How to say dates in english

How to say dates in English

Since ancient times humans have given a lot of importance to the use of dates.

They’re a way of recording and referencing significant and intimate moments such as birth, marriage, and death as well as others of greater impact such as wars, the rise and fall of monarchs and empires, natural disasters, and events that are important to people such as the harvest and holidays.

Expressing dates correctly is, therefore, a way of respecting others, their experiences, their past, and their history.

We also need dates to be able to carry out various daily activities such as writing letters, documents, and emails. We use them to fill out forms, prepare legal documents, and even to read product expiry dates.

For English learners, dates offer some of the most frequent dilemmas. Are months written in capital letters or lower-case? Do I have to write the date differently depending on the country I’m in? When should I use ordinal numbers?

These are tiny details that we sometimes miss and that can lead to misunderstandings or to saying the date incorrectly. In this article, we’ll explain how to use dates in English to help you avoid confusion.

Are you ready? Let’s begin.

What day is it today?

You can answer in the following ways:

Are the days and months written in capital letters?

The answer to this question might not be very clear to you. In many languages, the days and months are always written in lower-case.

In English, the opposite is true. Days, months, and holidays are ALWAYS written in capital letters while the seasons are written in lower-case.

I will visit my parents next Tuesday .

I remember I had plenty of food last Christmas .

The concert will be held on April 1st.

Steve used to visit his mother in summer .

Don’t forget that the days of the week are:

It’s also worth remembering the months of the year:

What’s the correct order when you write a date?

For dates in American English, why do they write the month before the day? Is it some kind of whimsical impulse?

The British Empire opted for the European format (dd-mm-yyyy). The confusion between the two only appeared recently, in the digital era, since dates are now written using only numbers.

If someone has written 1/10/2001, it could be understood as October 1, 2001, or January 10, 2001. Which of the two is correct?

As the adage says, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do,” so you’ll just have to adapt to wherever you are.

What about ordinal numbers?

Ordinals are frequently used to write dates.

In English, these numbers are used to indicate position, ranking, or order, but do NOT indicate quantity. Look at heading for a letter in English:

How to easily say and write dates in English

Learning how to say and write dates in English will help you improve your use of the English language. Knowing how to ask the date becomes easier when you learn the days of the week and the months of the year. The dates in English also follow a certain format, unlike other languages. This includes differences between the American and the British date format. For example, you would write the day, month and then the year in British English. You would also capitalize on the months of the year. We look at the different ways of writing dates in English and which formats to use in everyday communication.

HOW TO ASK FOR THE DAY OF THE WEEK

Asking the day of the week is made easier by learning the days of the week in English.

The days of the week include:

You can ask for the day of the week by saying:

“What is the day today?” or “What is the day tomorrow?”

“It is Monday” or “Today is Monday” or “Tomorrow is Monday”

ASKING FOR THE DATES IN ENGLISH

To learn how to say dates in English you must understand the format. British English is different to American English. When asking the date British format requires the day, the month and the year. The American English date format is written and spoken as the month, the day and then the year.

Ask for the Date as:

“What is the date?” or “What is the date today?”

For the British Date Format, the Response is:

“It is the 13 th of September” or “Today is the 13 th of September”

“It is the thirteenth of September” or “Today is the thirteenth of September”

In American English, the Response is:

“It is September 13 th ” or “Today is September 13 th ”

“It is September thirteenth” or “Today is September thirteenth”

TO CORRECTLY SAY THE DATES IN ENGLISH, YOU MUST USE ORDINAL NUMBERS

To say the date, you must learn ordinal numbers ending in:

7, Seven – Seventh

8, Eight – Eighth

11, Eleven – Eleventh

12, Twelve – Twelfth

13, Thirteen – Thirteenth

20, Twenty – Twentieth

21, Twenty one – Twenty First

22, Twenty Two – Twenty Second

HOW TO WRITE THE DATES IN ENGLISH

There are different ways to write the date in English.

When the date is written in British English, you will write the date as:

We use ordinal numbers in the written date such as:

Writing the dates in English is made easier with practice. By learning the days of the week, the month, and the pronunciation of the years, you can say and write the dates in both British and American English. To write the date, the correct format must also be used. Once you understand the different formats and use of numbers, you will be writing and saying the date in English in no time.

Now that you mastered how to say and to write dates in English, discover how to speak fluently and confidently in English.

English with a Smile

Improve your English, grammar tips, vocabulary and get better writing.

How to Write and Say Dates in English

Is this email correct?

