How to pronounce dates in english

Learn English Basics

Days of the week | Months of the year | Dates | Prepositions | What to say
Interesting Stuff

Learn about days and dates(requires Real Player).

The days of the week :-

Watch and listen to this video (requires access to YouTube.)

The months of the year:-

	January	February	March	April	May	June
	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
	July	August	September	October	November	December
	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec

Now you have a go:-

Dates:-

In figures	In words	Pronounce It
1st	the first	1st
2nd	the second	2nd
3rd	the third	3rd
4th	the fourth	4th
5th	the fifth	5th
6th	the sixth	6th
7th	the seventh	7th
8th	the eighth	8th
9th	the ninth	9th
10th	the tenth	10th
11th	the eleventh	11th
12th	the twelfth	12th
13th	the thirteenth	13th
14th	the fourteenth	14th
15th	the fifteenth	15th
16th	the sixteenth	16th
17th	the seventeenth	17th
18th	the eighteenth	18th
19th	the nineteenth	19th

Expressing the year

How we say
the year

How we write the year	2008	1900	1959	2000
Two thousand and eight	Nineteen hundred	Nineteen fifty-nine	The year 2000

Expressing the date

How we say
the date

Prepositions

For single days and dates we use on.

I was born on the 7th of the month.

For months we use in.

! My birthday is on September the 7th.

Naturally speaking

How to ask the day or date

Interesting Stuff

AD stands for Anno Domini (Latin for «In the year of (Our) Lord»), abbreviated as AD. It defines an epoch based on the traditionally-reckoned year of the conception or birth of Jesus of Nazareth. it is used in the English language to denote years after the start of this time.

BC stands for Before Christ (from the Ancient Greek «Christos» or «Anointed One», referring to Jesus), abbreviated as BC, it is used in the English language to denote years before the start of this time.

A millennium (pl. millennia) is a period of one thousand years.

A century is a period of one hundred consecutive years. Centuries are numbered ordinally (e.g. «the nineteenth century»).

A decade is a period of 10 years.

The decades from 1920 to 1999, are called «the Twenties», «the Sixties», etc. But the current decade has no universally accepted name. Some refer to the decade as the «twenty hundreds» while others may refer to it as the «two thousands». In written form, this could appear as «the ’00s» or «the 2000s». But writing «the 2000s» or simply saying «the two-thousands» can cause confusion, since this could refer to the entire 21st century or even the entire millennium. Some people tried to popularize «the Noughties» as the decade’s name. This is a play on words, nought means «zero» and noughties sounds both like nineties and naughty.

You’ll find some more interesting facts about days and dates in the Interesting Facts Blog.

How to Say Months and Dates in English

Updated October 7, 2020

How to say the months in English

The majority of countries around the world use the Gregorian calendar. That’s the one that begins in January and ends in December. The months are numbered from 1 to 12.

But how are your skills when it comes to saying them?

Have a look at the list below—it shows UK and US pronunciation of the 12 months. While their spellings are the same, their sounds can be quite different.

How we write the date	1st January 2004	07/09/1959	August 12 2003

There are several subtle pronunciation differences that we could discuss all day, but for now, let’s look at a few of the most obvious ones.

r sound

u sound

Another difference worth noting is the sound of the letter u in “July.” UK pronunciation uses a long u sound (like in “June”). The US pronunciation has the same sound you’d hear in “book” or “put.”

au sound

How to say dates in English

When you say a date, you should use ordinal numbers (numbers you use to show an order).

Order

How you say a date depends on where you are in the world. While we’re not going to talk about the variations between every country, let’s discuss the differences between the date formats in the UK and the US.

UK date order

In the UK, the date order is day-month-year.

Written: My final exam is on 9 December.

Spoken: My final exam is on the ninth of December.

Written: I’m leaving on 5 th January.

Spoken: I’m leaving on the fifth of January.

Written: I was born on 2-11-1995.

Spoken: I was born on the second of November, nineteen-ninety-five.

US date order

In the US, it’s a bit different. The order is month-day-year.

Written: I’m moving to a new apartment on June 24.

