Talking about dates in Turkish means juggling three small systems: the seven day names, the twelve month names, and a handful of rules for "on," "in," and "of." The good news is the vocabulary is fixed and the patterns are few. The traps are orthographic — when to capitalize, when to add an apostrophe — and one grammatical surprise: "on Monday" usually does not use the locative case the way you would expect, but the word günü "day." This page sorts it all out.
Days of the week
The seven days, starting from Monday. Two of them are transparent compounds: Cumartesi "Saturday" is Cuma "Friday" + ertesi "the day after," and Pazartesi "Monday" is Pazar "Sunday" + ertesi.
| English | Turkish |
|---|---|
| Monday | Pazartesi |
| Tuesday | Salı |
| Wednesday | Çarşamba |
| Thursday | Perşembe |
| Friday | Cuma |
| Saturday | Cumartesi |
| Sunday | Pazar |
Day names are capitalized when they refer to a specific day (see writing/capitalization-rules). Watch the dotted/undotted vowels: Salı has ı, Çarşamba has ş and ç, Perşembe has ş.
Salı günü doktora gideceğim, o gün müsait misin?
I'm going to the doctor on Tuesday — are you free that day?
"On Monday": günü, not the locative
Here is the surprise for English speakers. You would expect "on Monday" to use the locative -de/-da (the case that normally means "at/on/in" — the one that gives üçte "at three" on numbers/time-clock). But with day names, the natural, idiomatic Turkish is the bare day name plus günü "day": Pazartesi günü "on Monday," literally "Monday day."
Cuma günü işten erken çıkıp seni alırım.
On Friday I'll leave work early and pick you up.
Maç Cumartesi günü saat sekizde başlıyor.
The match starts at eight o'clock on Saturday.
The locative form Pazartesi'de is heard, but it sounds heavier and less natural for a plain weekday; Pazartesi günü is the default you should imitate. (When the day is a generic "on Mondays / every Monday," Turkish uses Pazartesileri — the plural plus a buffer — but for one specific day, günü is your friend.)
Months of the year
The twelve months. None of them are compounds, so they simply have to be learned. They are capitalized when naming a specific date.
| English | Turkish | English | Turkish |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | Ocak | July | Temmuz |
| February | Şubat | August | Ağustos |
| March | Mart | September | Eylül |
| April | Nisan | October | Ekim |
| May | Mayıs | November | Kasım |
| June | Haziran | December | Aralık |
Note the special characters: Şubat (ş), Ağustos (ğ), Eylül (ü), Mayıs (ı). To say "in" a month, you can add the locative directly to the month name — and because the month is a proper noun used in a date, the suffix is joined with an apostrophe: Nisan'da "in April," Mayıs'ta "in May," Ocak'ta "in January."
Tatili Ağustos'ta planlıyoruz, deniz o zaman daha sıcak.
We're planning the holiday for August — the sea is warmer then.
Okullar genelde Eylül'de açılıyor.
Schools usually open in September.
Full dates: day-number + month + year
A full Turkish date runs small to large: the day number, then the month name, then the year — 15 Mayıs 2024, "the 15th of May, 2024." There is no ordinal ending and no comma; the bare number sits in front of the capitalized month.
23 Nisan Ulusal Egemenlik ve Çocuk Bayramı'dır.
The 23rd of April is National Sovereignty and Children's Day.
Sözleşme 15 Mayıs 2024 tarihinde imzalandı.
The contract was signed on the 15th of May, 2024.
In purely numeric form, dates are written DD.MM.YYYY with periods: 15.05.2024 (the period is the standard separator here, matching the thousands-separator logic of writing/numbers-orthography).
To say "on the 15th (of the month)" without naming the month, Turkish uses ayın 15'i — literally "the month's 15th," with the day number taking a possessive and an apostrophe before it: ayın on beşi.
Kira her zaman ayın 15'inde ödeniyor.
