Days of the Week and Months in Bengali (Plus the Bengali Calendar)

Say you want to meet someone next Friday in Kolkata. You'll need শুক্রবার (Shukrobar, /ʃukrobar/, "Friday"). Say the mangoes are best in May — that's জ্যৈষ্ঠ (Joishtho, /dʒoiʃʈʰo/), the second month of the Bengali calendar, when the fruit ripens. Bengali runs on two calendars at once: the Gregorian one for offices and flights, and the older Bangla solar calendar for festivals, harvests, and poetry. Knowing both sets of words is what lets you make a plan and understand why it matters.

The Seven Days, From Robibar to Shonibar

Every Bengali weekday ends in the same suffix: বার (bar, /bar/), which means "day" in this context. Learn the suffix once and you only have to memorize the first part of each word. The week is named after celestial bodies, the same logic behind the English Saturn-day and Sun-day.

Bengali	Romanization	IPA	English
রবিবার	Robibar	/robibar/	Sunday
সোমবার	Shombar	/ʃombar/	Monday
মঙ্গলবার	Monggolbar	/mɔŋɡolbar/	Tuesday
বুধবার	Budhbar	/bud̪ʱbar/	Wednesday
বৃহস্পতিবার	Brihoshpotibar	/briɦoʃpot̪ibar/	Thursday
শুক্রবার	Shukrobar	/ʃukrobar/	Friday
শনিবার	Shonibar	/ʃonibar/	Saturday

A few of these reward a closer look. রবিবার (Robibar) takes its name from robi, the sun — the same word in Rabindranath Tagore's name, রবীন্দ্রনাথ (Robindronath, "lord of the sun"). বৃহস্পতিবার (Brihoshpotibar) is the longest, named for Brihaspati, the planet Jupiter, and it trips up beginners because that consonant cluster at the start is dense. The working week in West Bengal and Bangladesh differs: Bangladesh treats Friday and Saturday as the weekend, so শুক্রবার (Shukrobar) is the day shops shutter early for জুম্মা (jumma, /dʒumma/, "Friday prayers"), while in Kolkata Sunday is the rest day.

Boishakh to Choitro: The Twelve Months of the Bangla Calendar

The Bengali solar calendar has twelve months, and each one maps onto a phase of the agricultural year. Emperor Akbar standardized this calendar in 1584 to time tax collection with the harvest, and the month names still carry that farming logic. The year begins in mid-April with পহেলা বৈশাখ (Pohela Boishakh, /poɦela boiʃakʰ/, "the first of Boishakh"), the Bengali New Year.

Bengali	Romanization	IPA	Roughly	Season / meaning
বৈশাখ	Boishakh	/boiʃakʰ/	Apr–May	Late-spring harvest; new year
জ্যৈষ্ঠ	Joishtho	/dʒoiʃʈʰo/	May–Jun	The mango month
আষাঢ়	Asharh	/aʃaɽʱ/	Jun–Jul	Onset of the monsoon
শ্রাবণ	Shrabon	/ʃrabon/	Jul–Aug	Peak monsoon rains
ভাদ্র	Bhadro	/bʱad̪ro/	Aug–Sep	Humid late monsoon
আশ্বিন	Ashshin	/aʃʃin/	Sep–Oct	Durga Puja season
কার্তিক	Kartik	/kart̪ik/	Oct–Nov	Post-monsoon, cooler
অগ্রহায়ণ	Ogrohayon	/ɔɡroɦaˑjon/	Nov–Dec	The main rice harvest
পৌষ	Poush	/pouʃ/	Dec–Jan	Mid-winter; harvest festival
মাঘ	Magh	/maɡʰ/	Jan–Feb	Coldest weeks
ফাল্গুন	Falgun	/pʰalɡun/	Feb–Mar	Spring, the flowering month
চৈত্র	Choitro	/tʃoit̪ro/	Mar–Apr	Dry heat before new year

The agricultural threads run deep. অগ্রহায়ণ (Ogrohayon) was once the first month of the year before Boishakh took over, and its name comes from ogro (first) and hayon (harvest) — it is the month when the main aman rice crop comes in, the harvest that feeds Bengal. আষাঢ় (Asharh) and শ্রাবণ (Shrabon) together form the monsoon, the season Tagore wrote about more than any other. When someone says something happens আষাঢ়-শ্রাবণে (Asharh-Shrabone, "in Asharh and Shrabon"), they mean "in the rains."