Spoken: I’m moving to a new apartment on June twenty-fourth.

Spoken: Her appointment is on August twelfth.

Written: He signed the papers on 10-18-2019.

Spoken: He signed the papers on October eighteenth, twenty-nineteen.

How to use prepositions with months and dates

When you’re talking about a month, the preposition you should use is in.

→ My best friend got married in July.

→ School starts in September.

→ My best friend got married on 24 July.

→ School starts on September 8.

If you’d like to practice your English skills with a native speaking English teacher, visit the Lingoda website and sign up for your free 7-day trial today.

How to read and write dates in English

An important part of studying English is to learn how to say, write and understand dates. So let’s look at the different things you need to know to help you get ready to use dates in English!

How to ask which day of the week

If you want to ask what day of the week it is, say:

What day is it today? or What’s the day today?

What day is it tomorrow? or What’s the day tomorrow?

To answer these questions you can say,

It’s Monday today. or Today is Monday.

It’s Tuesday tomorrow. or Tomorrow is Tuesday.

How to ask the date

If you want to ask what the date is, you can say:

What’s the date today? or What’s today’s date?

What’s the date tomorrow? or What’s tomorrow’s date?

You can answer by saying:

It’s 27th September. / Today is 27th September.

Tomorrow is September 28th.

How to say the date

When we say dates in English we use ordinal numbers. So for 1 January, we don’t say the cardinal number ‘one’ but we say ‘first’. And we say ‘the’ before the number followed by ‘of’. For example,

It’s the first of January.

It’s also possible to invert the month and day. For example,

It’s January first.

In this case you don’t need to say ‘the’ and ‘of’.

Ordinal numbers

Here are the ordinal numbers that you need to use:

While from 21 to 31 the ordinal numbers end according to the ending of the second number. For example,

21 – twenty-first

22 – twenty-second

23 – twenty-third

24 – twenty-fourth

How to write the date

When we write a date we don’t need to add ‘the’ and ‘of’ as we do when we speak. For example:

It’s the first of January – speaking

It’s 1st January – writing

As you can see, you don’t need to write the number but we usually add the last two letters of the ordinal number. For example:

How to say the year

There are two ways to say the year in English. Until the year 2000, every year was pronounced as two numbers. For example,

1485 – fourteen eighty-five

1750 – seventeen fifty

1900 – nineteen hundred

For the first years of previous centuries, we add ‘0’. For example:

1801 – eighteen o one

While for the first ten years of the 21st century, we use the word ‘thousand’. For example:

2000 – two thousand

2006 – two thousand six

From the year 2010 onwards you can say two numbers again. For example,

2012 – twenty twelve

However, some people continue to use ‘thousand’ and say:

2012 – two thousand twelve

Centuries

When we refer to a century in English, we use ordinal numbers. For example,

1800-1900 = the nineteenth century

1900-2000 = the twentieth century

And centuries are divided into ten decades. A decade is a period of ten years.

Historical dates

When you talk about a year in the distant past, you can use B.C. and A.D. The letters B.C. mean ‘before Christ’. For example,

The first Olympic Games were in 776 B.C.

A.D. means ‘Anno Domini’ – the year of the Lord, marking the birth of Christ. So this year is 2019 A.D. However, it’s only necessary to add A.D. when it is unclear which time period you’re referring to. For example,

Romulus Augustulus was the last Roman Emperor from 475-476 A.D.

American vs British English difference

There is a difference in the order of indicating the date and the month between American and British English. In American English it’s common to put the month first followed by the date. For example,

09.25.2019 – September 25, 2019

While in British English the same date is,

25.09.2019 – 25th September, 2019

So be careful when you write a date as numbers as above. Depending who you’re writing to, you may need to write the month to be clear.

When you make an arrangement in English – such as a meeting at work or a hotel reservation – getting the date right is really important.

How dates are read in English

Dates in English

Dates in English, consisting of the name of the century, are expressed using ordinal numbers. In writing, instead of Roman numerals, Arabic numerals are used to indicate centuries. In speech, it is necessary not to forget about the article the.

years

In English, in most cases, to pronounce the year, you need to split the number into two parts and pronounce each pair separately, without using the words «thousand» or «hundred». Numbers do not need to be put in ordinal form. The conjunction and is implied between pairs, but in speech it is often omitted.

