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Days, months and dates in Vietnamese
Good news: days and months are numbered in Vietnamese, a bit like saying "day one", "day two" or "month one", "month two". There are no dozens of separate names to memorize the way English has Monday, Tuesday, January, February and so on. Once you master the numbers from one to twelve, the Vietnamese calendar becomes almost mathematically logical.
In this article you will learn to name the days of the week, the months of the year, ask questions about the date, and build a complete date both in speech and in writing. We will also look at a few useful nuances between the solar calendar and the lunar calendar.
Days of the week: a numbered system
In Vietnamese, the week starts on Sunday, not Monday. Each day is built with the word thứ, meaning "rank" or "order", followed by a number. Only Sunday is an exception: it has its own name, Chủ nhật, which literally means "the lord's day".
- Chủ nhật: Sunday
- thứ hai: Monday (literally "rank two")
- thứ ba: Tuesday
- thứ tư: Wednesday
- thứ năm: Thursday
- thứ sáu: Friday
- thứ bảy: Saturday
Notice that there is no "thứ một" (day one): the numbering starts directly at two, since Sunday symbolically holds the first place without being counted with a number. This small shift often surprises beginners, but it quickly becomes second nature after a few days of practice.
Asking what day it is
To ask what day it is, Vietnamese uses the expression thứ mấy, meaning "which rank?". The full question is "Hôm nay là thứ mấy?" (What day is it today?). You answer simply with the name of the day: "Hôm nay là thứ tư" (Today is Wednesday).
This pattern shows up in many other Vietnamese questions: the question word slots into the exact place where the answer belongs, with no inversion and no extra helper word, which makes Vietnamese grammar surprisingly regular once you grasp the principle.
Months of the year
The same principle applies to months, with the word tháng (month) followed by a number from one to twelve.
- tháng một: January
- tháng hai: February
- tháng ba: March
- tháng tư: April
- tháng năm: May
- tháng sáu: June
- tháng bảy: July
- tháng tám: August
- tháng chín: September
- tháng mười: October
- tháng mười một: November
- tháng mười hai: December
Unlike the days, months have no exception: January is simply tháng một (month one), not "tháng giêng" in everyday use of the solar calendar. That term, tháng giêng, does exist, but it traditionally refers to the first month of the lunar calendar, the month of Tết, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. Likewise, tháng chạp is an old name for the twelfth lunar month, still used in the countryside or in traditional expressions, alongside the very regular tháng mười hai.
Saying and writing a date
To give a full date, Vietnamese order goes from smallest to largest: day, then month, then year, exactly as in French and unlike English. You use the word ngày (day) before the day number, then tháng before the month, and finally năm before the year if you mention it.
Example: "ngày 2 tháng 9 năm 1945" reads as "September 2nd, 1945", a famous date since it corresponds to Vietnam's declaration of independence. In writing, you will also see the numeric format 2/9/1945, in the same day, month, year order.
The little word mùng
For the first ten days of each month, Vietnamese speakers often add the particle mùng before the number instead of ngày: "mùng một" (the first), "mùng hai" (the second), up to "mùng mười" (the tenth). This usage is especially common around Tết: "mùng một Tết" refers to the very first day of the lunar new year, a highly important moment in Vietnamese culture. After the tenth day, speakers go back to the neutral word ngày: "ngày mười một" (the eleventh), "ngày hai mươi" (the twentieth), and so on.
Weeks, weekends and other time markers
The word tuần means week. "Tuần này" means "this week", "tuần sau" means "next week" and "tuần trước" means "last week". The weekend is cuối tuần, literally "the end of the week".
To talk about the present, the past and the near future, a handful of words come up constantly: hôm nay (today), hôm qua (yesterday), ngày mai (tomorrow), tháng này (this month), tháng sau (next month) and năm nay (this year). These words combine very easily with what you have just learned: "Hôm nay là ngày mùng 5 tháng 3" means "today is March 5th".
Frequently asked questions
Why is Monday called "day two" (thứ hai)?
Because the Vietnamese week starts on Sunday, Chủ nhật, which symbolically holds the first position without carrying a number. Monday, which follows immediately, is therefore logically the "second rank", thứ hai. This is a cultural difference worth remembering, since it does not match how the French or English calendar traditionally places Monday at the start of the week.
Should I say "tháng một" or "tháng giêng" for January?
In everyday life and for the solar (Gregorian) calendar, you use tháng một. The word tháng giêng is reserved for the traditional lunar calendar and refers to the first lunar month, the month of Tết. The two terms are not interchangeable, so it is best to learn tháng một for all your everyday dates.
How do I ask for today's date in Vietnamese?
You ask "Hôm nay là ngày mấy?" for the day of the month, and "Hôm nay là thứ mấy?" for the day of the week. You can also ask for the month with "Tháng mấy?" or the year with "Năm nay là năm mấy?". All three questions follow the same simple grammatical pattern.
Is the word mùng required?
No, it stays optional beyond the first ten days of the month, and even for the first ten days, replacing mùng with ngày is still understood and correct. It is mainly a widespread spoken habit, especially around important dates such as birthdays or Tết.
Just like with tones, the best way to remember this system is to practice it out loud, day after day: ask yourself every morning "Hôm nay là thứ mấy?" then "Hôm nay là ngày mấy?", and answer without hesitating. With short daily sessions and pronunciation and conversation exercises like the ones offered in vietIQ, this vocabulary of days, months and dates will quickly become automatic, a solid foundation for scheduling appointments, telling someone about your week, or simply following a conversation in Vietnamese.