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I have an interesting one which surprisingly I haven't found answer for on Google or here.

You can say Good day when greeting someone. (I think) Can you also say Good Friday when it is obviously not the religious holiday, just a normal Friday? Or does it sound odd in any way?

thanks Lucas

Lucas
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  • Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking. – Community Sep 17 '21 at 15:42
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    @High Performance Mark Apologies; I even misadjusted the cut-and-paste. // 'Good Friday/Sunday/Tuesday' etc as a greeting sounds distinctly unidiomatic to my ears. A Google search for "He said Good Friday" -"He said Good Friday is" -"He said Good Friday was" -"He said Good Friday should" -"He said Good Friday has" -"He said Good Friday commemorates" still yields no positives as far as I've scanned. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 17 '21 at 15:54
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    We usually say Good morning/afternoon/evening rather than Good day. We never use the name of the day of the week. – Kate Bunting Sep 17 '21 at 16:08
  • Do. you say something like this in your native language (and if so, which language and is it a direct translation)? Do you say it for other days? – Mitch Sep 17 '21 at 17:15
  • hi - yes in portuguese we would say "Bom dia" which directly translates to "Good Day" which seems to work fine in english. Good Monday or Good Friday just seems to come out naturally - though not sure how it sounds for native speakers. – Lucas Sep 17 '21 at 17:31
  • You might say something like this as a humorous twisting of the conventional phrase, although it wouldn't be a normal thing to say. "Happy Friday!" seems to be occasionally used to reflect the joy of the weekend being there (or nearly there). "Good Friday!" has the Christian connotations so would be less fitting than most variations on ways to wish people a happy almost-weekend. – Stuart F Sep 17 '21 at 19:37
  • @Lucas No you just don't ever say "Good (dayname)" as a greeting. There's nothing stopping you it's just that no one ever does that, it is not a recognized greeting (and just seems plain weird, totally unnatural in English). "Good day" may be taught in EFL classes, but at least in American English, no one ever says that - it sounds very very old fashioned, like Shakespeare or something. – Mitch Sep 17 '21 at 20:12
  • Imagine you’re out with friends on a Thursday night. It’s late. You all have to show up at work tomorrow, but the weekend is coming up. “Have a good Friday!” wouldn’t be out of place as part of your goodbyes. –  Sep 17 '21 at 21:30
  • No . . . . . . . – Tinfoil Hat Sep 18 '21 at 04:37
  • No-one says Good day in British English either._ It's a perfectly valid expression, it has just fallen out of use in favour of Good morning etc. – Kate Bunting Sep 18 '21 at 07:59

1 Answers1

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A person who is in a very good mood might possibly say to someone,

A good Friday morning to you!

Or,

A good Tuesday morning to you!

A simple "Good Friday" would sound odd, however, as you pointed out because of the Christian connotations. As for just "A good Friday to you," or "A good Friday morning to you," well, maybe . . .. Of course the greeting would be particularly apt on Good Friday, two days before Easter.

rhetorician
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  • thanks to you and others who contributed, cleared my suspicion this didn't sound right, even if it does sound ok to me. – Lucas Sep 17 '21 at 17:52
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    As a nuance, saying "A good Friday to you" sounds -very- old fashioned, like you just stepped out of a time-machine from 1700, like Clarence in "It's a Wonderful Life". – Mitch Sep 17 '21 at 20:14
  • @Mitch: True that! I don't think I'd be caught dead saying that! Don – rhetorician Sep 18 '21 at 00:56