English Translation
He would often go fishing on a fine Sunday.
I have seen “shortened” weekday names like 日曜 here from time to time, and I was wondering, is it just a colloquial form, or is there some other difference in mening?
@mike-lima
日曜日 and 日曜 mean the same.
I found some native speakers online saying 日曜 is more casual, but I don’t personally think so.
A weather news on TV - which is suppose to be formal - usually says 日曜には雨が降るでしょう (it will rain next Sunday) and 土曜から日曜にかけて、天気は下り坂でしょう (the weather will get worse from Saturday to Sunday).
日曜 is also frequently used in formal/academic reports to compare with 平日 (平日; weekdays) in parallel.
On the other hand, the national law of government operations and holidays uses 日曜日 and 土曜日 instead of 日曜 and 土曜.
I often see both 日曜日 and 日曜 are used in the same documents.
So, the difference isn’t probably the formality. And people don’t care so much about the difference.
Please keep in mind, however, that we never use 日曜日 as a part of compound noun. For example, 日曜出勤 (にちようしゅっきん) = working on Sundays; 日曜大工 (にちようだいく) = do-it-yourself (lit. = become a carpenter only on Sundays); and 日曜配信 (にちようはいしん) = broadcast or update every Sunday. These 熟語 (compound words) cannot be replaced with 日曜日.
By the way, the original Japanese sentence sounds unnatural a bit. 行ったものだった should be 行ったものだ. 行った is in a past tense, so you don’t repeatedly say だった.
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