This is not a vocabulary list. It is a different week, and until you have re-set the whole thing in your head, every appointment you make in Hebrew is a coin flip. Hebrew counts its days from Sunday, calls six of them by number, and gives only the seventh a name of its own.
The seven, and the six numbers
| Written | Short | Reads | Is |
|---|---|---|---|
| יום ראשון | יום א׳ | yom rishón | Sunday — "day one" |
| יום שני | יום ב׳ | yom shení | Monday |
| יום שלישי | יום ג׳ | yom shlishí | Tuesday |
| יום רביעי | יום ד׳ | yom revi'í | Wednesday |
| יום חמישי | יום ה׳ | yom khamishí | Thursday |
| יום שישי | יום ו׳ | yom shishí | Friday |
| שבת | שבת | shabát | Saturday — a name, not a number |
The count stops at six. There is no יום שביעי on a calendar: the seventh day carries its own noun, שַׁבָּת — and that noun is feminine, where יום and its six ordinals are masculine.
יום ראשון זה יום עבודה רגיל, אז אל תתכנן טיולים.
yom rishón ze yom avodá ragíl, az al tetakhnén tiyulím
Sunday is an ordinary working day, so don't plan any trips. (to a man)
נתראה בשבת בבוקר בשוק, כמו תמיד.
nitra'é beshabát babóker bashúk, kmo tamíd
See you Saturday morning at the market, same as always.
The ordinals are masculine, and that is all
ראשון, שני, שלישי, רביעי, חמישי, שישי are the masculine ordinals, and they are masculine for the plainest possible reason: they agree with יום, which is a masculine noun. There is no polarity trick here and no mismatch to memorise — this is ordinary adjective agreement, and it is the numerals 3–19 elsewhere in the language that behave strangely, not these.
The set you meet the moment the noun changes is the feminine one, and it is worth learning in the same breath:
| Masculine — with יום | Feminine — with a feminine noun |
|---|---|
| רִאשׁוֹן rishón | רִאשׁוֹנָה rishoná — הפעם הראשונה |
| שֵׁנִי shení | שְׁנִיָּיה shniyá — פעם שנייה |
| שְׁלִישִׁי shlishí | שְׁלִישִׁית shlishít — הקומה השלישית |
| רְבִיעִי revi'í | רְבִיעִית revi'ít |
| חֲמִישִׁי khamishí | חֲמִישִׁית khamishít |
| שִׁישִּׁי shishí | שִׁישִּׁית shishít |
The full ordinal system, including what happens past ten, is on ordinals.
The letters on every timetable
יום א׳ through יום ו׳ is how the days appear on opening hours, class timetables, bus schedules and pharmacy rotas. The mark after the letter is a geresh ׳ (U+05F3), not an apostrophe, and it is what tells you the letter is standing in for a number. Read aloud, the abbreviation becomes the full name again: יום א׳ is yom rishón, the way רח׳ is read as רחוב.
שעות הפתיחה הן יום א׳ עד יום ה׳, מתשע עד שבע.
sha'ót haptikhá hen yom rishón ad yom khamishí, mitésha ad shéva
Opening hours are Sunday to Thursday, nine to seven. (a sign; the letters are read out as the full day names)
Watch ג׳. With a geresh it is either the number 3 — יום ג׳, כיתה ג׳ — or the borrowed j sound of ג׳ינס and ג׳ורג׳. Only the context sorts them, and the whole mark system is on geresh and gershayim.
Saying when
ביום ראשון is "on Sunday", with no article: beyóm rishón. Speech regularly clips the יום and puts the article back — בראשון, בשלישי, בחמישי — and that whole vowel story is on ה־ in time expressions.
For a habitual day, Hebrew uses the plural construct בימי: בימי שלישי, בימי שישי.
בימי שלישי יש לי חוג, אז אני לא פנויה בערב.
biméi shlishí yesh li khug, az aní lo pnuyá ba'érev
I've got a class on Tuesdays, so I'm not free in the evening. (f. speaker)
ביום שני הבא אני מתחיל עבודה חדשה, אני קצת לחוץ.
beyóm shení habá aní matkhíl avodá khadashá, aní ktsat lakhúts
Next Monday I start a new job — I'm a bit nervous. (m. speaker)
The weekend is Friday and Saturday
Israeli law never names the working days. It caps the hours — §3 of the Hours of Work and Rest Law, 5711–1951, sets a maximum working week — and then fixes a rest day. §7 of the same law gives an employee at least 36 consecutive hours of weekly rest, and states that for a Jewish employee that rest includes Saturday, while for a non-Jewish employee it falls on Saturday, Sunday or Friday, whichever their own religion holds to be their day of rest.
The consequence for the words is the part you need. סוף שבוע sof shavúa covers Friday and Saturday — Hebrew Wikipedia's entry on the term says so in as many words (סוף השבוע הוא בימי שישי ושבת, article סוף שבוע) — and Sunday sits at the front of the week, not the back. In writing and in messages it is often shortened to סופ״ש with gershayim, which he.wiktionary points סוֹפָ״שׁ — read sofásh, as one word. מוצ״ש motsásh is its evening twin.
| Phrase | Reads | Means |
|---|---|---|
| סוף שבוע · סופ״ש | sof shavúa · sofásh | the weekend: Friday and Saturday |
| ערב שבת | érev shabát | Friday, especially the afternoon before sundown |
| מוצאי שבת · מוצ״ש | motsa'éi shabát · motsásh | Saturday night, after sundown |
בסוף השבוע אנחנו בים, כלומר יום שישי ושבת.
besóf hashavúa anákhnu bayám, klomár yom shishí veshabát
At the weekend we're at the beach — meaning Friday and Saturday.
