How to read and write dates in English

How to say the date in English.

Date

Mrs. Andien

• it’s 27th September. /

  Today is 27th September.

• Tomorrow is September 28th.

​You can answer by saying:

• What’s the date today? or

  What’s today’s date?

• What’s the date tomorrow? or 

  What’s tomorrow’s date?

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

How to ask the date?

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’.

​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

• 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:

It's the first of January – speaking

It’s 1st January – writing

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

First – 1st

Second – 2nd

Third – 3rd

Fourth – 4th

How to say year?

1. ​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

2. 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

There are two ways to say the year in English.