On Monday or on Mondays? Or On Tuesday or on Tuesdays?Â
Sounds bizarre, right…Let’s all agree that sometimes the English Language can be so funny and ambiguous at the same time. The plural of a child is children,Â
whereas the plural of wild is wilds. A mouse can be called mice, but house can’t be hice… weird huh.
Well, if you are still not convinced, look at these odd and peculiar sentences:
1. To say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is incorrect, while to say of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, is correct.
– Aristotle
2. One morning, I saw an elephant in my pajamas. How did it got into my pajamas, I’ll never know.
3. I stepped on a Corn Flake, nowI’mm a Cereal Killer.
4. The horse raced past the barn fell.
Well, now you can get an idea of how mind-boggling things might become when it comes to the English Language, which is full of oddities.
Now, here is our primary question” On Monday or On Monday”.
Rule: When we talk about in general, we use the plural form of the day when the facts are repetitive.
For Example, She always visits the dentist on Mondays.
Here, the name of the day is showing repetition.
In the above case, it would be wrong if we say: She always visits the dentist on Monday.
However, there is a degree of ambiguity as to whether these sentences are intended to mean that she goes to the dentist _every_ Monday or only that, when she has to go, it would be on a Monday, but not necessarily every week.
The difference between Monday and Mondays
Why is it sometimes Mondays (with s) and Monday in English?
Ah, it is something easier to answer.
There is a noticeable difference between the two ( apart from””””).
For the first thing, both are grammatically correct when used in the appropriate context.
For Example:
1. On Mondays I go to my granny’s house.
2. On Monday I am going to my granny’s house.
Here to see the difference, the usage of two different tenses becomes helpful. In the first sentence, ”Monday” refers to every Monday, all the Mondays. Whereas in the second sentence,’ Monday” refers to a specific, single Monday, just one Monday.
Let’s have one more Example:Â
- I do my grocery on Mondays.
- I always do my grocery on Monday.
- I always do my grocery on Mondays.
We can say that all of the above three are correct, but the use of both always and the plural Mondays in example 3 seems a bit unnecessary. The first two would be more common and apparently identical.
However, there is a degree of ambiguity as to whether these sentences are intended to mean that the grocery is done every Monday, or only that, when it is done, it would be on a Monday, but not necessarily every week.
How to avoid any ambiguity
To avoid ambiguity, you could say:
She goes to the dentist on Monday.
Or
Whenever she goes to the dentist, it’s on a Monday.
Let’s have another example:
Is it ok to say”I usually have seafood on Saturday” as opposed to”I usually have seafood on Saturday”?
We agree that either one works. You might choose the plural if you want to emphasize that you mean every Saturday, but the singular if you’re is referring to a specific Saturday.
The important thing is to avoid ambiguity. The”usuall” in your sentence makes it perfectly clear that you mean every Saturday.
However, it is suggested to avoid using: on Mondays and on Tuesdays, which, certainly, would much understand that we are making references to every Monday and every Tuesday.
Pluralization of the days of the week
Here we are going to discuss the cases where days of the week can be pluralized without much ambiguity, as we have done in the examples below.
1.He’ll never run the marathon, not in a month of Sundays.
2. Mondays Are More Depressing Than We Thought, Says Study.
3. French Tuesdays provides the Y generation with a fun, empowering social event…
4. Wednesdays are known as”hump da” in US..
5. There are 5 Sundays in this month.
6. My Thursdays are always very lonely.
7. Rainy days and Mondays always get me down. (1971 song by Carpenters)
The above Example is really natural for native-English speaking. Since there we have good use of pluralization of the days without any ambiguity.
A Brief History of Monday
The word Monday is derived sometimes before 1200 from an Anglo- Saxon word””mondandae”” which means”the moon’s day.” In relation with another Germanic language, including Old Frisian” Monadei” and in Latin, lunae dies “day of the moo”).
In Nordic cultures, the second day of the week was devoted to worshipping the goddess of the moon. Even they used to name the girls” Mon” who eventually born on Monday.
Monday, despite of being the dreadful start of the working week, is actually the second day of the week.
There are a number of popular Western songs featuring Monday as an of anxiety, depression, lack of motivation, inability to do task or melancholy solely because of being the first day of the workweek. According to the research, more people commit suicide on Mondays than on other days of the week. How horrendous it is!
Why is Monday a hateful day?
Monday doesn’t have a decent reputation. It gives a gloomy and sour mood to those who have to perform the responsibilities and obligations of a new week.
In fact, there is a phrase”Case of the Monday” Which is used to express a bad mood one has at the onset of the workweek or the school week.
The idea that Mondays are terrible was popularized by Garfield, who hates Mondays and loves lasagna. It probably seems hard to get back to work on Monday because we spend the last two days having fun, relaxing, and being lazy. I
But what exactly makes Monday too dreadful?
There is the fewest fan of Monday in the world. It’s because of the human psychological factor and their body’s natural cycle that makes Monday feel so rough. We tend to observe different sleep schedules during the weekend as compared to the rest of the week.
You might still feel sleepy on Monday, even if you get a good night’s rest on Sunday night, just because of the massive emotional shift. Mondays can be especially hard for some people who are not physically and emotionally prepared to face an upcoming week. Hence, in popular culture, Monday has become the indication that it’s time to get back to your work whether you approve it or not.
Evolution of Modern English
We all know that English is the global language because of being the most common and easy to learn. It originated in the mid 5th to 7th centuries AD by Anglo-Saxon migrants.
That was said to be Old English, proceeded by the Middle English developed after the Norman conquest until the late 15th century. What we have as the English language is Modern English started off in the 15th century.
The most prominent quality of Modern English is its adaptability and receptivity. What makes it most striking is the fact that there are words borrowed from different languages like French, Latin, Greek, Indian, and many more. The continuous development in Science and technology bringing more changes and a huge number of words into Modern English.
So there are numerous people in the world who could debate whether it is on Monday or on Mondays.
As is already discussed above that both of the cases are right when used in the correct context.
But what do native English speakers prefer?
Most native English speakers use every before the day of the week when they want to indicate certain repetitive actions.
Modifications in the English Language
According to the Linguistic Society of America
Advancing the Scientific Study of Language since 1924, language is always changing, evolving, and adapting to the needs of its users.
If Englishhadn’tt changed from, let’s say, 30 years, we wouldn’t have thousands of new words. As we have discussed earlier that the evolution in any language is a result of the amalgamation of different cultures.
Another reason for the change is that people have language experiences is different, depending on their country, region, educational level, age, job, and so on. We meet different people and pick up new words and phrases.
Especially in the younger generation. As they interact with their own age group, their language, words, and phrases grow and become different from those of the older generation. It is concluded that it totally depends on the individual what words or phrases a person want to use in their language.
Conclusion
As we can say now, whether you use” on Monday” or”on Monda” totally depends on the context in which you would like to use it. If you mean to mention more than one Monday, you can simply add an apostrophe to make it a plural” Monday.” Whereas when you want to specify it for a repetitive task, you may add it every Monday.
But which one is better to use is still debatable for many people. Nevertheless, Monday is a popular day of the week, you may hate it or love it, but you certainly can’t ignore it.
There are numerous songs and memes made on Monday. Different cultures have different names for Monday with different origins. We hope you might stop hating Monday more after learning the grammatical usage and history of Monday.