The rent is always paid on the 15th of the month.
Years: the locative with an apostrophe
To say something happens in a year, the year takes the locative -de/-da (devoiced to -te/-ta after the right sound), joined with an apostrophe because the year is written as a figure: 2024'te "in 2024," 1999'da "in 1999." The apostrophe separating a numeral from its suffix is required (see writing/numbers-orthography).
Bu ev 1999'da yapılmış, yani çeyrek asırlık.
This house was built in 1999 — so it's a quarter of a century old.
2024'te ilk defa yurt dışına çıktım.
In 2024 I went abroad for the first time.
The locative ending harmonizes to the last sound spoken in the year, not the last digit on the page: 1999 ends in the sound "dokuz," so it takes -da → 1999'da; 2024 ends in "dört," a voiceless stop, so it takes -te → 2024'te.
Relative time words
For everyday talk you rarely need a precise date — you reach for relative words. These take no special endings on their own:
| Turkish | English |
|---|---|
| bugün | today |
| dün | yesterday |
| yarın | tomorrow |
| geçen hafta / geçen ay | last week / last month |
| gelecek hafta / gelecek ay | next week / next month |
Geçen ay taşındık, hâlâ kutuları açıyoruz.
We moved last month — we're still unpacking boxes.
Yarın hava güzel olursa pikniğe gideriz.
If the weather's nice tomorrow, we'll go for a picnic.
Common mistakes
❌ Pazartesi'de toplantımız var.
Incorrect — a plain weekday takes günü, not the locative.
✅ Pazartesi günü toplantımız var.
We have a meeting on Monday.
❌ Doğum günüm mayıs 15.
Incorrect — the month must be capitalized and the day number comes first.
✅ Doğum günüm 15 Mayıs.
My birthday is the 15th of May.
❌ Bu ev 1999da yapılmış.
Incorrect — a suffix on a numeral needs an apostrophe: 1999'da.
✅ Bu ev 1999'da yapılmış.
This house was built in 1999.
❌ Tatil Mayıs 15 2024 başlıyor.
Incorrect — Turkish orders the date day-month-year: 15 Mayıs 2024.
✅ Tatil 15 Mayıs 2024'te başlıyor.
The holiday starts on the 15th of May, 2024.
❌ Kira ayın 15 ödeniyor.
Incorrect — 'on the 15th of the month' needs the possessive: ayın 15'inde.
✅ Kira ayın 15'inde ödeniyor.
The rent is paid on the 15th of the month.
Key takeaways
- Days: Pazartesi, Salı, Çarşamba, Perşembe, Cuma, Cumartesi, Pazar — capitalized for a specific day.
- "On Monday" is Pazartesi günü (with günü), not the locative Pazartesi'de.
- Months: Ocak through Aralık, capitalized in dates; "in April" is Nisan'da, with an apostrophe.
- Full dates run small-to-large: 15 Mayıs 2024 (or numeric 15.05.2024). "On the 15th" without a month is ayın 15'i.
- Years take the locative with an apostrophe: 2024'te, 1999'da — harmonizing to the spoken sound, not the written digit.
Related Topics
- Telling the TimeA2 — How to tell the clock in Turkish — whole hours (Saat üç), 'at three' (Saat üçte), and the case contrast that drives minutes: accusative + geçiyor for 'past' (üçü beş geçiyor) versus dative + var for 'to' (üçe beş var).
- Writing Numbers and DatesA2 — How Turkish writes numbers and dates: ordinals with a period, decimals with a comma, thousands with a period, and suffixes joined to figures by an apostrophe.
- Time, Dates, and AppointmentsB1 — How to ask when, set a time, and arrange to meet in Turkish — clock-time cases, the optative, and polite scheduling questions working together.
- Capitalization RulesA2 — What Turkish capitalizes and what it doesn't — lowercase days and months mid-sentence, capitalized languages and nationalities, and the uncapitalized polite 'siz'.