¿qué día es hoy?
The English phrase 'what day is today?' is translated into Spanish as ¿qué día es hoy?
A question used to ask for the current date or day of the week.
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase translates literally as 'what day is today?' where qué means 'what', día means 'day', es means 'is' and hoy means 'today'.
Which one should you use?
If you want to ask for the specific numerical date (day, month and year) rather than just the day of the week, use ¿Qué fecha es hoy? instead. You may also use the shorter form ¿Qué día es? to ask 'What day is it?', which functions correctly without the word hoy.
How does it change in a sentence?
The word hoy (today) can be omitted from the phrase, and ¿Qué día es? still functions correctly to ask for the current day.
When do people say it?
A standard way to answer this question is to start with Hoy es… followed by the day of the week.
Did you know?
- In some Spanish-speaking cultures, asking ¿qué día es hoy? can be a way to start a conversation about a local saint's day or a religious feast, rather than just checking a calendar.
- In many Spanish-speaking countries, the days of the week are not capitalized, meaning a response to ¿qué día es hoy? would be hoy es lunes with a lowercase 'l'.
- The word día is not actually a linguistic relative of the English word 'day', despite sounding almost identical. It instead stems from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'heaven' or 'sky'.
Examples in context
- Disculpe, ¿me podría decir qué día es hoy, por favor?Excuse me, could you tell me what day it is today, please?
- Perdone, ¿podría informarme sobre el día de hoy?Excuse me, could you inform me about today's date?
- ¿Sería tan amable de decirme qué día es hoy?Would you be so kind as to tell me what day it is today?
- Oye, ¿qué día es hoy?Hey, what day is it today?
- ¿Sabes qué día es hoy?Do you know what day it is today?
- Ey, ¿cuál es el día de hoy?Hey, what's today's date?
- No sé, ¿qué día es hoy?I don't know, what day is today?
- Perdone, ¿qué día es hoy?Excuse me, what day is today?
Example conversation
Daniel and Sofía are at home looking at a calendar.
- DanielSofía, ¿qué día es hoy?Sofía, what day is today?
- SofíaHoy es martes.Today is Tuesday.
- Daniel¡Ah, es martes!Ah, it's Tuesday!
- SofíaSí, Daniel.Yes, Daniel.
Sources
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries día, es, hoy, qué, CC BY-SA 4.0.