Well, it’s not absolutely wrong, but you should actually write: Friday 14.

When you speak, you say: “Friday fourteenth.” (Friday the fourteenth is said too.)

And how about this then?

You ask your friend when his exam is.

He says: “On April 15.”

No, it isn’t. You should say: fifteenth.

Writing? Use Cardinal Numbers

So when you write, you write normal numbers. These are called cardinal numbers: 1,2,3, etc.

Speaking? Use Ordinal Numbers

Now have a look at this handy infographic to check the spelling of numbers.

The spelling of numbers is just for your information, because when you write dates, you don’t write the numbers in letters. When writing dates, always write the numbers in digits.

Also read this funny article about why Americans say and write the dates with the month first.

By the way, did you know that Americans used to say the days before the months once? This is why they still say the Fourth of July, which is the American Independence Day.

Now try the quiz!

Quiz

How do you say or write this?

1 Write: Today is 29 March. How do you say this?

The 29 th of March (in British English).

29 th of March (in American English).

3 Write: My favourite day in the year is 1 May. How do you say this in British English?

The first of May.

The oneth of May.

4 Write: My birthday is on August 22. How do you say this in American English?

5 Write: My mother’s birthday is on 13 October. How do you say this?

The 13 th of October (in British English).

The 13rd of October (in British English).

6 Write: I’m starting a new job on April 1. How do you say this in American English?

7 Say: The day we met was the 25th of January. How do you write this in British style?

The 25 th of January.

8 Say: So we’ll plan the meeting for November 31th. How do you write this in American style?

9 Say: There is a big event on the twentieth of September. How do you write this in British style?

Twentieth of September.

The 20 of September.

10 Say: My vacation starts on July twelfth. How do you write this in American style?

Saying Dates in English

Let’s learn how to say dates in English!

As you’ll notice there are two ways of saying dates in English. One of them is more common in the USA while the other one is more common in the UK.

When we only say the month we use the preposition in.

I was born in January.

But when we use complete dates we must use the preposition on.

Remember that in English we say dates using ordinal numbers.

(first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth…twelfth,thirteenth, twentieth… thirtieth, thirty-first)

To ask the date you can say:

What’s the date today?/ What’s today’s date?/ What date is it (today)?

What is your day of birth?/ When were you born?

I was born on 7th January. ( When we write we don’t use “the” and “of”. However when we say the date, we must say them.)

4th August, 2015 UK

August 4th, 2015 USA

20th September, 2012 UK

September 20th, 2012 USA

Aries people were born between 21st March and 20th April.

Go to BBC to learn more about ordinal numbers and dates.

Watch these videos to learn more about dates in English.

How to write dates in British and American English

Calendar dates can be written in a wide variety of ways in English, and the choice often depends on formal or informal writing, personal style and whether you are writing British or American English. Whatever the format, in British English, dates are usually written in the order day – month – year, while in American English they are written month – day – year.

This article covers all the common ways to write dates for each region.

Writing Dates in British English

For British English, day followed by month followed by year, the 13th day of the month April, year 2014, might be written in full (in order of complexity):

These are all possible, and a matter of choice. The more complicated the style of date, the more formal it is.

In the later examples, the and of are optional, but if you do use them you must add both the and of; it would be incorrect to say only 13th of April or the 13th April.

In British English, commas are not necessary (although can be used to separate month an year, as a matter of style).

If you wish to add the name of the day, it should come before the date, and should either be separated by a comma or joined by the and of.

Writing Dates in American English

In American English, the month comes before the day, which means you cannot use of and rarely use ordinal numbers (adding st, nd, rd, th). Commas should also be used to separate the day and year, and again the name of the day should come at the beginning. The date should therefore be written:

April the 13th or April 13th are not incorrect, but are much less common now.

Numerical date formats

In both British and American English, the date can be written in abbreviated forms, either as a group of numbers (separated by hyphens, slashes or periods), or with the first few letters of the month. The date should be in day – month – year or month – day – year format depending on British or American use.

British Abbreviated Dates

American Abbreviated Dates

Year Before Month

In some circumstances, you may find the year comes before the month, then the day (a reverse of the standard British format). This is not common in English speaking countries, except in some technical texts.

Which style to choose?

Choosing which style you write the date in depends on how formal you wish the document to be, and how much space you have. However, there are only two things that are really important, whichever style you choose:

And do not use different styles within the same document, unless you have a good reason to!

I hope you found this useful, and if you have any questions do ask in the comments below!

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