If in the second pair of numbers in place of ten is zero, then it is advisable to use the union and or read zero as oh.

If the second pair of numbers consists of two zeros, then the date in English is pronounced a little differently: the number of the first pair is + hundred.

In pronouncing dates from the new millennium, instead of “twenty” (or “ten” and so on), the word “thousand” is used, while the second pair is read as usual.

The word year at the end of the year is often omitted, but the following option is possible:

Decade

If you need to indicate not an exact year, but a decade, for example, «sixties», then the date is built according to the same principle as in Russian: the second pair is put in the plural. For decades, it is imperative to use the definite article the. The first pair can be omitted.

Nulls are formed according to the same principle:

Days and months

Dates in English, consisting of a day and a month, are read in two ways:

The eighteenth of April

April the eighteenth

In writing, the preposition and the article are omitted, the corresponding ending is added to the number, the comma is not put between the day and the month:

Full dates

Thus, full dates in English with year, month and day look like this:

With abbreviated notation, numbers are put through a period.

In American English, the month is put first, and / is used as a separator.

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We correctly read the dates in English

Many may face the fact that they seem to have mastered the language to some extent, but they still cannot read dates in English. Let’s fix this problem. This does not take long.

How to read the year

How to spellHow to speak

We do not divide from 2000 to 2009 into tens.

2000 = two thousand
2001 = two thousand (and) one

The conjunction and is often omitted.

Starting in 2010, the year can again be divided into tens:

2010 = twenty ten
2018 = twenty eighteen

How to write and read dates in British English

Note: the comma and the last two letters of the day number can be omitted.

How to write and read dates in American English

It’s the first of June. (1st June)

It’s June the first. (June 1st)

Sixteenth of april. (16th April)

How to read your date of birth

Numbers in English | English grammar | EF

Cardinal numbers (one, two, three, etc.) are adjectives denoting quantity. Ordinal numbers (first, second, third, etc.) indicate the order by count.

Quantitative Ordinal Number

Reading decimal places

When we read decimal places aloud in English, we pronounce the decimal point as “point,” then pronounce the next digit separately. Money is not counted in this way.

Writing Pronunciation

Reading beats

In English, fractions are read using a cardinal number to indicate the numerator and an ordinal number to indicate the denominator. Moreover, if the numerator is greater than 1, then we put the ordinal (denominator) in the plural. This applies to all numbers except 2, which is pronounced «half» when it is the denominator, and «halves» when there are more than one.

Writing Pronunciation

Percentage pronunciation

Reading percentages out loud in English is pretty easy. Just say the number and add the word «percent».

Writing Pronunciation

Reading sums of money

To read monetary amounts, first read the whole number, then add the name of the currency. If it is a decimal point, read it as an integer, and if coins have their own name in a particular currency, add it at the end. Note that normal decimal places are not read this way. These rules apply only to reading currencies.

Writing Pronunciation

Measurement pronunciation

Just say the number followed by the measure, often written as an abbreviation.

Writing Pronunciation

Pronunciation of times

Reading tenses in English is relatively difficult. Usually, when the year has four digits, the first two are read as one number, and then the other two as another integer. There are several exceptions to this rule.

Years up to the first 100 years of the millennium can be read as whole numbers, even if they have four digits, or they can be read as two-digit numbers. Millenniums are always read as whole numbers, as it would be too difficult to read them otherwise. New ages are read as integers in the hundreds.

We do not use the word «thousand», at least not when we read dates for the last 1000 years.

Years with only 3 digits can be pronounced as a three-digit number, or as a single-digit number followed by two-digit years. Years in which there are only two digits are read as one number. Before you say the number of the year, you can add “the year” at the beginning to make it easier to understand, and you can also use two-digit and three-digit years in the same way. Years before 0 are always written with the acronym BC (BC), and it is pronounced like two letters of the alphabet.

