Days of the Week in Persian – Pronunciation + Examples

If you are traveling to Iran, Afghanistan, or Tajikistan, knowing the days of the week in Persian will be of extreme help during all your trip. The Persian calendar is very different from the Gregorian one, not just because of different languages and pronunciation, but because of the different organization of the society, the different weekends, and obviously their origins.

When planning your trip to Iran, and booking your international flights, domestic travel, and hotels, you don’t really need to over-worry because Iranians are used to it and they easily convert our calendar to theirs and vice versa. It almost seems automatic, you book your date and they automatically convert to their day and month.

Once you are in Iran, however, you will likely be talking to many people, and trust me when I say that to some, Monday or Thursday really have no meaning. So if you are giving a local friend appointment somewhere, knowing the days of the week in Persian will make it more likely that you don’t end up spending hours alone in the restaurant or any other appointment spot!

This easy guide of ours will tell you the days of the week in Farsi, how to write them, and how to pronounce them. You are going to find also a few examples of common sentences that you can use and that you are likely to hear in Iran, Afghanistan, and also Tajikistan, where the official language is Tajiki, a mix of Persian and Russian.

Translation and pronunciation of the days of the week in Persian: easy table

How to pronounce the days of the week in Persian: audio

Shanbe – Saturday

Yek shanbe – Sunday

Do shanbe – Monday

Seh shanbe – Tuesday

Chahar shanbe – Wednesday

Panj shanbe – Thursday

Jomeh – Friday

Don’t miss our guide to what to wear in Iran.

The week in the Persian calendar

The Persian week starts on Saturday (Shanbe), which for us, corresponds to Monday. Saturday is the beginning of the Persian week because the weekend in Iran and in Afghanistan falls on Thursday and Friday. Actually, only Friday because Thursday might see some activities closing earlier in the evening but it’s not really a holiday, while Friday is.

So here is something confusing that you still need to remember. Thursday night in Farsi can be said in two ways: if the word “shab” (night) is placed BEFORE the name of the day, it indicates the night of the day before, while if the word “shab” is placed AFTER the name of the day, it indicates the night of the same day. I know, don’t get me started. Here is the example to (hopefully) clarify:

Thursday night can be “Shab-e jom’e”, translating into “the night of Friday” or “Panj shanbe shab”, translating into “Thursday night”.

Even if you decide to use it always in the same way, it’s important that you know how the two ways can be pronounced so that if you are in Iran, you don’t get confused and you don’t skip an appointment.

More week- and day-related words and phrases in Farsi

Here are some other terms connected with the Persian days of the week that you can find in common sentences and are likely to be needed quite often.

Common words

Common sentences

How to use the days of the week in Persian – Practical examples

Unlike the days of the week in Italian, in Persian, there is no article, so in whichever way you are using the day of the week, it’s just as it is. Here are a few examples of how you can make sentences using the days of the week in Farsi.

Which day? This, last, or next?

As you may have noticed, “day” is “ruz/rooz”. So when you need to say “yesterday”, you add “di” to “rooz” and you have “di-rooz”. In the same way, when you need to say “last night”, you will add “di” to “shab” (night) and obtain “di-shab”.

This applies also to “today” and “tonight”, where instead of “di”, you would add “em”. So “em-rooz” for “today” and “em-shab” for “tonight”.

This concept, however, doesn’t apply to tomorrow night, which you will form with both words “fardah” (tomorrow) and “shab” (night) >> “fardah shab”.

Plural or singular?

Like in English, the days of the week in Persian have both a singular and a plural form. This is how they are: