You're sitting in a cramped izakaya in Shinjuku. The steam from the yakitori is hitting your face. Your friend leans in and asks when you finally visited that hidden shrine in Kamakura. You want to say it happened last week in japanese, but your brain freezes. Is it senshuu? Or do you need that weird no particle?
Language is messy.
Honestly, most people learn the basic vocabulary for "last week" in their first month of study and then spend the next three years using it slightly wrong. It’s not just about the word itself. It’s about the context of the conversation and how the Japanese language treats time like a moving target rather than a fixed point on a calendar.
The Literal Answer: Senshuu and Its Quirks
If you look up last week in japanese, the first result is always going to be 先週 (senshuu).
The kanji are straightforward. 先 (sen) means "previous" or "ahead," and 週 (shuu) means "week." Simple, right? But here is where it gets tricky for English speakers. In English, we often say "on last week" or "during last week," but in Japanese, you almost never use the particle に (ni) with senshuu. Time words that are relative to "now"—like today, tomorrow, or last week—usually stand alone or take the topic marker wa.
If you say senshuu ni, you sound like a robot. Just say senshuu, umi ni ikimashita (Last week, I went to the sea).
Short. Punchy.
Japanese grammar thrives on brevity. If you add unnecessary particles, you’re basically highlighting the fact that you’re translating directly from English in your head. Native speakers can smell that a mile away.
Beyond the Basics: Sen-senshuu and More
What if you’re talking about the week before last? That’s sensenshuu (先々週). It sounds repetitive because it is. It’s literally "previous previous week."
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But let’s look at how people actually talk. If you are in a business meeting, you might use more formal variants. However, in 90% of daily life, senshuu carries the heavy lifting. The nuance comes from the verbs you attach to it.
I’ve noticed that learners often struggle with the "past-ness" of the sentence. In Japanese, the noun senshuu doesn't change, but the entire vibe of the sentence depends on that final verb conjugation. You can’t say senshuu iku unless you’re describing a recurring event or telling a story in a very specific narrative style.
Why Context Changes Everything
You’ve probably heard of the term aida. It means "between" or "during."
If you want to say "sometime during last week," you’d say senshuu no aida ni. This is more specific than just saying the week as a whole. It implies a window of time.
Think about it this way:
- Senshuu = The whole block of seven days.
- Senshuu no aida = A specific point within those seven days.
Native speakers use these distinctions to manage expectations. If I tell you I finished a report senshuu, it sounds like a general statement. If I say senshuu no aida ni, it sounds like I’ve been chipping away at it throughout the week. It’s a subtle shift in labor perception.
Common Mistakes Beginners (and Intermediates) Make
One massive pitfall is the confusion between "last week" and "one week ago."
In English, we use them almost interchangeably. In Japanese, isshuukan mae (一週間前) specifically means exactly seven days ago or a one-week duration in the past. If today is Tuesday, senshuu refers to the previous Monday-Sunday block. Isshuukan mae refers to last Tuesday.
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Mixing these up can cause genuine scheduling nightmares.
I once had a student who told his boss he’d finish a project isshuukan mae when he meant senshuu. The boss was confused because the "one week ago" mark had already passed. He sounded like he was claiming to have finished it in a past life.
Also, watch out for the "no" particle. You don’t need it between the time and the verb, but you do need it between two nouns.
- Wrong: Senshuu kaimono (Last week shopping)
- Right: Senshuu no kaimono (Last week's shopping)
Small difference. Huge impact on how "fluent" you sound.
The Cultural Layer of Time
Japanese culture views time through a lens of seasons and cycles. While last week in japanese is a modern construct based on the Western seven-day calendar, the way people refer to it still carries a bit of that cyclic weight.
There is a concept called kon-sen-rai.
- Konshuu (This week)
- Senshuu (Last week)
- Raishuu (Next week)
It’s a trio. They are rarely taught in isolation because they define each other. When you speak to a Japanese person about the past, they are mentally placing your statement on this specific three-part timeline.
If you go too far back—say, three weeks—the terminology starts to get clunky. At that point, people usually switch to "the end of last month" (sengetsu no owari) or "about a month ago." The "week" unit is most powerful when it’s fresh.
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How to Practice Without Looking at a Flashcard
Stop using apps for a second.
Try to narrate your life in your head while you're walking to the train. "Last week, I ate ramen." (Senshuu, ramen wo tabemashita.) "Last week, it was cold." (Senshuu wa samukatta desu.)
Variation is key. Use short sentences. Then try a long one.
"Last week, because the weather was bad, I stayed home and watched Netflix all day."
Senshuu wa tenki ga warukatta kara, zutto ie ni ite Nettofurikkusu wo mimashita.
Notice how senshuu just sits at the beginning of the sentence like a coat rack? You hang everything else on it. It’s the anchor.
The Formal vs. Casual Divide
If you’re talking to your boss (the bucho), you might end up using sakushu (昨週) in very formal writing, though it’s rare. Stick to senshuu for 99% of your life. Even in a business email, senshuu is perfectly professional as long as your verb endings are in the desu/masu form.
Don't overcomplicate it. Over-formalizing is just as bad as being too casual. It creates a weird distance. It makes people think you’re reading from a 1950s textbook.
Actionable Steps for Mastering Time Phrases
To really nail last week in japanese and move beyond the "English-to-Japanese" translation phase, try these three things starting today:
- Remove the "Ni": Audit your speech. If you catch yourself saying senshuu ni, stop. Just drop the ni. It will immediately make you sound 20% more natural.
- The "No" Rule: Remember that senshuu is a noun. If it’s describing another noun (like "last week's meeting"), use no. Senshuu no kaigi. If it’s just the time something happened, leave it alone.
- Contextual Pairing: Don't just learn senshuu. Learn it alongside konshuu (this week) and raishuu (next week). Practice jumping between them to build the mental agility needed for real conversation.
Japanese isn't just about memorizing words. It's about understanding where those words sit in the air between two people. Master the placement of senshuu, and you'll find that your conversations start to flow much more naturally, whether you're in a boardroom in Marunouchi or that yakitori joint in Shinjuku.