======Dates====== =====Introduction=====

Image  It's Wednesday 7th July, 2014.

 

=====Definition=====

'Date' usually refers to the number on a calendar but it can also mean the day, date, month and year together. 

 

=====Construction=====

We use ordinal numbers to express the date:

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

8th

9th

10th

11th

12th

13th

14th

15th

16th

17th

18th

19th

20th

 

21st

22nd

23rd

24th

25th

26th

27th

28th

29th

30th

31st

 

The full date =    day + date + month + year

                            Monday 22nd August, 2012


Note that we use:

1.             Capital letters for days and months.

 

2.             A comma between the month and the year: 

                (Monday) 22nd August, 2012

 

But in a sentence it is not always necessary:

 

The next meeting is in January 2013.

March 2000 was an important month for the company.

 

=====Abbreviated forms=====

1.      We can also write the date as:

British

American

 

2/7/2012

or

2/7/12

 

7/2/2012

or

7/2/12

 In British English, we say this in the same way as the full form - "the second of July, 2012"

 In American English, we give the month, day, year.  "July second, 2012".


In British English, we usually place the date before the month in the full form and always in the abbreviated form but in American English, this is always the opposite.

Friday 6th July [British]

Friday, July 6th [American]

The date can be unclear in the abbreviated form:

9/2/12 = 9th February [British]

          = September 2nd [American]


2.     In formal written English, including business letters, the full form is preferred but informally, months and days can be abbreviated to:

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

 

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

Sun

 

=====Years=====

This is how to say the years when you speak:

1066

1789

1801

1907

1963

2000

2004

2011

2012

2013

ten sixty-six

seventeen eighty-nine

eighteen 'o' one

nineteen 'o' seven

nineteen sixty-three

two thousand

two thousand and four or twenty 'o' four

two thousand and eleven or twenty eleven

twenty twelve or two thousand and twelve

twenty thirteen or two thousand and thirteen

 

 

 

 

 

Note that for the years before 2010, it is more usual to say 'two thousand and...' but most people in both the UK and the US are now saying 'twenty ten' and this will probably continue with 'twenty thirteen' etc.


=====Decades=====

 

We write

We say

1990 - 1999

the 1990s

the '90s

the nineteen nineties

the nineties

2000 - 2009

the 2000s

 

the two thousands

 

Note that British and American people do not have an agreed standard name for this decade or the next one. 

2010 - 2019

2010s

the twenty tens

the two thousand and tens


=====Centuries=====

1801 - 1900 = the 19th century [or the eighteen hundreds]

1901 - 2000 = the 20th century [or the nineteen hundreds]

2001 - 2100 = the 21st century

=====Prepositions=====

We use the preposition 'on' with days and dates:

My birthday is on (Monday) 26th September.

My birthday is on Monday.

We use 'in' with months.

My birthday is in September.


=====Spoken English=====

When we speak, we add words to the date that we don't write:

It's Tuesday the 3rd of July.

You may also hear a variety of other forms including:

July 3rd and July the 3rd.


=====Examples=====

Image      Christmas is celebrated on 25th December.

Image   "This invoice is American. It is the eighth of July, not the seventh of August."

Image     "When is the next meeting?"       "The third of next month."

Image    This letter is dated 4th November.

Image   He was born in the 1950s but he likes music from the'80s and '90s.

Image  This is a car from the 19th century.

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