בשכונה שלנו החנויות נסגרות בערב שבת ונפתחות במוצאי שבת.
bashkhuná shelánu hakhanuyót nisgarót be'érev shabát veniftakhót bemotsa'éi shabát
In our neighbourhood the shops close on Friday afternoon and open again on Saturday night.
When the Sunday start decides the answer
בואי נקבע ליום שני, אני פנוי כל היום.
bó'i nikbá leyóm shení, aní panúy kol hayóm
Let's set it for Monday — I'm free all day. (to a woman, m. speaker)
שני זה מחר, לא בעוד שבוע. יום ראשון כבר עבר.
shení ze makhár, lo be'ód shavúa. yom rishón kvar avár
Monday is tomorrow, not in a week. Sunday has already been and gone.
Common Mistakes
1. Counting from Monday. English speakers have Monday as day one somewhere deep in the wiring, and the Hebrew word is transparently "first", so the mistake feels like a translation rather than a guess.
❌ יום ראשון
Monday
Incorrect as a gloss — יום ראשון is Sunday. Hebrew's week opens on Sunday, so every day in the count sits one earlier than an English speaker expects: יום שני is Monday, יום שישי is Friday.
✅ יום ראשון פותח את השבוע, ושבת סוגרת אותו.
yom rishón potéakh et hashavúa, veshabát sogéret otó
Sunday opens the week and Saturday closes it. (יום ראשון is masculine, שבת feminine)
2. Hearing a weekend invitation as Saturday and Sunday. The word translates, and the days do not.
❌ סוף שבוע
Saturday and Sunday
Incorrect as a gloss — in Israel סוף שבוע is Friday and Saturday. An invitation לסוף השבוע means someone expects you on Friday.
✅ הזמינו אותנו לסוף שבוע בצפון, יוצאים בשישי בבוקר.
hizmínu otánu lesóf shavúa batsafón, yots'ím beshishí babóker
We've been invited away for the weekend up north — we leave Friday morning.
3. Continuing the count to a seventh day. If six days are numbered, a seventh number looks available. It is not: Saturday is שבת and nothing else.
❌ נתראה ביום שביעי
Incorrect as 'see you on Saturday' — no Israeli calendar has a יום שביעי. Saturday is שבת: נתראה בשבת. (היום השביעי exists in religious and biblical language, meaning the seventh day of creation.)
✅ נתראה בשבת אחר הצהריים, נשב במרפסת.
nitra'é beshabát akhár hatsohoráyim, neshév bamirpéset
See you Saturday afternoon — we'll sit on the balcony.
4. Making שבת masculine. Every other day of the week is masculine, so שבת gets dragged along with them. It is feminine, and the word after it has to know that.
❌ בשבת הבא
Incorrect — שבת is feminine, so the adjective is too: בשבת הבאה. Compare ביום שני הבא, where הבא is masculine because יום is.
✅ בשבת הבאה אנחנו אצל ההורים שלי, אולי בשבוע שאחרי.
beshabát haba'á anákhnu étsel hahorím shelí, ulái bashavúa she'akharéi
Next Saturday we're at my parents' — maybe the week after.
5. Typing the abbreviation with an apostrophe. Every keyboard hands you the wrong character — the Hebrew layout's apostrophe key produces U+0027 exactly as a Latin one does — and it is the one mark on the sign that carries the meaning.
❌ יום א', יום ג'
Incorrect as spellings — that is the ASCII apostrophe U+0027. The Hebrew abbreviation mark is the geresh ׳, U+05F3: יום א׳, יום ג׳.
✅ בשלט כתוב יום ו׳ עד שתיים בצהריים, ובשבת סגור.
bashélet katúv yom shishí ad shtáyim batsohoráyim, uveshabát sagúr
The sign says Friday until two in the afternoon, and closed on Saturday.
Key Takeaways
- Six days are numbered and one is named. יום ראשון is Sunday, יום שישי is Friday, and Saturday is שבת.
- The ordinals ראשון…שישי are masculine because they agree with the masculine noun יום. Nothing exotic is going on; the feminine set (ראשונה, שנייה, שלישית…) appears with feminine nouns.
- שבת is feminine — בשבת הבאה — while the numbered days are masculine — ביום שני הבא.
- יום א׳–יום ו׳ with a geresh ׳ is how the days appear on every timetable and set of opening hours.
- ביום ראשון for a single day, בימי שלישי for a habitual one.
- Israeli law fixes Saturday as the weekly rest day for Jewish employees (Hours of Work and Rest Law 5711–1951, §7), so Sunday is a working day and סוף שבוע is Friday and Saturday.
- ערב שבת is Friday before sundown; מוצאי שבת is Saturday night after it.
Now practice Hebrew
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Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- Ordinal Numbers: ראשון, שני, שלישי…A2 — Hebrew ordinals through ten behave like adjectives; above ten, definite cardinal phrases take over.
- Numbers Written as Letters in Real LifeB2 — How Israelis recognize and read letter numerals on lift panels, school timetables, contracts, religious texts, invitations, and letterheads.
- ה־ in Time Expressions (השבוע, היום, בבוקר)B1 — A whole set of everyday Hebrew adverbs is just a noun with ה־ on it: היום is literally 'this day'. Put ב in front and the article fuses invisibly, which is why הבוקר and בבוקר are one letter and one whole meaning apart — and why the seasons carry an article English speakers never see.
- Holidays and the Grammar Around ThemB1 — Fourteen days that reorganise the Israeli year, and the four constructions that hang off them — ערב for the day before, ליל for the night of, מוצאי for the night after, and חול המועד for the middle. Plus the greetings, with the Academy's account of where each one came from.