Dates, days and months in Turkish

In this post, I will try to explain everything you must know about saying dates, days, months and seasons.

Days - Günler

The days of the week start with "Pazartesi" (Monday). Weekdays (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) are called "Hafta içi" (Literally in-week) or "İş günleri" (Working days). Saturday and Sunday are called "Hafta sonu" (Literally end of week)

Note that the terms above can be written as well compoundly like haftaiçi, haftasonu, işgünü etc.

1. Pazartesi - Monday
2. Salı - Tuesday
3. Çarşamba - Wednesday
4. Perşembe - Thursday
5. Cuma - Friday
6. Cumartesi - Saturday
7. Pazar - Sunday

Here are some interesting facts on day names. Except "Salı" all names are of foreign origin. Pazartesi and Cumartesi are compound nouns formed with +ertesi (meaning the day after) So literally Cuma+ertesi is "The day after Friday" and Pazar+ertesi is "The day after Pazar". Note that some letters disappears and words are written as Cumartesi and Pazartesi.

How to ask days?

Yarın günlerden ne?
What day is it tomorrow?

Bugün hangi gün?
What day is it today?

Bugün hangi gündeyiz?
(Literally) In which day are we in today?  

Bu mağaza hangi günler açık?
What day is this store open?

Müzeler haftanın hangi günü kapalı?
Which day of the week is the museum closed?

Haftanın kaçıncı günü?
Which day of the week? (Asking order)

Ofisimiz çarşambaları kapalıdır.
Our office is closed on Wednesdays.

Bu cuma camiye gideceğim.
This friday I will go to mosque.

Her pazar sahile giderim.
I go to seaside every Sunday.

Pazartesiyi salıya bağlayan gece.
On the night from monday to tuesday.

Sergi salıdan pazara her gün ziyaret edilebilir.
Exposition can be visited everyday from tuesday to sunday.

Months - Aylar

After the republican revolution in Turkey, the month names have been changed. In the imperial era most of the names were of Arabic origin. Now some Turkish and Roman origin names are used.

1. Ocak - January
2. Şubat - February
3. Mart - March
4. Nisan - April
5. Mayıs - May
6. Haziran - June
7. Temmuz - July
8. Ağustos - August
9. Eylül - September
10. Ekim - October
11. Kasım - November
12. Aralık - December

How to ask the month?

Hangi aydayız?
In which month are we in?

Okullar yılın hangi ayı açılıyor?
In which month of the year the schools are opened?

Kaçıncı ayda taşınıyorsunuz?
In which month are you moving in? (asking order)

Beşinci ayda geri döneceğim.
I will come back on fifth month.

Note: In Turkish you can use ordinal nouns instead of original names. Ocak being the first month; you can easily say Birinci ay instead of January, İkinci ay instead of February, Üçüncü ay instead of March etc.

Seasons - Mevsimler

In Turkish we have 4 seasons.

• 
  
• İlkbahar (Spring) comprising of Mart, Nisan and Mayıs 
• Yaz (Summer) comprising of Haziran, Temmuz, Ağustos
• Sonbahar (Autumn) comprising of Eylül, Ekim, Kasım
• Kış (Winter) comprising of Aralık, Ocak, Şubat

Notes:
In literary texts you might encounter ilkyaz instead of ilkbahar.

Karakış (Black winter) or Zemheri signifies the coldest days of winter.

Güz is synonym of the word Sonbahar.

Kışın is a special word meaning "In the winter". You cannot say "Kışta". The suffix -in -ın has nothing to do with possession. Don't be confused. The stress is on first syllable. So it is pronounced like yàzın.

Yazın is used to say "In the summer". You cannot say "Yazda"

Güzün is used to say "In the autumn". You cannot say Güzde" but you can say "Sonbaharda".

Baharın, İlkbaharın, Sonbaharın doesn't exist. You must say "Baharda, İlkbaharda, Sonbaharda, İlkyazda" etc.

Saying the date

In Turkish, the date is said either by nominative case or by using possessive construction.

2 Mayıs'ta geleceğim.
I will come on 2nd May.

10 Nisan'da doğdum.
I was born on April 10th.

or

Ayın birinde 
On 1st of the month

Ekimin beşi
October 5th

Martın 22'si.
22nd of March

Parts of the month

Ayın başında - At the beginning of the month

Ayın sonunda - At the end of the month

Ayın ortasında - At the middle of the month

Ayın ilk/son yarısında - First/Second half of the month 

Note: Ay sonu, ay başı, ay ortası can be ısed as well. But not "ay yarısı"

Specific dates

11 Aralık 2015'te Beyoğlu'nda evlendik.
We got married on December 11, 2015 in Beyoğlu. 

24 Şubat 2019 Pazar günü Çanakkale'ye vardık.
We arrived in Çanakkale on Sunday, February 24, 2019.

Years

Years in Turkish are mostly written in numerals. But when written in words, they are always written separately and pronounced as normal numbers.

1990'da doğdum. 
I was born in 1990 (bin dokuz yüz doksan)

or

2015 yılında ikiz çocuklarım oldu.
I got twin kids in the year 2015 (iki bin on beş)

Yılbaşı: January 1st
Yılsonu or yıl sonu: End of the year

Vocabulary about dates

Gün: Day

Hafta: Week

Ay: Month

Yıl or Sene: Year

Yüzyıl or Asır: Centruy

Binyıl: Millenium

Çağ: Era

Bugün: Today

Yarın: Tomorrow

Ertesi gün: One day after

Yarın değil öbür gün: The day after tomorrow

Önceki gün or Evvelsi gün: The day before yesterday

Arife: Eve