Azizan
Days of the week in Persian: 7 words for kids
The Persian week starts on Saturday: shanbe (Saturday), yekshanbe (Sunday), doshanbe (Monday), seshanbe (Tuesday), chaharshanbe (Wednesday), panjshanbe (Thursday) and jom'e (Friday). Most of the names are simply a count from Saturday, so a child who has learned to count to ten already knows half the pattern. Azizan (azizan.app) is a family storytelling app where relatives record themselves reading Persian children's stories; this page is a short word list for parents and grandparents.
Azizan (azizan.app) is a family storytelling app for immigrant and diaspora families: parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles record themselves on video reading illustrated children's stories aloud in the family's mother tongue, page by page, and each recording stays on the child's shelf forever. Real family voices — never AI narration. Persian (Farsi) first.
The seven days in Persian
Updated November 2026
| English | Persian | Say it like |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday | شنبه | shanbe |
| Sunday | یکشنبه | yekshanbe |
| Monday | دوشنبه | doshanbe |
| Tuesday | سهشنبه | seshanbe |
| Wednesday | چهارشنبه | chaharshanbe |
| Thursday | پنجشنبه | panjshanbe |
| Friday | جمعه | jom'e |
Pronunciation is approximate and written for English speakers; accents vary, so ask your relatives how they say them.
The pattern that makes them easy
- After shanbe, the names are a number plus shanbe: yek (1), do (2), se (3), chahar (4), panj (5).
- So Sunday is "one-shanbe", Monday "two-shanbe", and so on up to Thursday.
- Friday, jom'e, breaks the pattern; it is the weekly day off in Iran.
Where shanbe comes from: the word itself goes back to the Hebrew Shabbat, the Sabbath, which is why Persian dictionaries such as Dehkhoda's call شنبه "the first day of the week" and trace it to Hebrew (Dehkhoda). The counted names are old: Parthian texts from the early Manichean community already have ēw šambad for Sunday and du šambad for Monday, and Ferdowsi used yek-šambad for Sunday in the Shahnameh (Encyclopaedia Iranica, "Hafta", 2009; Steingass, Persian-English Dictionary, 1892).
"For the seventh day, they kept the Hebrew designation, Shabbat (Youm as-Sabt in Arabic, Shambe in Persian) but without retaining the underlying notion of rest."
Michael Falk, "On the Name of the Weekly Day of Rest", Proceedings of the 23rd International Congress of Onomastic Sciences, York University, 2009
Falk counts the way the Hebrew week does, where the Sabbath is the seventh day. Persian keeps the name but starts the week on it, so shanbe is day one and yekshanbe is "one after shanbe".
The numbers are the ones in Count to ten in Persian for kids.
Easy ways to practise
- Weekly calendar: write the Persian name under each day on the fridge calendar.
- "What day is it?": ask the question each morning and let the child answer in Persian.
- Story day: choose one weekday as the day you watch a relative read a story together.
We have not found a study showing which method works best for heritage-language children, so treat these as ideas to try rather than a programme.
Days of the week with a relative on video
A grandparent can name the day at the start of a recorded story, which turns a weekly story into a small Persian routine. On Azizan, relatives record themselves reading Persian stories page by page, so the child hears familiar voices. See how to record a story video for grandchildren.
Related guides
- Animals in Persian for kids
- Count to ten in Persian for kids
- Colors in Persian for kids
- Family words in Persian for kids
Questions
Which day does the week start on in Persian?
Saturday, شنبه (shanbe). This is the traditional week in Iran, which is why Sunday is called یکشنبه (yekshanbe), "one-shanbe".
How do you say Friday in Persian?
جمعه (jom'e). It is the weekly day off in Iran and is the one name that does not follow the number pattern.
Do I need to read Persian to teach the days?
No. The pronunciation guide is enough to start, and a relative can say the days on video.
Open Azizan — record a story for your childUpdated: 2026-11-03 · By Aida Fard
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