Curiously, using the same rules we read street names and addresses.

Writing Pronunciation

How to pronounce 0

There are several ways to pronounce the number 0, depending on the context. Unfortunately, the use of these options differs in different English-speaking countries. These pronunciation rules apply to American English.

Pronunciation Use

Dates, phone numbers and prices in English

Even if you speak English well, you may feel insecure when dealing with numbers.

Today we will look at how to correctly name phone numbers and account numbers, how to talk about dates and prices in English, so as not to make mistakes.

Phone numbers

Probably most often we have to deal with a situation when we need to dictate a number. Phone numbers in English are read completely differently than in Russian. In Russian, we can pronounce the area code or operator code by numbers, but in the number itself we very rarely say each number, and we combine the numbers into tens and hundreds:

In English, all the digits of the number are pronounced separately, and zero is most often read as oh / oʊ /. The same numbers standing next to each other are united by the word double:

All digits of the number are pronounced in groups of three. The intonation rises after each group of numbers (as in the listing), and at the end, a descending tone is used:

If in a combination of three digits there are two zeros at the end, then we can say this:

When reading numbers of bank and credit cards and similar number series, the numbers are read in groups of four with ascending intonation, each number being named separately (as in telephone numbers):

Prices

In prices, the currency icon stands up to the price itself, and is pronounced at the end in the singular or plural (if the amount is round):

If the amount is represented by a decimal fraction, then you can indicate the currency after the whole number. Reading follows the same rules as reading decimal fractions, but the word point is not pronounced. If the whole is plural, then the currency noun is also plural:

Dates

When reading dates, ordinal numbers are used with the definite article the, the month is preceded by the preposition of:

In American English (AmE), the month is read and written first, not the number, and the definite article the is not used:

If a specific year is called, then the four-digit number is divided into two groups up to two, and each is pronounced separately, zero is oh (not zero):

The numbers in the years from 2000 to 2009 are not divided into groups of two, they are read like ordinary numbers:

Years after 2009 have two reading options:

When they talk about decades, the cardinal number is used in the plural with the article the:

›Grammar and Rules› Numbers and Numbers ›Dates in English

Numbers in English are learned immediately after you memorize the alphabet and pronunciation of letters. With the help of numbers, you can express much more information than meets the eye: amounts, estimates, times, dates, quantities, and so on. If you already know the translation of the names of the most simple numbers and can pronounce them correctly, it’s also time for you to learn how dates are written and read in English.

These activities will not be the easiest ones: in addition to learning a lot of new information, you also need to learn to understand the difference between American and British English. We are all accustomed to the fact that according to the rules for writing dates in Russian, first comes the day, then the month, then the year. A similar system is used in England, however, some nuances have been introduced in Canada and America. For Americans, the month is indicated first, after that the number of the day is prescribed and only then the year.

Here is an example:

The difference, frankly, is not great. However, it determines the initial literacy level of the student. Dates will have to be indicated on tickets, in hotel registration books, and so on. A little confusion can lead to significant problems, so fundamental knowledge of the topic should be firmly in your head. To thoroughly know in what format dates are written and numbers are read, you just have to look through this article to the end.

Dates in English: writing features

It is also possible to shorten the full name of the month to the first three letters.

How to write the date in English in words?

Imagine you were given an exercise: write the phrase «Today is March 2, 1975 AD.» Think for yourself how to correctly express it in English, and now let’s figure it out together.

What do we end up with? Let’s put it all piece by piece: «Today is the second March of nineteen seventy five AC». The preposition «of» denotes an alternative to the genitive case and answers the «who / what» questions. Accordingly: «Today is the second (what) of March.»

If you indicate the date of an event, but write the date itself in abbreviated form, then you need to put the preposition «on» in front of it. If only the year is indicated, then the preposition «in» is placed before it. An abbreviated form can be used to indicate an entire decade: 1960s or 60s. In this case, the abbreviated spelling of the decade will look like «in the 1960s». The article «the» is required to be included in both writing and speaking.

