At Sixes and Sevens With Seconds

It may have taken eighteen whole lessons, but my Living Language Portuguese book finally got onto the days of the week, months of the year, and prepositions of time.

When I was learning Russian, I recall thinking how logical the words for days of the week are in Russian. In order starting from Monday, the days of week are, translated literally:

Head of the Week (Monday), Second Day (Tuesday), Midweek (Wednesday), Fourth Day (Thursday), Fifth Day (Friday), Sabbath (Saturday--yep, even Russians acknowledge that Saturday is the Sabbath), and Resurrection Day (from Jesus' resurrection on Sunday).

In Portuguese, however, they're even more logical. In Portuguese thinking, as in English, the week begins on Sunday, which is called Domingo (the Lord's Day), followed by:

First-Day, Second-Day, Third-Day, Fourth-Day, Fifth-Day, and Sabbath.

The words for Monday through Friday actually contain the word feria (day) at the end of them--but in casual conversation, feria is often dropped. So a conversation involving days of the week may look something like this:

A: Quando voce vai a sua aula de ingles? [When do you go to your English class?]

B: Eu vou a minha aula de ingles nos segundos e quatros [I go to my English class on Tuesdays and Thursdays--literally, I go to my English class on Seconds and Fourths.]

I imagine this must be incredibly confusing to anyone not born into this language.