Do I need to add an article before the weekend?

Question

When I’m going to have a weekend, do I have to say “It’s weekend.” Or do I need to add ‘a’ or ‘the’ in front of the weekend?

Answer 1

The question is incomprehensible as asked. It should be asked this way:

Is the sentence "It's weekend" grammatical, or should it be "It's the weekend"?

"It's weekend" is abnormal and ungrammatical.

"It's Saturday" is normal, grammatical, and idiomatic.

"It's the weekend" is normal, grammatical, and idiomatic.

"It's a weekend" is normal, grammatical, and idiomatic.

The latter two sentences have slightly different meanings. "It's the weekend" is an announcement about the date, as in: "Today is Tuesday. Do you know what that means?" "It's a weekend" is the answer to a question about the part of the week two particular days are, as in: "This flyer says that the convention's on March 16-17, 2013. {When's that? / Are those weekdays or is it a weekend?}" "It's a weekend."

Answer 2

I tried to think of an instance where I'd use weekend without an article, but it was hard to do, no matter where I put the word in the sentence:

We need to find a good weekend to go fishing.
Her favorite time of the week is the weekend.
The weekend is almost over!

That last one could be modified a little, where we wouldn't need the word the:

My weekend is almost over!

but I still need a word in place of the article, to serve as a qualifier:

No weekend is complete without a nap.

When I use the plural, though, I don't need a leading article anymore:

When can we get together? Weekends would be best for me.
I love to go golfing on weekends.