After the onset of a new century, the combination of numbers developed in such a way that now there is a second way of reading and writing the year. Let’s look at a few examples:

This technique will work until 2101. Therefore, you will have plenty of time to memorize and practice.

Workout and exercise

When it becomes easy to work with your birthday, remember the birth dates of your friends or relatives and practice on them. To ask an Englishman or American when he was born you need to ask the following question: «What date is your birthday?» or literally «What is your date of birth?» If this question was asked to you and you have studied the provided material well, then you can answer it without any hesitation.

Let’s do the exercise.

Take a look at the calendar above and then fill in the missing words in the sentences by choosing one of the options provided. Example: Today is Thursday. (May 16th). last night, the day after tomorrow, next Thursday, tonight, yesterday, tomorrow afternoon, last Thursday, this afternoon, tomorrow, Today

If you liked the exercise for the dates of the English language, then you can find more exercises by clicking on the link.

Good luck in learning English!

Dates in English Link to main publication

Dates in english

Chronological dates and years in English they are pronounced differently than in Russian. Next, we will analyze the basic rules for reading these numbers.

Specific dates (days) and months

To understand how specific dates and months are written and read in English, here’s an example:

years

Until 2000, it was customary to divide the years into two numbers. The first denotes the number of hundreds, and the second denotes the number of tens and units:

Round dates are written in a very peculiar way:

2001-2009 more often read as:

Since 2010, you can use two options when reading:

If it is emphasized that a particular year belongs to an era, then the following entry with an abbreviation is used:

Centuries

Centuries in English, as in Russian, are written using ordinal numbers:

Prepositions with dates

Pretext on used when we mean a specific day or date. See examples:

On the contrary, when we talk about a long period of time, the preposition is used in:

We ask: «What day is it today?»

Asking the date of birth

Dates in English, correct reading and writing of dates, prepositions with dates

Chronological dates and years in English they are pronounced differently than in Russian. Next, we will analyze the basic rules for reading these numbers.

We write dates and times in English

The first topic taught in English lessons is the correct pronunciation and spelling of dates. If there are no special problems with grammar and there is no need to delve into the context, then incidents often occur with pronunciation even among the most advanced native speakers of a foreign language. Why are these rules being studied? If you have any questions, you can sign up for our Intensive English Courses.

Dates in English quite complex. You have to deal with them on a daily basis. For example, when sending messages, faxes, letters, when concluding agreements, fulfilling orders, purchasing goods, etc. All numbers must be written correctly. Otherwise, the slightest inaccuracy can turn into huge problems and misunderstandings. This article is devoted to some of the nuances, how to write the date in english.

Learning to write dates according to the calendar

We take an ordinary calendar as a basis. When writing a date in English, we first display the number, then the month, and the year. In England, a similar way of constructing a date is used. As for the American version, first the month, the day, and only then the year are indicated. For example, September 28, 2019 will be written as September 28, 2019 (UK) or September 29th, 2019 (US).

You can just use numbers, as we often do. Dots, hyphens, or / are used for separation. For example, 1.09.2019 in England will be understood as September 1, 2019. In America, a similar date will be perceived as January 9, 2019. This is an important nuance.

How decades are spelled correctly, unusual English letter combinations

Good to know: English preposition is required when writing the year in(in 2000), and when writing the date, the particle is written in full on(on April 15, 2000).

Rules for writing the year in English

Besides, how the date is written in english, you need to know the nuances of writing years. It’s no secret that they are pronounced completely differently than in Russian. They are also written. For example:

Now, if you are asked, What`s the date today, What date is your birthday, you can clearly and answer what date is today, what date is your birthday, etc. Writing dates in English this is not limited to, when discussing such a topic, it may be necessary to know the time. And this is also quite difficult.

