Days Of The Week, Months Of The Year, Seasons, Weather And Time In Albanian
When you’re just starting to learn Albanian, it’s important to build a strong foundation by learning some commonly used words. This will give you a good base to work from as you continue your studies.
The most important groups of words in any language are those that deal with time. Knowing how to describe when something happened/will happen is crucial for being able to effectively communicate in Albanian.
In this post, we’ll cover some of the most important words relating to time in Albanian. These include days of the week, months of the year, seasons, and common time terms. Additionally, we’ll cover vocabulary that describes the weather and other seasonal conditions, as these are often closely tied to time.
A note before you start:
Due to the somewhat complex grammar system that Albanian uses, most of these words have different forms depending on how they’re being used in a sentence.
We’ll only be highlighting the basic forms of each word, that is, the indefinite forms, as they’re the most commonly used. You’ll still be able to recognize other forms, as it’s usually only a letter or two at the end of a word that changes.
Days of the Week in Albanian
In this section, we’ll look at the Albanian names for the 7 days of the week. You’ll notice that, just like in English and a number of other languages, some days are named after planets or stars.
| Days of the Week (English) | Ditët e javës (Albanian) |
|---|---|
| Monday | e hënë |
| Tuesday | e martë |
| Wednesday | e mërkurë |
| Thursday | e enjte |
| Friday | e premte |
| Saturday | e shtunë |
| Sunday | e diel |
Months of the Year in Albanian
In this section, we’ll look at the Albanian names for each of the 12 months in a year. You’ll notice that the months of September, October, November, and December, just like they do in English, correspond to numbers 7, 8, 9 and 10.
Something else to note is that, although you’ll mostly see the months referred to in their standard forms, this changes when the month is acting as the subject of a sentence. If it ends in a consonant, you’ll add an -i to the end of the word; if it ends in -k, you’ll add -u.
| Months of the Year (English) | Muajt e vitit (Albanian) |
|---|---|
| January | janar |
| February | shkurt |
| March | mars |
| April | prill |
| May | maj |
| June | qershor |
| July | korrik |
| August | gusht |
| September | shtator |
| October | tetor |
| November | nëntor |
| December | dhjetor |
Seasons in Albanian
Just like in English, Albanian has four seasons: spring, summer, fall/autumn, and winter. Here, we’ll take a look at the words for each of them.
| Seasons (English) | Stinët (Albanian) |
|---|---|
| spring | pranverë |
| summer | verë |
| autumn (Fall) | vjeshtë |
| winter | dimër |
The Weather in Albanian
You might be thinking, “huh? What does the weather have to do with time?” Well, the weather goes hand in hand with the changing of the seasons, so it’s only natural that we’d make mention of it here.
This section will introduce you to a number of weather-related words in Albanian.
| Weather (English) | Moti (Albanian) |
|---|---|
| rain | shi |
| snow | borë |
| sun | diell |
| wind | erë |
| clouds | retë |
| fog | mjegull |
| thunderstorm | vetëtim |
| hail | breshër |
| hot | nxehtë |
| cold | ftohtë |
Time in Albanian
Here we’ll look at some words that refer to time in its most abstract sense. These are words that you’ll often hear in conversation, so it’s good to familiarize yourself with them early on.
They include adverbs of time, such as “yesterday” and “tomorrow”, words that describe periods of time, like “week” and “month”, and units of time, such as “second” and “minute”.
| Time (English) | Koha (Albanian) |
|---|---|
| morning | mëngjes |
| afternoon | pasdite |
| evening | mbrëmje |
| night | natë |
| midnight | mesnatë |
| dusk | muzgu |
| dawn | agimi |
| second | sekondë |
| minute | minutë |
| hour | orë |
| day | dita |
| week | java |
| weekend | fundjavë |
| month | muaj |
| year | viti |
| decade | dekadë |
| century | shekulli |
| today | sot |
| yesterday | dje |
| tomorrow | nesër |
| tonight | sonte |
| late | vonë |
| early | herët |
| now | tani |
| soon | së shpejti |
Telling the Time in Albanian
Telling the time in Albanian, for the most part, isn’t that difficult (we’d even go as far as saying it’s one of the easier aspects of the language). It’s not that much different than in English. Take a look at the table below to see how it all breaks down.
Things to note about the Albanian system of time
When telling the time in Albanian, there are a couple of things to be aware of. Firstly, you express the minutes after the hour using the particle “e”, so that 1:20 becomes “një e njëzet”.
Secondly, when referring to a period later in the hour, your focus would be on the coming hour, not the current one, and you’d use the particle “pa”. So, if it’s currently 2:40, you can say “tre pa njëzet”, which translates as “three minus/without twenty”. It’s similar to how we would say, in English, “twenty to three”.
12 o’clock in Albanian
There are a couple of different ways to say “12 o’clock”. You can say “dymbëdhjetë fiks” (literally, “twelve exactly”). You might also want to be more specific about which 12 you’re referring to. If so:
Noon = “dymbëdhjetë e ditës” or “mesditë”
Midnight = “dymbëdhjetë e natës” or “mesnatë”
| What’s the time? | Sa është ora? |
|---|---|
| It’s three o’clock | Ora është tre |
| 6:30 | Gjashtë e tridhjetë |
| Quarter to eight | Tetë pa një çerek / pesëmbëdhjetë |
| Quarter past five | Pesë e një çerek / pesëmbëdhjetë |
Practice telling the time in Albanian – FREE Download
We know how difficult it can sometimes be to tell the time in a new language. That’s why we’ve created this free, handy worksheet for you to practice your newfound Albanian skills.
If you haven’t already, do go check out our post Numbers and Counting in Albanian to solidify your knowledge of the Albanian numbering system. And if you want to learn how to use pronouns, read our in-depth post Albanian Pronouns Made Simple.
Shihemi më vonë!
