Days, Months and Seasons
Learn 20 easy A1 English words for days, months and seasons - weekend, July, autumn, yesterday, birthday - with examples, a story and a quiz.
These words come with a rule that surprises almost every learner: in English, days and months always start with a capital letter, even in the middle of a sentence. This lesson gives you the units of the calendar, the four seasons, and the three small words that put everything in time. Then come and look at the calendar in my mother’s kitchen, which decides what this family does.
20 words to learn
The 20 words
/deɪ/
Twenty-four hours. Also the light part of it.
What day is it today?
/wiːk/
Seven days.
I see my grandmother twice a week.
/mʌnθ/
About four weeks. There are twelve in a year.
I start my new job next month.
/jɪə(r)/
Twelve months.
She lived in Cairo for one year.
/ˌwiːkˈend/
The days at the end of the week when most people do not work.
What are you doing at the weekend?
/ˈmʌndeɪ/
The first working day of the week. Always a capital M.
I have a meeting on Monday.
/ˈfraɪdeɪ/
The sixth day of the week.
We visit my uncle every Friday.
/ˈsætədeɪ/
The seventh day of the week.
On Saturday we clean the house.
/ˈdʒænjuri/
The first month of the year.
My birthday is in January.
/dʒuˈlaɪ/
The seventh month, in the middle of summer.
It is very hot here in July.
/dɪˈsembə(r)/
The last month of the year.
The exams are in December.
/ˈsiːzn/
One of the four parts of the year: spring, summer, autumn, winter.
Which season do you like best?
/sprɪŋ/
The season after winter, when plants start to grow.
Everything is green in spring.
/ˈsʌmə(r)/
The hot season.
We go to the sea every summer.
/ˈɔːtəm/
The season after summer. Americans say fall. The n is silent.
The leaves turn yellow in autumn.
/ˈwɪntə(r)/
The cold season.
It rains a lot in winter.
/təˈdeɪ/
This day.
Today is Thursday.
/təˈmɒrəʊ/
The day after today.
See you tomorrow!
/ˈjestədeɪ/
The day before today.
I saw him yesterday at the market.
/ˈbɜːθdeɪ/
The day in the year when you were born.
Happy birthday!
Now read the story
Story · all 20 words
The Calendar in the Kitchen
In our kitchen there is one calendar and it decides everything. My mother writes on it in blue pen and nobody else in this family is allowed to touch it. She begins a new year the same way every time: she opens it at January and writes down eleven birthdays before she has made her coffee.
Every week has the same shape. Monday is the hardest day – everybody leaves the house before seven and nobody talks. By Thursday the mood is better. Friday is the quiet one: empty streets in the morning, and then the whole city visiting each other in the afternoon. Saturday is the cleaning day, and what is left of the weekend belongs to us.
The month I love most is July. School finishes, the season changes properly, and summer takes over the whole house: the windows stay open all night and we eat on the balcony until somebody falls asleep on a chair. December is the opposite – dark at five, rain on the glass, and my grandmother explaining that winter was much colder when she was a girl.
The other two seasons are short here. Spring is three perfect weeks in April when everything turns green and everybody suddenly wants to go somewhere. Autumn is one long yellow afternoon, and then it is gone.
Today is the fourteenth. On the calendar, in blue pen, there is one word: mine. Yesterday nobody mentioned it, and this morning nobody mentioned it either. But my sister bought flour on Thursday, my brother has been in the kitchen since four o’clock, and I am fairly sure that tomorrow I will still be finding cake in this house. It is my birthday, and this family has never in its history kept a secret.
Capital letters are not optional. In English, every day and every month begins with a capital letter, wherever it appears in the sentence:
✓ I saw him on Monday in July. ✗ I saw him on monday in july.
Seasons are the exception – spring, summer, autumn, winter stay small.
The prepositions. Learn these as fixed pairs and you will never think about them again:
on + day → on Monday, on Friday morning
in + month, season, year → in July, in winter, in 2026
at + the weekend (British) → at the weekend (Americans say on the weekend)
And today, tomorrow, yesterday take no preposition at all: See you tomorrow, never see you in tomorrow.
Pronunciation: the n in autumn is silent – say AW-tum. And July has the stress on the second part: ju-LY.
Units: day, week, month, year, weekend.
Days: Monday, Friday, Saturday (all with capitals).
Months: January, July, December (all with capitals).
Seasons: spring, summer, autumn, winter (all small).
Position in time: yesterday, today, tomorrow, birthday.
Answer these three out loud: What day is it today? What is your favourite season and why? When is your birthday?
Now practise with the questions below.
Check your understanding
Answer the questions below. You will see instantly if you are right.
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