Wait, how was this in English? ¿ 7th of July ? ¿ July 7th ? With the or without the ? With of or not of ? What goes before, the month or the day? And the year where I put it?
The thing about how to say or write the dates in English may seem a bit basic, but the truth is that every day we see very advanced students who are involved with this topic. And we are going to tell you one thing … NORMAL! It is much more complicated than it seems . So if you messed with this, too, be complex! Assume you have a problem with the dates and … get in trouble! That we explain it to you in a moment.
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What day date is it today?
Let’s first answer this question, just as we would on either side of the pond. And then we will review more basic (and other not so basic) questions about days , months and years .
Dates in British English: day + month + year
? 7 th July 2019
Hey, quite similar to how you do it in Spanish, right? For once we are alike in something, don’t complain! And how do you pronounce it ? With a tea in hand and like this:
? the seventh of July, two thousand and nineteen
? / dz a ssséevvvn a vvv chulái · tuu zusa a nd a nd naintíin /
Have you noticed the article THE and the preposition OF ? We do not put them when we write the date, but we DO pronounce them. We say THE seventh OF July and not seven July .
Dates in American English: month + day + year
? July 7 th 2019
That, here each to his own, as it has to be. Americans buy milk by the gallon, measure things in inches and put the month before the day by saying the dates, what are we going to do! And how do you pronounce it ? So:
? July seventh, two thousand nineteen
? / chulái ssséevvvn · tuu zusal a nd naintíin /
As you can see, the Americans do not usually say the the or the of , nor the and of the year. That’s how they are!
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The day: ordinal always
Whenever we write or say a date, unlike what you do in Spanish, we use the ordinal number and not the cardinal number. For us, the little song would be (catch air) like this:
? First of January, second of February, third of March, fourth April …
May fifth , June sixth …
SEVENTH OF JULY, SAN FERMÍN! ?
How would it be in British English?
? the first of January, the second of February, the third of May, the fourth of April …
the fifth of May, the sixth of June…
the seventh of July , SAN FERMÍN! ?
And in American English?
First January first, February second, May third, April fourth…
May fifth, June sixth
July seventh, SAN FERMÍN! ?
Hears! Times fit better here. Important fact: Fermín in English is pronounced Fermin or Firmin / féemin / . ¯ \ _ (ツ) _ / ¯
Anyway, here is a tablet with the ordinals you need for the dates in English:
| 1 st | first | / feessst / |
| 2 nd | second | / sék a nd / |
| 3 rd | third | / zeed / |
| 4 th | fourth | / fooz / |
| 5 th | fifth | / fifz / |
| 6 th | sixth | / siksz / |
| 7 th | seventh | / sssevvvnz / |
| 8 th | eight | / éit / |
| 9 th | ninth | / náinz / |
| 10 th | tenth | / tenz / |
| 11 th | eleventh | / ilévnz / |
| 12 th | twelfth | / tuélfz / |
| 13 th | thirteenth | / zeetíinz / |
| 14 th | fourteenth | / footíinz / |
| 15 th | fifteenth | / fiftíinz / |
| 16 th | sixteenth | / sssikstíinz / |
| 17 th | seventeenth | / sssevntíinz / |
| 18 th | eighteenth | / éitiinz / |
| 19 th | nineteenth | / naintíinz / |
| 20 th | twentieth | / Tuenti to z / |
| 21 st | twenty-first | / tuénti feessst / |
| 22 nd | twenty-second | / tutenti sék a nd / |
| 23 th | twenty-third | / your zeed / |
| 24 th | twenty-fourth | / tuénti fooz / |
| 25 th | twenty-fifth | / you have fifz / |
| 26 th | twenty-sixth | / your siksz / |
| 27 th | twenty-seventh | / you have sssevvvnz / |
| 28 th | twenty-eight | / tuénti éit / |
| 29 th | twenty-ninth | / tuénti náinz / |
| 30 th | thirtieth | / zéeti to z / |
| 31 st | thirty-first | / zéeti feessst / |
The month, always in capital letters!
Here it does not matter if you are from Arkansas or Brighton. Months in English are always written with a capital initial and period! Here we leave them, in case you need to review them.
| January | January | / chániu a ri / |
| February | February | / febru to ri / |
| March | March | / maaach / |
| April | April | / eipr a l / |
| may | may | / mei / |
| June | June | / chúun / |
| July | July | / chulai / |
| August | August | / oogáassst / |
| September | September | / ssseptémb a / |
| October | October | / októub a / |
| November | November | / nouvvvémb a / |
| December | December | / disssémb a / |
The year: two possibilities … or more
Friends, things are complicated … We have not told you before so as not to get involved, but when it comes to telling the year we have two possibilities, that you know:
2019 – two thousand and nineteen (remember that Americans would say two thousand nineteen , without and )
2019 – twenty nineteen
You get it, don’t you? It can also be said in two two-digit blocks ( twenty nineteen , twenty nineteen ) or as if it were a normal number ( two thousand nineteen , two thousand (and) nineteen ). And, beware, this is from the “two thousand”. If we go further back, things get more complicated YET . If you want to learn how the years are read in English, read this article .
