What it means
دوشنبه (do-shanbeh) is Monday. The name means “the second day after Saturday”: دو (do) is the Persian word for two, and شنبه comes from the Aramaic word for the Sabbath. دوشنبه sits at the heart of the Iranian working week. The capital of Tajikistan, Dushanbe, takes its name directly from this word: it grew from a Monday market town and kept the name دوشنبه when it became a city.
How to use it
- دوشنبه جلسه داریم. (Do-shanbeh jalase dârim.) “We have a meeting on Monday.”
- دوشنبه صبح زود بیدار شدم. (Do-shanbeh sobh zud bidâr shodam.) “I woke up early on Monday morning.”
- از دوشنبه شیفتم عوض میشه. (Az do-shanbeh shiftem avaz mishe.) “My shift changes from Monday.”
- دوشنبهها ترافیک خیلی سنگینه. (Do-shanbehâ terâfik kheyli sangineh.) “Traffic is very heavy on Mondays.”
Cultural note
The city of Dushanbe, now the capital of Tajikistan, is named directly after دوشنبه because a large Monday market was historically held at that location. The name survived the Soviet era and the city’s renaming experiments, making دوشنبه one of the few Persian weekday names that also names a national capital. In Persian conversation, Monday carries no particular cultural weight beyond being a standard working day, unlike the charged feelings English speakers sometimes attach to Monday as the return-to-work day after a two-day weekend.