"Ist Sonntag der erste Tag der Woche?"
Translation:Is Sunday the first day of the week?
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feminine declension: die Woche (nom), der Woche (genitiv), der Woche (dat), die Woche (acc.). Genitive is translated as: "of the week"
Genitive hasn't been introduced to me at this point :/ Luckily it was easy enough to guess.
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what actually is the answer to this question though, is the first day monday or sunday?
Sunday to Saturday is the original tradition, at least since the Ancient Greeks and probably tracing back to Babylonians, and has its root in astronomy (the celestial bodies in order of magnitude); it's still the official lithurgical week in Christiandom. However, since Christians sanctify Sunday instead of Saturday the original seventh day of rest of the Jewish tradition didn't match, so the order was shifted. That way the week-end including Sunday makes more sense ;-)
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yeah in chinese monday is called literally the first day of the week, and saturday and sunday make more sense together as the weekend, but it is just more visually pleasing to see sunday at the front of the calendar ;)
In Polish Monday literally means "The day after you did nothing" (and Sunday means "Do Nothing") but Tuesday, Thursday and Friday mean "2nd Day", "4th Day" and "5th Day" respectively.
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Same in Czech! Also, Wednesday in Czech means "in the middle", as it used to be the middle day of the week (and now it's the middle working day).
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The same is true in Russian for Monday (= po-ne-del-nik = after-no-deal-er). But "ne-del-ya" means not Sunday (as in other Slavic languages) but rather the whole week (which is a bit of shame).
In Portuguese it's
Monday = Segunda-feira (something like 2nd fair or market)
Tuesday = Terça-feira (3rd fair)
And all the way to friday (6th fair)
In which the "feira" thing doesn't make much sense to me, but the first words cause the impression of Sunday being the "first day" if the week
In Hungarian also: Monday is "hétfő", which means "Head of the week" or the "beginning of the week". Moreover: hét=seven=week, the same word.
I agree that it is more pleasing, because that's what is familiar to me, having grown up where English is spoken.
Apparently, the order is not the "magnitude" (for example, Venus is the most prominent planet in our sky), but some weird arbitrary rule:
"The ordering of the weekday names are not that of the classical order of the planets (sorted by distance in the planetary spheres model, or, equivalently, by their apparent speed of movement in the night sky). Instead, the planetary hours systems resulted in succeeding days being named for planets that are three places apart in their traditional listing. This characteristic was apparently discussed in Plutarch in a treatise written in c. AD 100, which is reported to have addressed the question of Why are the days named after the planets reckoned in a different order from the actual order? (the text of Plutarch's treatise has been lost)."
If Saturday is the Sabbath, that would make it the seventh day, corresponding with the day God rested from his work of creation. Then that would make Sunday the first day, right? There are debates about when Jesus actually was crucified and rose from the dead, but I thought the early Christian church began meeting on Sunday and called it the Lord's day because of the resurrection.
They were Jewish and their Sabbath was on Saturday, but they also celebrated Jesus on Sunday which is why we have two days off for the weekend instead of just one.
We have a 2 day weekend thanks to Socialist labour unions. Before that, we only had the Sunday free cause that was the Lord's day. You'd work on Saturday like any other day of the week.
First day of week is kind of arbitrary but most calendars will have Monday on the far left and Sunday on the far right.
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In the US, Sunday is on the far left and Saturday on the far right. I'm not sure I've ever seen a non-work-related calendar (like in a shop or something) that doesn't have Sunday at the beginning here in the US.
Depends on your religious beliefs. It seems strange that in many countries where Roman Catholicism is prevalent, the first day on the calendar is Monday. According to tradition, Saturday (the sabbath) was the 7th day of the week for Judeo-Christian cultures. The only cultures I am aware of that name Saturday and Sunday according to this tradition are the ones with language based on Spanish or Portuguese. So sábado is Sabbath and domingo is the Lord's day, relating to dominus, nicht wahr?
