Суббота: выходной или рабочий день и мои вещи

What does “выходной” mean in Russian?

Выходной is the everyday Russian word for a day off. It began as выходной день (“non-working day”), but Russians usually drop день and just say выходной: “Суббота — выходной.” In the plural, выходные means “the weekend.” The clip plays with this: Saturday is normally a выходной, “но я работаю в субботу,” so for the narrator суббота рабочий день (a working day).

Russian sorts every date into выходной (day off) versus рабочий день (working day), and the line between them can officially move. To bridge public holidays the government reshuffles the calendar, so certain Saturdays become working days by decree, which is precisely the narrator’s situation. On a Friday you’ll hear the cheerful sign-off хороших выходных! (“have a good weekend!”).