Remember the names of the months

When specifying dates in English-speaking countries, it is important to know what the months are, their sound and spelling in full or abbreviated form. So watch and remember:

Time in English

If English-speaking citizens mention the date, they often use the time specification. Once in England or America, you need to understand how to find out what time it is and know the answer to a similar question. Let’s consider the possible options with examples:

English numbers and numbers

Numbers in English with transcription in the table from 1 to 10:

If you do not know English transcription and you need Russian transcription, listen to how numbers and numbers are read in English:
/audio/english-vocabulary-numbers.mp3 Download mp3

The number 0 is written like this: nought [nɔːt], zero [‘zɪərəu]

Numbers 11 to Million

More numbers in English from 11 to 20 and from 21 to 100:

Cardinal and ordinal numbers

There are two types of numerals:

Everything is clear with the first group. Quantitative (cardinal) numerals are our one, two, three one hundred (one, two, three hundred).

But ordinal (ordinal) numerals are a bit tricky. Pointing to the order of the position or course of action (first, second, third hundredth), they are formed according to a certain rule, which was not without exceptions. Let’s consider the rule.

Pay attention! Ordinal numbers are used with the article “The“.

And what about the exceptions? They are words «First, second, third, fifth»that need to be learned by heart:

Ordinal numbers will be useful to us in order to name the date of your birth. (birthday).

Mu birthday is on the second (tenth, seventeenth) of May (January, June).

Use “on» to indicate the day and «Of» before the month name. By the way, historically, the names of calendar months are written with a capital letter. Remember this!

Ordinal numbers in English

Some features of the use of numerals in English

Most fractions in English use both cardinal and ordinal numbers. Cardinal numbers are used in the numerator of the fraction, and ordinal numbers are used in the denominator.

If the numerator is greater than one, then the denominator is plural:

Integers and fractional numbers in a numeral are connected by a union and:

To express complex fractions, the word is often used over:

Decimals are read as follows:

If a fraction is followed by a noun, it is placed in the singular form, and the preposition is used in front of it of:

If a noun follows a numeral consisting of a whole and a fractional part, then it is put in the plural form:

Using numerals in arithmetic

Arithmetic signs are read as follows:

Using numerals to indicate a telephone number in English

Each digit in the phone number is pronounced separately:

Chronological dates and years in English they are pronounced differently than in Russian. Next, we will analyze the basic rules for reading these numbers.

Numbers translator: translate numbers into english

If you have any doubts about how to spell a particular number in words in English or Russian, use our translator for numbers. In order to make a translation, enter the required number in the form of numbers and the program will calculate its written form.

At the moment, the translator’s limitation is a limit of 18 decimal places (for integer values) and 18 decimal places (for translating values ​​containing a fractional part).

As you can see above, several English spellings are given for the number to be translated. With these, you can tell the difference between American English (AmE) and British English (BrE). For each of them, in turn, several spelling options can also be provided, which one to use in the text depends on the context of the sentence.

This program equally easily copes with the translation of numbers into text, both for English and Russian. Those. if you need to write a number in words in Russian, just enter it in numerical format and click the «Translate» button.

Notation

In addition to numbers, our program can also write various sums of money in words. In this case, the transfer is carried out immediately in three different currencies: rubles, dollars and pounds sterling.

— the button is used to switch between the modes «Number in words» and «Amount in words».

First of all, we focus on people learning English. language, but if this translator is useful to someone else (for example, when filling out business documents), we will be very happy.

Together with the «Sum in words» function, we have added automatic saving of translator settings. That. the next time you visit you will not have to select the number / currency mode again, everything will be ready for work.

Additional materials:

How are dates correctly read and written in English?

By Natalia January 21, 2019

Dates in English are the initial topic of study at school. It should be noted that dates must be indicated in documents and letters. Learning how to read and write dates correctly is quite simple. It is enough to understand some of the features.

Writing dates in English

The date consists of numbers:

The numbers of the month in English:

Dates in British English

If the date is part of a sentence, then a comma is placed after the month:

Sometimes in a date, the last pair of letters of the ordinal is added to the number:

Sometimes the date format is written simply as numbers:

British and American English Date Spelling Features

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One of the first topics taught in English lessons is pronunciation and spelling of dates. However, not all textbooks provide different spellings of dates in English. In this article, I would like to introduce you to the British and American variants of writing and reading dates, their differences, and also invite you to watch a training video and test your knowledge on this topic by completing the exercises at the end of the article. So, let’s begin.

