Basic dates: Dates

💬 Use の to attach a specific day to a time word: 来週の火曜日, 来月の三日. Without の, it sounds less natural here.

💬 With time expressions like 先週水曜日, Japanese often skips の: literally last week Wednesday. You'll also hear 先週の水曜日, but the shorter version is very common.

💬 何曜日 asks for the day of the week, while 何日 asks for the date. Compare 今日は何曜日ですか？ and 今日は何日ですか？ — same pattern, different kind of answer.

💬 毎 often means "every" with time words: 毎月 every month, 毎週 every week, 毎日 every day. It's a useful pattern you can swap into lots of schedules and routines.

💬 今年 is said (kotoshi), not like the separate readings of 今 and 年. Quite a few common time words have special everyday readings like this, so learn them as whole words.

💬 Month names in Japanese are very regular: number + 月. So 一月, 二月, 三月 and so on all follow the same pattern.

💬 四月 is said (shi-gatsu), not with the other common 四 reading (yon). 四 and 七 often have two readings in Japanese, so dates are one place you need to memorize the usual one.

💬 六月 is said (roku-gatsu). Watch the small pause in words with っ, but there isn't one here — compare 六月 with 八月 (hachi-gatsu).

💬 七月 is usually said (shichi-gatsu), not (nana-gatsu). Japanese often chooses one reading in calendar words even when the number has another common reading elsewhere.

💬 八月 is said (hachi-gatsu), with a clear ち sound before 月. Month names stay regular in writing, but the spoken rhythm matters for being understood.

💬 月 can mean both "month" and "moon," so the meaning comes from context. In dates and calendar words like 来月 or 一月, it means "month."

💬 何日 asks for the date, but the same writing can also mean "how many days," depending on context. In 今日は何日ですか？, it clearly means "what date is it?"

💬 Dates are usually month + day: 一月一日, 三月三日, 六月六日. But day numbers often have special readings, and 一日 here is (tsuitachi), not the usual 一 + 日.

🇯🇵 一月一日 is New Year's Day, the biggest holiday in Japan. You'll see it on signs, store notices, and holiday schedules much more often than many other dates.

💬 二日 is said (futsuka), not a regular "two + day" reading. Many day numbers from the 1st to the 10th have old special forms, so dates are worth memorizing as set words.

💬 三日 is said (mikka). This same word can also mean "three days" in other contexts, so the month before it tells you it's a calendar date here.

💬 四日 is said (yokka), not with shi. Day numbers often use different readings from the plain numbers, especially for early dates in the month.

💬 五日 is said (itsuka), not a regular "go + nichi" pattern. For dates, the 1st through 10th are especially irregular.

💬 六月六日 mixes a regular month with an irregular day: 六月 is (roku-gatsu), but 六日 is (muika). That's very common in dates — the month may be predictable even when the day is not.

💬 七日 is said (nanoka), not like the 七 in 七月 (shichi-gatsu). The same number can change reading depending on whether it's a month, a date, or just a number.

💬 八日 is said (yōka), which is one of the special day readings you just have to learn. Compare it with 八月 (hachi-gatsu) — same 八, different reading because it's a date, not a month.

💬 Dates in Japanese go biggest to smallest: month first, then day, so 九月九日 is literally "ninth month, ninth day." You can swap in other numbers the same way, like 十月三日 for October third.

💬 年 is often read (ねん) after a number for a year or length of time, like 三年 "three years." But for a calendar year, it can also be part of something like 二〇二四年 "the year 2024."}]}