How do you say Week in German?

From Monday blues to Friday night plans, Germans organize life around one unit of time: the Woche. Whether you’re scheduling meetings or planning a vacation, if it lasts seven days, it’s a Woche.

The noun Woche means week, and it’s one of the 1000 most frequently used nouns in German. You’ll hear it constantly - in work emails, casual conversations, school settings, and calendars.

It’s a feminine noun, so we say die Woche.

Pronunciation

Woche is pronounced [ˈvɔxə], roughly "VOKH-uh," with a short o.

• The “W” sounds like a soft “V.”

• The “o” is short and rounded [ɔ]; English “off" is only a rough approximation.

• The “-che” has the throaty ch of “Bach,” followed by a gentle “uh.”

It rolls off the tongue with the steadiness of passing time - short, regular, familiar.

Example sentences:

• Ich habe nächste Woche Urlaub.I’m on vacation next week.

• Die Woche war ziemlich stressig.The week was pretty stressful.

Nuance and usage tips

Woche is almost always used in a time-related context:

• nächste Woche - next week

• diese Woche - this week

• jede Woche - every week

• unter der Woche - during the week (i.e. not on the weekend)
  in zwei Wochen - in two weeks
  vor einer Woche - a week ago

You’ll also see it in compound words:

• Wochenende - weekend (literally “week’s end”)

• Wochentag - day of the week (also weekday in scheduling contexts)

• Wochenmarkt - weekly market

• Wochenplan - weekly schedule

A related word is das Wochenende (weekend), which is part of the week; unter der Woche usually refers to the weekdays.