। — The exam is on Wednesday.

Unlike English, Hindi does not capitalize weekday names. The form of the weekday itself does not visibly change before को.

With schedules and compressed notices, को may sometimes be omitted when the meaning is obvious: बैठक सोमवार, सुबह दस बजे (“Meeting Monday, 10 a.m.”). In a complete beginner sentence, keeping को is the safest choice.

Repeated days with हर

हर means “every” or “each.” The most useful pattern is:

हर + weekday + को

• हर शुक्रवार को — every Friday
• मैं हर शनिवार को बाज़ार जाता हूँ। — I go to the market every Saturday. (male speaker)
• मैं हर शनिवार को बाज़ार जाती हूँ। — I go to the market every Saturday. (female speaker)

You will also hear हर दिन (“every day”). रोज़ likewise means “daily/every day,” but it does not name a particular weekday.

Gregorian months

The modern Gregorian month names are adapted into Hindi and written in Devanagari. They are normally treated as masculine, although agreement is rarely visible in the basic pattern with में.

Hindi	Transliteration	English
जनवरी	janvarī	January
फ़रवरी	farvarī	February
मार्च	mārc	March
अप्रैल	aprail	April
मई	maī	May
जून	jūn	June
जुलाई	julāī	July
अगस्त	agast	August
सितंबर	sitambar	September
अक्टूबर	aktūbar	October
नवंबर	navambar	November
दिसंबर	disambar	December

Spellings without the dot in फ़, such as फरवरी, are also widespread. You may also encounter variants such as सितम्बर, नवम्बर, and दिसम्बर. These are spelling differences, not different months.

Saying “in January”: month + में

Use में for something happening within a month:

month + में + event

• मेरा जन्मदिन जनवरी में है। — My birthday is in January.
• भारत में जून में बहुत गर्मी होती है। — It is very hot in India in June.
• स्कूल अप्रैल में शुरू होता है। — School starts in April.

This parallels English “in January,” but remember that Hindi places में after the month. Do not use को for a month by itself in this meaning.

Giving a complete date

Hindi normally writes and says dates in day–month–year order, as in much of the world:

• 15 जनवरी 2026 — 15 January 2026
• 2 अक्टूबर — 2 October

A bare date can identify what today’s date is:

• आज 15 जनवरी है। — Today is 15 January.
• आज क्या तारीख़ है? — What is today’s date?

When the date tells when an event happens, add को after the whole date:

• बैठक 15 जनवरी को है। — The meeting is on 15 January.
• हम 2 अक्टूबर को छुट्टी मनाते हैं। — We observe a holiday on 2 October.
• उनका जन्म 12 मई 1990 को हुआ था। — They were born on 12 May 1990.

In speech, the numeral is commonly read as an ordinary number: 15 जनवरी is पंद्रह जनवरी. Hindi can also use तारीख़ (“date”), especially in questions and administrative language: पंद्रह जनवरी की तारीख़ refers to “the date of 15 January.”

आज, कल, and nearby days

Hindi	Meaning	Important point
आज	today	clear from the word itself
कल	yesterday or tomorrow	the verb and context show which one
परसों	the day before yesterday or the day after tomorrow	also depends on context

This two-way meaning of कल often surprises English speakers:

• कल सोमवार था। — Yesterday was Monday.
• कल सोमवार होगा। — Tomorrow will be Monday.
• कल मिलते हैं। — See you tomorrow. (the situation supplies the future meaning)

The past form था and future form होगा remove the ambiguity in the first two sentences. In real conversation, the surrounding topic usually does the same.

Next and last

Useful phrases include:

• अगले सोमवार को — next Monday
• पिछले सोमवार को — last Monday
• अगले महीने — next month
• पिछले महीने — last month
• इस महीने — this month

Why अगले, not अगला, in these phrases? Before an implied or explicit time relationship, masculine words often take an oblique form (a form used when the noun phrase is connected to a postposition, even if that postposition is not pronounced). Beginners can learn अगले सोमवार को, अगले महीने, and पिछले महीने as complete chunks; the wider rule belongs to later study.

Examples in Context

Hindi	English	Note
आज सोमवार है।	Today is Monday.	Identifying today’s weekday
आज कौन-सा दिन है?	What day is it today?	A common question
हम मंगलवार को मिलेंगे।	We will meet on Tuesday.	A particular day takes को
परीक्षा बुधवार को है।	The exam is on Wednesday.	को marks when
हर शुक्रवार को हमारी बैठक होती है।	We have our meeting every Friday.	Repeated weekday
दुकान रविवार को बंद रहती है।	The shop is closed on Sundays.	A regular schedule
मेरा जन्मदिन जनवरी में है।	My birthday is in January.	A month by itself takes में
जुलाई में बारिश होती है।	It rains in July.	General seasonal statement
आज 5 मार्च है।	Today is 5 March.	Bare date after आज
कार्यक्रम 18 अगस्त को है।	The program is on 18 August.	Complete date takes को
आपका जन्मदिन कब है?	When is your birthday?	कब means “when”
मेरा जन्मदिन 9 नवंबर को है।	My birthday is on 9 November.	Day plus month
कल छुट्टी थी।	Yesterday was a holiday.	Past verb makes कल mean yesterday
कल छुट्टी होगी।	Tomorrow will be a holiday.	Future verb makes कल mean tomorrow
हम अगले सोमवार को दिल्ली जाएँगे।	We will go to Delhi next Monday.	अगले with a future weekday

Common Mistakes

Putting the time word before the noun as in English

• Wrong: को सोमवार हम मिलेंगे।
• Right: हम सोमवार को मिलेंगे।
• Why: Hindi uses a postposition: को follows सोमवार. English “on” comes before Monday, but Hindi को comes after it.

