Using the definite article with days of the week for events

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In Spanish we use the definite articles el/los with the days of the week when we want to talk about an event happening on a specific day. This is different to the way this is expressed in English as instead of using an article the preposition "on" is used.

El + day of the week

To say what is happening on a specific day of the week and a specific week, generally the week we are in at the moment of speaking or the following week, we use the article "el".

Let's see some examples:

El lunes voy con Marta al cine.On Monday I'm going to the cinema with Marta.

El sábado quiero limpiar bien la casa.On Saturday I want to clean the house properly.

El viernes hay un concierto de Maluma.There's a Maluma concert on Friday.

Notice how we use the article el in Spanish and not the preposition on like you can see in the English equivalent. 

It is incorrect to say:

En viernes hay un concierto de Maluma.

Los + day of the week in plural

To say that something happens regularly on a specific day of the week, for example "every Saturday, every Monday..." we use the article "los" followed by the day of the week in plural.

See some examples:

Los martes no puedo ir a tu clase de zumba porque tengo tenis.I can't go to your zumba class on Tuesdays/every Tuesday because I have tennis.

Quiero ir al gimnasio con mi novio los jueves por la mañana.I want to go to the gym with my boyfriend every Thursday/on Thursdays in the morning.

Yo nunca trabajo los domingos.I never work on Sundays.

 

Notice how we use the plural article los to say on for things that happen regularly on that specific day of the week. 

Remember that in Spanish we do not write the days of the week with a capital letter (unlike in English). 

Do not use feminine articles with the days of the week because they are always masculine. 

The plural form of days of week that already end in -s are identical to the singular form (i.e. they are invariable). Most days of the week end in -s except for sábado/sábados and domingo/domingos, where you must add an -s to make the plural form.

See also Days of the week vocabulary in Spanish and Days of the week in Spanish are masculine

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Examples and resources

El lunes voy con Marta al cine.On Monday I'm going to the cinema with Marta.
El sábado quiero limpiar bien la casa.On Saturday I want to clean the house properly.
El viernes hay un concierto de Maluma.There's a Maluma concert on Friday.
Los martes no puedo ir a tu clase de zumba porque tengo tenis.I can't go to your zumba class on Tuesdays/every Tuesday because I have tennis.
Yo nunca trabajo los domingos.I never work on Sundays.
Quiero ir al gimnasio con mi novio los jueves por la mañana.I want to go to the gym with my boyfriend every Thursday/on Thursdays in the morning.
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