January Is Januari: Gregorian Months in Bengali

For trains, visas, and salary dates, Bengalis use the Gregorian calendar with the English month names absorbed into Bengali pronunciation and script. These are not the Bangla month names. A Kolkata office worker says their rent is due on the first of জানুয়ারি (Januari, /dʒanuari/, "January"), not the first of Poush.

Bengali	Romanization	IPA	English
জানুয়ারি	Januari	/dʒanuari/	January
ফেব্রুয়ারি	Februari	/pʰebruari/	February
মার্চ	March	/martʃ/	March
এপ্রিল	April	/epril/	April
মে	May	/me/	May
জুন	June	/dʒun/	June
জুলাই	Julai	/dʒulai/	July
আগস্ট	Agosto	/aɡosʈo/	August
সেপ্টেম্বর	September	/sepʈembor/	September
অক্টোবর	October	/ɔkʈobor/	October
নভেম্বর	November	/nobʱembor/	November
ডিসেম্বর	December	/ɖisembor/	December

One date carries extra weight. একুশে ফেব্রুয়ারি (Ekushe Februari, /ekuʃe pʰebruari/, "the twenty-first of February") is International Mother Language Day, marking the 1952 language martyrs of Dhaka who died defending Bengali. No Bengali says "Ekushe Falgun." The Gregorian date is the one that lives in memory. If you want the counting that sits under dates like ekush (twenty-one), the guide to Bengali numbers from 1 to 100 walks through the irregular forms you'll need to read any calendar.

Saying "Next Friday" and "Last Month" Out Loud

Vocabulary is only useful when you can attach it to time. Bengali handles "next" and "last" with two compact words placed before the noun. আগামী (agami, /aɡami/, "next/coming") points forward; গত (goto, /ɡɔt̪o/, "last/past") points back.

So "next Friday" is আগামী শুক্রবার (agami Shukrobar, /aɡami ʃukrobar/). "Last Monday" is গত সোমবার (goto Shombar, /ɡɔt̪o ʃombar/). The same two words work for months. "Next month" is আগামী মাস (agami mash, /aɡami maʃ/), using মাস (mash, "month"), and "last month" is গত মাস (goto mash). To say "this week," reach for এই সপ্তাহে (ei shoptahe, /ei ʃɔpt̪aɦe/, "in this week"), where সপ্তাহ (shoptah) is "week" and the final -e marks "in."

Need to pin down a day? Ask আজ কী বার? (aj ki bar?, /adʒ ki bar/, "what day is it today?"), using আজ (aj, "today"). The neighbors of aj are worth banking too: কাল (kal, /kal/) means both "yesterday" and "tomorrow" depending on context, and পরশু (porshu, /porʃu/) covers both "the day before yesterday" and "the day after tomorrow." Bengali leaves the direction to context, which feels strange at first and then becomes second nature. To talk about the monsoon specifically, "in the rains" is বর্ষাকালে (borshakale, /bɔrʃakale/), from বর্ষা (borsha, "monsoon/rain") plus the time suffix -kale ("in the season of").

These date words show up constantly once you start asking real questions about plans, which is where question words earn their keep. The piece on Bengali question words like ki, kobe, and kothay pairs naturally with this vocabulary — kobe (when) plus agami Shukrobar is how an actual appointment gets made.

Two Calendars, One Conversation

A Bengali speaker switches between these systems without thinking. The bank statement reads ডিসেম্বর (December), the festival invitation reads আশ্বিন (Ashshin) for the Durga Puja dates, and the poem on the wall mentions শ্রাবণ (Shrabon) for the rains. You don't have to choose one calendar. You have to recognize which one is being used and reach for the matching word, and the cleanest way to keep both straight is to anchor each Bangla month to its season — mango in Joishtho, rain in Asharh, harvest in Ogrohayon. Start with the seven weekday names, since they recur every single day, then layer the twelve Bangla months on top as festivals and seasons come around. The Learn Bengali app from Brightwood Apps drills both the weekday and calendar vocabulary with native-speaker audio in its time and dates unit, so you hear Shukrobar and Joishtho spoken the way Kolkata and Dhaka actually say them.