Months of the Year in 16 Languages

How Months Are Named

Swedish months stem directly from the Julian calendar. They are almost identical to English and German. Note the Swedish spelling adjustments: replacing 'c' with 'k' in "oktober", and using the ending "-i" instead of "-y" in "januari" and "februari". "Maj" is spelled with a 'j' which makes the 'y' sound in Swedish.

Cultural Notes

A critical spelling rule in Swedish is that months are never capitalized in the middle of a sentence. When discussing dates or scheduling in Sweden, keep in mind that Swedes frequently rely on "week numbers" (Veckonummer) in business contexts, rather than just stating the month and day.

Swedish: quick questions

How Months Are Named

The Turkish calendar is a linguistic mosaic. "Ocak" (January) and "Ekim" (October) come from native Turkic roots relating to hearth/fire and sowing seeds, respectively. "Mart" (March) and "Ağustos" (August) stem directly from Latin/Roman influence. "Şubat" (February), "Nisan" (April), and "Haziran" (June) have Syriac and Arabic origins, reflecting the geographic and cultural crossroads of Anatolia.

Cultural Notes

Turkish grammar dictates that month names are generally written in lowercase letters (e.g., ocak, şubat). However, if you write an exact specific date, the month is capitalized: "19 Mayıs 1919" (a major national holiday in Turkey). Because Turkish is an agglutinative language, prepositions like "in" are attached as suffixes to the end of the word based on vowel harmony (e.g., "Mart'ta" for "in March").

Turkish: quick questions

How Months Are Named

Like other Romance languages, the Portuguese months originated from the ancient Roman calendar. The spellings introduce traditional Portuguese orthographic features such as the cedilla in "março" and the "lh" sound in "julho", which equates roughly to the "lli" sound in the English word "million".

Cultural Notes

A major rule to remember is that months are not capitalized in Portuguese unless they are the first word in a sentence. This contrasts with English grammar. Furthermore, when writing dates, the structure is "day de month de year" (e.g., "7 de setembro de 1822"). All months are masculine, so you will use the preposition "em" when referring to something happening in a specific month.

Portuguese: quick questions

How Months Are Named

Because Dutch also adopted the Gregorian calendar directly from Latin roots, the similarities are striking. While the spelling rules follow Dutch phonetic logic (like writing 'oktober' instead of 'october' to preserve the hard 'k' sound), the names are entirely recognizable. Note that the 'j' in januari, juni, and juli is pronounced like the English 'y' sound.

Cultural Notes

A very important spelling rule in the Netherlands and Flanders: months are written in lowercase letters . Capitalizing them in the middle of a sentence is grammatically incorrect. When expressing dates, the Dutch format is "day month year", such as "27 april 2024" (King's Day in the Netherlands).

Dutch: quick questions

How Months Are Named

The names listed here are purely phonetic transliterations of the English Gregorian calendar. "January" becomes "Janvari", "August" becomes "Agast", and so forth. These are the words you will see on Indian government documents, newspapers, flight tickets, and modern business scheduling platforms.

Cultural Notes

While the Gregorian calendar runs the business and governmental engines of modern India, traditional Hindu festivals (like Diwali, Holi, or Dussehra) and astrological events are calculated using the Hindu lunar calendar, known as the Panchang. That traditional calendar contains a completely different set of months, starting with Chaitra (March-April) and ending with Phalguna (February-March).

Hindi: quick questions

How Months Are Named

Spanish month names descend directly from the ancient Roman calendar. "Enero" comes from Janus, the two-faced Roman god. "Marzo" is derived from Mars, the god of war. The later months of the year, such as "septiembre" through "diciembre", use the exact same numerical Latin roots (septem, octo, novem, decem) as their English equivalents, meaning "seventh" through "tenth" months of the original Roman calendar.

Cultural Notes

A key orthographic rule is that Spanish months are not capitalized . When writing dates in Spanish, the format is "Day de Month de Year" (e.g., "el 5 de mayo de 2024"). All months are treated as masculine nouns. Additionally, it's very common to use the preposition "en" when saying something happens in a particular month (e.g., "Mi cumpleaños es en agosto").

Spanish: quick questions

How Months Are Named

Greek months owe their names to the Roman Julian calendar. "Μάρτιος" directly traces to Mars, and "Αύγουστος" to Emperor Augustus. The common ending "-ος" (-os) is typical of masculine nouns in the Greek language. This makes memorization incredibly straightforward once you learn to read the Greek alphabet.

Cultural Notes

Unlike many European languages, Greek months are capitalized . Because Greek grammar involves cases, the spelling of the month changes depending on its function. The table above shows the Nominative case (the base dictionary form). If you say "in January", you use the Accusative case, dropping the final 's' to become "τον Ιανουάριο".

Greek: quick questions

How Months Are Named

Unlike European languages that lean on Roman gods and historical leaders, Mandarin Chinese simply maps a number (一, 二, 三...) to the character for month/moon (月). January is "month one" (一月), February is "month two" (二月), and December is "month twelve" (十二月). This identical pattern makes language acquisition rapid and prevents spelling irregularities.

Cultural Notes

While the Gregorian calendar (阳历 - Solar calendar) is used for day-to-day operations and international business, China also operates on a traditional Lunar calendar (农历) for cultural festivals. Traditional holidays, such as the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) and the Mid-Autumn Festival, follow this lunar cycle. Occasionally, you may hear references to "the first lunar month," which is traditionally called 正月 (Zhēngyuè).

Mandarin Chinese: quick questions