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If you were to say: I have to buy a new calendar next month. or Look at the calendar and see when X holiday is? or Have you seen the calendar?, would you use カレンダー or 暦{こよみ}? Is there a difference between the two?

Also how do you say date as in What is tomorrow's date? or What is today's date? or What will be the date next Saturday?

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This post contains some interesting questions, but can you tell us what you know? Have you checked dictionaries, for example? – Tsuyoshi Ito Dec 22 '12 at 23:13
@TsuyoshiIto The first question I looked up on Google Translate. This is after googling for it in general. Those are the answers I've received. The second question I also looked up on Google Translate and got 日付 ひづけ hidzuke. But this is Google Translate so not everything is accurate. I've used Genki and Minna no Nihongo as textbooks. They don't mention these two words. As a matter of fact a lot of Japanese tutorials don't mention these two words from what I've seen. – dotnetN00b Dec 22 '12 at 23:20
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Thanks. Can you include those facts in the question? In its current form of the question, an answer can just be “Look up in dictionaries.” It is better to state (in the question, not in a comment) that looking up in dictionaries did not give you an answer. – Tsuyoshi Ito Dec 22 '12 at 23:24

1 Answer

up vote 8 down vote

If you are talking about a standard Western calendar that you buy in a store, then I would hazard that カレンダー is safe to use. If you want to talk about other calendar systems, such as lunar, then use 暦.

For asking about a date, you say 何日, as in:

今日は何日ですか？ What is today's date?

For asking about what day, you use 何曜日, as in:

来週の何曜日がお暇ですか？ What day are you free next week?

For a business setting, one can use 日付:

日付の変更がございましたら、ご連絡ください。 Please let me know if there is a change of date.

And for a legal or official setting one can use 期日 for fixed date/settlement date:

期日の変更の申立ては、期日の変更を必要とする事由を明らかにしてしなければならない。 A petition for a change of date shall be filed by clarifying the grounds for requiring the change of date.

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These examples are from= eow.alc.co.jp – yadokari Dec 23 '12 at 3:43
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I agree with what you wrote here, but I think that one important piece of information is missing. In the first paragraph, you said that a standard Western calendar as a physical object is カレンダー and other calendar systems are 暦, but which word do you use when you are talking about the standard calendar system? I think that both カレンダー and 暦 are used in this case, although I prefer 暦. – Tsuyoshi Ito Dec 23 '12 at 4:47
which do you think is more common in colloquial usage? – yadokari Dec 23 '12 at 4:51
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When I think of 暦 I generally associate it with words like 陰暦 while I associate the general idea of a calendar, physical or otherwise, with カレンダー. But that's just me. – ssb Dec 23 '12 at 8:14
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When referring to western dates I think 西暦 is standard　(like 陰暦). I see there is also an expression 「日めくりをめくる｜tear a leaf off a calendar」but I do not know how common 日めくり is. You did not mention date: 日付 is quite normal for any transaction/use in a business context. – Tim Dec 25 '12 at 9:30
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