Ih Greek Sunday is "Kyriaki" that also is related to "Kyrio" - mister, lord.
You probably mean "based on Latin", or rather "Romance languages", which preserved the original planetary Latin names with the exception of Saturday and Sunday.
French is in the same case. "Samedi" and "dimanche" respectively originate from "dies Sambati" or "dies Sabbati" (day of the Sabbath, that replaced the earlier "Saturni dies", day of Saturn) and "Dominica dies" or "dies dominica" (day of the Lord, that replaced the earlier "dies Solis", day of the sun).
English is a Germanic language, and the names of the days of the week mostly originate from the indigenous deities back when Germanic peoples adapted the Roman system.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_days_of_the_week#Days_named_after_planets
Sunday in the US, I know that. Otherwise, I have no idea.
In planners, though, it's usually Monday, since the weekend spots are smaller (you do less than on Werktage).
Reasons why the week starts on Sunday (despite what the ISO standard says):
- It historically always has.
- Sonntag is named after the sun, Montag after the moon, the rest are named after planets. Since when would the moon come first, then the planets, then the sun last?
- If the week starts on Montag, then Mittwoch ("middle-week") is the 3rd day of 7. That makes no sense. If the week starts on Sonntag then Mittwoch is where it should be, in the middle (4th of 7).
ok..genitiv it is! just wondering though: would be "von der Woche" wrong?
why der Woche? is it because it means of the and that makes it dative?
It makes it Genitive (of the week), a rough translation of dative would be "to the"
Example. Ich gebe den Brief der Mutter des Lehrers. Translation: I give the letter to the mother of the teacher.
As you see den Brief is akkusativ because is what I give (direct object), der Mutter is dativ because is who I give it to (indirect obj.) and des Lehrers is genitiv because it is his mother
Whoa, ty for that. Hopefully it will sink in one day. Sent a lingot for that explanations. Danke!
Why is it "der erste Tag" and not "den ersten Tag" isn't it Tag masculine? And shouldn't it be AKK here? Can someone explain this to me? Maybe I am missing something...
No, "to be" isn't an action, but an equality (copula), and as such it requires nominative on both sides, not accusative.
Good God! I know see it. Thank you. I had to change that construction in my head a little bit from a question to: "Der erste Tag der Woche ist Sonntag." And there is the nominative clear and bright. I'll keep this in mind.
But look at the top two posts which explain that it's genitive, because it means, "of the week." Things that show possession are genitive case. German is different from English and the romance languages in this.
"Tag" is Nominative case, "Woche" is Genitive case and "Sonntag" is Nominative case. You are not talking about the same "it".
Thanks for this explanation of the genitive case. Now I know that anything that shows possession is a genitive case. Have a lingot for that GauthierMcL.
The fact that Wednesday is called mittwoch (mid week) suggests that Sunday is the true first day of the week.
While this whole discussion of which day is the "true" beginning of the week is basically absurd, Mittwoch actually refers to the middle of the work week, just as "Wochenende" ("weekend", by the way) refers to what is at the end of the (work) week. In my country, Wednesday is also derived from the word "middle", but Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, are derived from numbers 2, 4, and 5.
Personally, I prefer my workdays and my weekends not to be split, so either Monday or Saturday would be fine for me. I use Monday because it is a universal standard. You could start your week with Thursday if you like, but there is no such thing as a "true" first day of the week".
I am used to my calendar with Sunday in front and Saturday at the end. To me it makes the weekend seem bigger because the weekend stretches through two rows.
If it was universal, or even standard, then there would be no discussion on this. I think rislampa has an excellent point about your theory on the etymology of "Mittwoch" and "Wochenende," as well.
It depends. In Romania for example, Monday is the first day of the week. However, when I worked for Americans, my weekly schedule always began on Sunday.
It depends on the calendar. Some have the weekend at the end of the week. (Sunday is the seventh day) Some have the weekend at the left and right end of the week.
