Dates
Introduction
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
Christmas is celebrated on 25th December.
"This invoice is American. It is the eighth of July, not the seventh of August."
"When is the next meeting?" "The third of next month."
This letter is dated 4th November.
He was born in the 1950s but he likes music from the'80s and '90s.
This is a car from the 19th century.