Using को with a month by itself

• Wrong: मेरा जन्मदिन जनवरी को है।
• Right: मेरा जन्मदिन जनवरी में है।
• Why: Use में for “in January.” Use को when you give a particular day or full date: 15 जनवरी को.

Omitting को from a complete beginner sentence

• Less natural as a full sentence: हम सोमवार मिलेंगे।
• Better: हम सोमवार को मिलेंगे।
• Why: Short schedules can omit को, but a normal sentence about an event on a particular weekday generally includes it.

Treating कल as only “tomorrow”

• Wrong interpretation: कल बारिश हुई। = “It will rain tomorrow.”
• Right interpretation: कल बारिश हुई। = “It rained yesterday.”
• Why: कल can mean yesterday or tomorrow. The completed past verb हुई makes the past meaning clear.

Adding English-style capitalization

• Wrong habit: Expecting Hindi weekdays and months to require capital letters.
• Right: सोमवार, जनवरी, अक्टूबर
• Why: Devanagari has no uppercase/lowercase distinction. The words keep the same written form wherever they occur.

Confusing “every Friday” with “this Friday”

• Wrong for a weekly habit: इस शुक्रवार को हमारी बैठक होती है।
• Right: हर शुक्रवार को हमारी बैठक होती है।
• Why: इस शुक्रवार को means “this Friday”; हर शुक्रवार को describes a recurring event.

Usage Notes

रविवार is the standard calendar word for Sunday, while इतवार is also common in conversation. For Thursday, गुरुवार is extremely common; बृहस्पतिवार is a formal or calendar-style alternative. Recognizing both alternatives helps, but you can safely use रविवार and गुरुवार yourself.

Word order is flexible enough to put a time expression first for emphasis: सोमवार को हम घर पर रहेंगे (“On Monday, we will stay at home”). The neutral order हम सोमवार को घर पर रहेंगे is equally natural. In either order, को stays attached to the day phrase.

In digital messages, tickets, and forms, you may see numeric dates such as 05/03/2026. Because Indian usage generally follows day–month–year order, this normally means 5 March 2026, not May 3. Writing the month as a word avoids international ambiguity.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master traditional calendar terminology at A1, but you will encounter it in cultural contexts. The traditional Hindu lunisolar calendar has month names such as चैत्र, वैशाख, ज्येष्ठ, आषाढ़, श्रावण, भाद्रपद, आश्विन, कार्तिक, मार्गशीर्ष, पौष, माघ, and फाल्गुन. Exact starting and ending dates do not line up permanently with Gregorian months, and calendar conventions can differ by region. It is therefore misleading to translate one traditional month as one fixed Gregorian month.

Traditional month names appear in festival dates and expressions such as कार्तिक का महीना (“the month of Kartik”) or श्रावण में (“in Shravan”). Everyday official dates, however, normally use जनवरी through दिसंबर.

More advanced Hindi also distinguishes different ways of presenting dates. 15 जनवरी को simply marks the date of an event. A phrase with की तारीख़, such as 15 जनवरी की तारीख़ तय हुई, treats “the date of 15 January” as a noun phrase: “The date of 15 January was fixed.” Formal invitations may use दिनांक (“dated/on the date”), while ordinary conversation favors तारीख़.

Finally, weekday phrases can describe frequency without हर when the sentence itself expresses a general schedule: दुकान रविवार को बंद रहती है can mean “The shop is closed on Sundays.” Adding हर—हर रविवार को—makes the repeated meaning fully explicit.

Practice Tips

1. Learn the week as a cycle. Say the seven days aloud in order, then answer आज कौन-सा दिन है?, कल कौन-सा दिन था?, and कल कौन-सा दिन होगा? Use the verb to force the intended meaning of कल.
2. Build three contrast cards for each time expression. For example: सोमवार को, हर सोमवार को, अगले सोमवार को; then जनवरी में, 15 जनवरी को, अगले महीने. This trains the postposition rather than only the vocabulary.
3. Read real dates aloud. Take five dates from your calendar and say them in day–month order. Turn each into a sentence such as बैठक 12 जून को है or मेरा जन्मदिन सितंबर में है.

Related Concepts

This concept has no formal prerequisite or linked follow-up concept in the current Hindi grammar map. It works especially well alongside these broader study areas:

• Numbers and dates — needed to read dates such as 15 जनवरी aloud.
• The present and past forms of होना — forms such as है, था, and होगा clarify whether कल refers to yesterday or tomorrow.
• Time expressions and postpositions — extends the contrast among को, में, and phrases such as अगले महीने.