General rules for writing and reading dates in English

First, I would like to introduce you to the rules that apply to both British English and American. Traditionally, when writing dates, the number and year are written in numbers, while the month is written in full.

The date uses ordinal numbers (first, second, third, fourth, fifth, etc.). If the day of the week is indicated in the date, it is put in first place, and then the date itself is written.

Remember that the days of the week and months are capitalized in English. For example:

Also, the pronunciation of years in English differs from the pronunciation in Russian. For example:

Since 2001, you can read in two ways:

Writing and Reading Dates in British English

The main difference between the British and American versions is the word order when writing or reading dates. In British English, the formula for writing dates is as follows:

The spelling of the date can vary depending on the writing format or style. You don’t have to use the and of, but if you have already decided to use this option, you should definitely write the full form. Options such as the 16th May, 2016 or 16th of May, 2016 will be considered errors. As for the commas, their use is not necessary, but in my practice of communicating with the British, I noticed that they usually put commas.

When we read a date, it is imperative to pronounce the full form using the and of. For example, Monday, 16 May 2016 reads like this: Monday, the sixteenth of May, two thousand sixteen.

Writing and Reading Dates in American English

In American English, the number is after the month. A comma is placed after the number to separate it from the year. The formula for the American version of the writing of dates is as follows:

Numeric Dates in British and American English

Chronological dates and years in English they are pronounced differently than in Russian. Next, we will analyze the basic rules for reading these numbers.

Dates in English: reading rules and examples with translation

Month names

All months in English:

Numeric dates

Numeric dates are always ordinal numbers. It is customary to write them in an abbreviated form:

Free lesson on the topic:

Irregular verbs of the English language: table, rules and examples

Number-letter dates

If the letter mentions a date that includes the day and month, in this case, most often the number is written in numbers, and the month is better written in letters. The sequence here differs from language variant. So, in British English, numbers are placed before the month:

Decades and centuries

Centuries and decades, both in British and American English, are written after the day and month, and after them, as in Russian, the word «year» is not put.

When it comes to a specific decade, the letter s is added to the year, and without hyphens:

How to read dates in English

Dates in English are read in the same way as they are written, with one exception. Numbers over a thousand, when pronounced, are divided into two halves and pronounced in tens.

If there are no tens in the number, then hundreds and ones are called, but not thousands.

How to say the DATE in English

The number of the day

For dates in spoken English, we always use ordinal numbers, i.e. Fourth of July, not Four of July.

However the ordinal numbers that are highlighted in red in the chart below are irregular or have a slight change in spelling. See our complete lesson about Ordinal Numbers in English.

Order of Days and Months when saying the date

There are two ways of giving the date in English:

Month + Day: December 25 – used in United States.* OR

Day + Month: 25th December – used in the rest of the world.

* The exception is with the name of the US celebration the Fourth of July.

How to say the YEARS in English

Years are normally divided into two parts; the first two digits and the last two digits. **

2017 is divided into 20 and 17 so you would say twenty seventeen.

** For the exceptions, see our entire lesson about How to say the YEAR in English.

Writing the date in English

Be careful when writing the dates using only numbers.

For example, Christmas day is written:

So what day is this? 3/4/17

It depends on the country. It can be:

March fourth, twenty seventeen (in United States) OR

The third of April, twenty seventeen (in the rest of the world)

There’s a big difference, isn’t there!

To avoid confusion, when writing an email or any other written form of English, it is best to write the month as its name (January, February, etc.) or its abbreviation (Jan. Feb. etc.) and NOT as its number.

And remember, the months are always written in Capital letters.

In US English, a comma is put after the day if it is followed by a year.

How can you ask for the date in English?

The main ways of asking the date are:

What day is it today?
– People will probably respond with a day of the week (It’s Monday) or the number (It’s the 19th).

What date is it?
– People may give you the number (It’s the 19th) or the day/month (It’s 19th May or May 19th). They will not answer with a day of the week.

What is the date (today)? OR What is today’s date?
– This is another way where you will get a number as an answer.

The response to your question will most likely start with…

Summary Chart

Now, answer these questions