I just want to know what the difference is between the two and their proper
usage because in dictionary they seem almost the same.
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2015-07-29T04:22:58.953
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2015-07-31T21:12:00.370
2015-07-29T04:28:17.547
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question
word-choice words usage
Difference between 月曜 and 月曜日
Only 曜 itself stands for day of the week, wherein 曜日 stand for the day of the
week. So, there's not much of a big difference as such. Proper usage would be,
in my opinion, 月曜日 because it completes the exact word.
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2015-07-29T17:56:27.677
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2015-07-29T17:56:27.677
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answer
The difference is minimal. They can be used interchangeably most of the time.

The actual conceptual difference between 月曜 and 月曜日 is not so hard to
understand, either. First you have to know that what 曜 exactly refers to is
["planet" in astrology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_planet). Thus,
月曜 means "planet of Moon" and 月曜日 is "day of planet of Moon". So it's like
we're actually calling it "Moon's day" when we say 月曜日, and "the Moon's" for
月曜.

This situation is somewhat similar to the word "English". When we say
"English" alone it's usually understood as "English language" (or "English
people"). But it doesn't mean "English" automatically stands for the language,
as you couldn't rephrase "English muffin" as "English _language_ muffin". The
same thing applies to 月曜, but the difference is that the 曜 feature is only
considered attributable to days, so it's almost unable to show a clear
"English language muffin" example for this.

That said, you can see a few noninterchangeable circumstances: **暗黒の月曜日**
("[Black Monday](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Monday_%281987%29)")
wouldn't be *暗黒の月曜, because the exact _day_ is memorable, rather than the the
fact the day is accidentally a Monday. On the other hand, I'd say **月曜研究会**
("Monday study group") but not *月曜日研究会, because it'll sound like we're
studying _about_ rather than _on_ Mondays. Generally, 月曜 is preferred to make
of compound words, since what day it belongs matters more than the real date,
unless the very day(s) of certain 曜日 is really in concern (where It's
difficult to explain it using English because it lacks a word means "Monday-
ness" without saying "-day", but I hope you get it).
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2015-07-31T21:12:00.370
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2015-07-31T21:12:00.370
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answer