毎週
まいしゅう
maishuu
= every week / weekly
毎週 (maishuu) is one of the first words learners meet for talking about weekly routines. It’s built from the same 毎 (every) that shows up in mainichi (every day), maitsuki (every month), and maitoshi (every year), so once you know maishuu, you already have a template for a whole family of time words.
毎週 combines 毎 (mai, every) with 週 (shuu, week), literally meaning (every-week). It’s read maishuu. Like the rest of the mai- family, it works adverbially and attaches directly to a verb with no particle needed: maishuu jimu ni iku (I go to the gym every week) is correct, not maishuu ni jimu ni iku. The full mai- set includes mainichi (every day), maishuu (every week), maitsuki (every month), maitoshi (every year), plus maiasa (every morning) and maiban (every night). A useful extension is 毎週末 (maishuu-matsu), meaning (every weekend). It’s important not to confuse maishuu with the relative week words 今週 (konshuu, this week), 来週 (raishuu, next week), and 先週 (senshuu, last week) — those point to one specific week on the calendar, while maishuu describes something that recurs week after week.
The most common mistake is inserting a particle before the verb, like maishuu ni — maishuu takes no particle when it modifies the action directly. Also keep maishuu (recurring, every week) separate from konshuu (this specific week); mixing them up changes whether you’re describing a habit or a single event. For weekend routines specifically, reach for 毎週末 rather than maishuu no shuumatsu. Finally, treat maishuu as a pattern: once it’s automatic, maitsuki and maitoshi follow the exact same no-particle structure.
Everyday use
毎週日曜日にスーパーで買い物をします。
Maishuu nichiyoubi ni suupaa de kaimono o shimasu.
I go grocery shopping at the supermarket every Sunday.
Casual / Social Media
毎週末は友達と映画を見に行くのが日課だよ。
Maishuu-matsu wa tomodachi to eiga o mi ni iku no ga nikka da yo.
Going to see a movie with friends every weekend is basically my routine.
Formal / Cultural context
毎週水曜日に定例会議を実施しております。
Maishuu suiyoubi ni teirei kaigi o jisshi shite orimasu.
We hold our regular meeting every Wednesday.
In Japan, weekly rhythms are woven tightly into daily life, and maishuu is the word that ties them together. Television schedules are a good example: anime and drama series are described as being 毎週放送 (maishuu housou, broadcast every week), airing the same day and time so viewers build the show into their week. School clubs, cram schools (juku), and hobby lessons like piano or swimming typically run on a maishuu basis too, giving children and adults alike a predictable weekly shape to their schedules.
Household routines run on the same logic. Neighborhoods have fixed 燃えるゴミ (moeru gomi, burnable trash) collection days that repeat maishuu, and residents plan their week around remembering which morning to take the bins out. Beyond any single example, maishuu belongs to the highly productive mai- pattern in Japanese, where a single prefix lets you build mainichi, maitsuki, and maitoshi on demand — making it one of the most efficient vocabulary patterns a learner can pick up early on.