Немно́го о языке́ 5.1 Расписа́ние

Вре́мя

Дни неде́ли = Days of the week

On Russian calendars, the week starts with понеде́льник / Monday, and the names of the days are often abbreviated. 

	Abbreviated As	Mnemonic
понеде́льник	пн	по (after) +не (not)+ дель (doing)+ ник (noun maker) = day after the day of rest
вто́рник	вт	второ́й = second
среда́	ср	сре́дний, середи́на = middle
четве́рг	чт	четвёртый = fourth
пя́тница	пт	пя́тый = fifth
суббо́та	сб	Sabbath
воскресе́нье	вс

Ме́сяцы = Months

The months of the year in Russian are named similarly to their English counterparts. In the table below they are listed in their order over the calendar year.

1. янва́рь	4. апре́ль	7. ию́ль	10. октя́брь
2. февра́ль	5. май	8. а́вгуст	11. ноя́брь
3. март	6. ию́нь	9. сентя́брь	12. дека́брь

Noticing

Telling on what day: в + accusative

While knowing the names of the days of the week is useful, in conversation we are more likely to use them in the combination with “on” to tell when something is happening. Russian expresses the idea of “on x day” with the preposition в + accusative case of the day.  This means that the days of the week that are feminine nouns среда́, пя́тница, суббо́та in the accusative become: в сре́ду, в пя́тницу, в суббо́ту.

As you already know, prepositions are pronounced together with the word that follows them.  In telling “on what day” the preposition в is often pronounced as [ф] because five days of the week start with voiceless consonants. The preposition в turns into во before the consonant cluster вт at the start of вто́рник. The preposition в combines with the initial в of воскресе́нье to form a single longer [в] sound.

Compare the two different forms in the table below.  The first column Како́й день? names the day of the week; the second column Когда́? answers the question “on what day?”  The third column notes the pronunciation of these phrases.

Како́й день?	Когда́?	Pronunciation Notes
понеде́льник	в понеде́льник	[ф] понеде́льник
вто́рник	во вто́рник	[ва] вто́рник
среда́	в сре́ду	[ф] сре́ду
четве́рг	в четве́рг	[ф] четве́рг
пя́тница	в пя́тницу	[ф] пя́тницу
суббо́та	в суббо́ту	[ф] суббо́ту
воскресе́нье	в воскресе́нье	[в] воскресе́нье

Упражне́ние 1

You will hear a set of sentences, in which the speaker sometimes names what day of the week (Како́й день?) and at other times tells on what day an event will happen (Когда́?).  Indicate which you hear.

Days and Parts of Days

In addition to telling on what day, we can also point out during what parts of the day an event happens.  Notice that when we tell in a part of the day, the endings on these parts of the day are different from the forms used in greetings.

Greeting	Когда́?
До́брое у́тро!	у́тром	in the morning
До́брый день!	днём	in the afternoon
До́брый ве́чер!	ве́чером но́чью	in the evening at night