La Vida Diaria - Daily Life
El Fin de Semana - The Weekend
You've got the verbs (Lesson 1), the routine (Lesson 2) and the clock (Lesson 3). The last piece of the daily-life puzzle is the week. This lesson covers the seven days, the magic los sábados pattern that turns a single day into "every Saturday", and a starter set of weekend verbs. By the end you'll be able to answer the question every Spaniard asks on a Monday morning: ¿qué tal el finde?
Days of the Week
The seven days, all lower-case in Spanish (no capital letter, ever):
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| lunes | Monday |
| martes | Tuesday |
| miércoles | Wednesday |
| jueves | Thursday |
| viernes | Friday |
| sábado | Saturday |
| domingo | Sunday |
Two oddities for English speakers:
- The Spanish week starts on lunes, not Sunday. Calendars, planners and phone apps in Spain all begin the row with Monday.
- lunes, martes, miércoles, jueves, viernes all stay the same in the plural — el lunes singular, los lunes plural, same word. Only sábado and domingo add an -s: los sábados, los domingos.
"On Monday" vs. "On Mondays"
The article in front of the day does serious work in Spanish. There's no word for "on" — the article carries that meaning instead.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| el lunes | on Monday (this one) |
| los lunes | on Mondays (every) |
| el sábado | on Saturday |
| los sábados | on Saturdays |
Compare two sentences:
- El lunes trabajo en casa. – On Monday I'm working from home. (this coming Monday)
- Los lunes trabajo en casa. – On Mondays I work from home. (every Monday — a routine)
That switch from el to los is the difference between a one-off plan and a weekly habit. It's also the most natural way to talk about your routine: los sábados desayuno con amigos, los domingos descanso.
Weekend Verbs
Here's a set of regular -ar verbs that show up constantly in weekend conversations. They all conjugate exactly like hablar from Lesson 1.
| Pronoun | bailar (dance) | descansar (rest) | viajar (travel) | cocinar (cook) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| yo | bailo | descanso | viajo | cocino |
| tú | bailas | descansas | viajas | cocinas |
| él/ella | baila | descansa | viaja | cocina |
| nosotros | bailamos | descansamos | viajamos | cocinamos |
| vosotros | bailáis | descansáis | viajáis | cocináis |
| ellos | bailan | descansan | viajan | cocinan |
A few weekend-shaped sentences, mixing the days, the verbs and time-of-day phrases from Lesson 3:
- Los sábados por la noche bailamos hasta las tres. – On Saturdays we dance until three.
- Los domingos descanso y cocino en casa. – On Sundays I rest and cook at home.
- El finde que viene viajamos a Sevilla. – Next weekend we're travelling to Seville.
- ¿Qué planes tenéis para el viernes? – What plans do you all have for Friday?
The colloquial el finde is what friends actually say. Fin de semana is the formal full version (newspapers, work emails); finde is the version that lands in conversation: ¿qué tal el finde?, este finde no salgo.
Two more handy weekend nouns:
- un plan — "a plan", but also "something to do". ¿Tienes plan para el sábado? means do you have anything on?, not do you have a strategic outline?
- una excursión — a day trip, usually outside the city. Una excursión a Toledo, una excursión a la sierra.
Practice
Words to Remember
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| lunes | Monday |
| martes | Tuesday |
| miércoles | Wednesday |
| jueves | Thursday |
| viernes | Friday |
| sábado | Saturday |
| domingo | Sunday |
| el fin de semana | the weekend |
| el finde | the weekend (colloquial) |
| bailar | to dance |
| descansar | to rest |
| viajar | to travel |
| cocinar | to cook |
| una fiesta | a party |
| un plan | a plan |
| una excursión | a day trip |
| ¿qué tal el finde? | how was your weekend? |
Conversation
Monday morning small talk
Lucía: Buenos días, Pablo. ¿Qué tal el finde? Morning, Pablo. How was the weekend?
Pablo: De lujo. El sábado bailamos hasta las cuatro. Amazing. On Saturday we danced until four.
Lucía: ¡Qué fuerte! Yo descansé en casa. Wow! I rested at home.
Making weekend plans
Diego: ¿Tienes plan para el sábado? Do you have plans for Saturday?
María: Todavía no. ¿Qué piensas? Not yet. What are you thinking?
Diego: Una excursión a Toledo. A day trip to Toledo.
Talking about a typical Sunday
Carmen: ¿Qué haces los domingos? What do you do on Sundays?
Javi: Los domingos cocino con mi familia y descanso. On Sundays I cook with my family and rest.
Carmen: Yo siempre viajo al pueblo de mis padres. I always travel to my parents' village.
Practice
Recall
Type the Spanish for each English meaning. Leave a row blank if you draw a blank — that counts as a miss.
Practice
Translation Exercise
Translate each English sentence into Spanish.
Cultural Note
The Spanish weekend has its own rhythm, and you'll feel it the first time you spend a Saturday in Madrid. El aperitivo is the late-morning ritual — around one o'clock, people meet at a bar for a small beer (una caña) and a free tapa before lunch. Saturday lunch itself is long and loud, often stretching past four with la sobremesa — the after-meal lingering with coffee or a chupito, where the table conversation gets the best of the day. Dinner doesn't happen until ten or later, and Saturday night out properly starts at midnight — the bars before that are a warm-up.
Sunday is quieter and family-shaped. Many small shops are closed (a national rule with regional exceptions). It's the classic day for an excursión to a nearby pueblo, a long lunch with grandparents, or a walk in the Retiro if you're in Madrid. By Sunday evening the city is winding down, dinner is lighter, and people are getting ready for the lunes that, despite everything, still starts at nine in the morning.