Are you wondering, “How can I say dates in English?” or “How can I write dates in English?”

It’s important to know how to read dates in U.S. English and how to use the U.S. calendar, particularly if you plan on relocating to the U.S. Knowing this will allow you to know what day it is, plan things more effectively, and even allow you to better understand how people in the U.S. views dates and time.

Furthermore, knowing how to read dates in U.S. English is important if you’re working with people from the U.S., whether or not you actually live there, because if you don’t know it can lead to misunderstandings and frustration.

Learn how to read the U.S. calendar and more with EnglishClass101.com! In this article, you’ll learn about writing dates in English correctly, see dates in English examples, and read examples of dates in English sentences for context! Let’s get started.

Table of Contents

1. Dates in American English Format
2. Dates in English: Years
3. Dates in English: Months
4. Dates in English: Days
5. How to Say the Days of the Week in English
6. Making Appointments
7. Phrases for Talking about Dates
8. Conclusion

1. Dates in American English Format

The first thing you should know when it comes to U.S. calendar dates is how to read and write them. When it comes to dates in English, America expresses them differently than other English-speaking countries.

There are a few different ways to express dates in American English grammar, especially when speaking, but memorizing the most common way is a good starting point.

1- Typical

Most people in most situations will use the [month] [day], [year] format for both speaking and writing dates. Note that this is different from the way most countries give the date (which is [day] [month], [year]).

For example, if you’re in school and want to know the date of an important exam, you may see on the whiteboard “January [month] 28 [day], 2019 [year].”

Or maybe you ask your grandfather about an important date in his life. He may say that on March 5, 1975, he bought his current home.

2- Variations

While the above date format is pretty standard across the United States, you will, of course, encounter variations of it. The variations you encounter will largely depend on where in the U.S. you happen to be, who you spend time with, and the general environments you find yourself in most often. Here are a few of the formats for dates in English writing and speech you’re likely to come across.

• “[day] of [month], [year]”

  This format is most commonly used when speaking. For instance, if a friend asks you when your birthday is you could reply with, “I was born on the 28th [day] of April [month], 1998 [year].”

• “[day of the week] the [day] of [month]” or “[day of the week], [month] [day]”

  Again, this is most commonly used when speaking and can seem a bit long-winded. I suppose this one is best used when you want to make absolutely certain that the date you’re talking about is clear.

  For example, let’s say you need someone to babysit your kids about a month from today because you have an important event coming up that you can’t miss. You can ask your babysitter (and then confirm afterward) if they’re available to babysit on Thursday [day of the week] the 14th [day] of March [month]. (Good news: They are!)

  Very similar to the format in the above example, another way of saying this could be Thursday [day of the week], March [month] 14th [day]. It means the exact same thing.

• “[day of the week] the [day] of [month], [year]” or “[day of the week] [month] [day], [year]”

  These two formats are exactly the same as the ones above, except they include the year at the end.

  You would use this, for instance, if you’ve had four babysitters all bail on you within a couple of weeks. The next babysitter you call on, you’re desperate enough to include the year. You can’t miss this event. You have to make sure the babysitter is clear on when they need to babysit and that they really can do it.

  So you ask if they’re available to babysit on Thursday [day of the week] the 14th [day] of March [month], 2019 [year]. And then you ask three more times to make sure. 😉

  Basically, this is a very long-winded way of giving a date, but it does make sense to use if you need to be very clear about a date.

• “[month] [day]” or “[day] of [month]”

  These formats, on the other hand, are more laid-back and simple. Furthermore, they’re commonly used when referring to holiday dates or similar events.

  For example, you ask your friend when their birthday is. They reply, “February [month] 14th [day].”

  Then you say, “Wow, isn’t Valentine’s Day also on the 14th [day] of February [month]?!”

3- Writing Dates in English

When writing dates in English, you almost always use the first format we showed you. However, there are a couple of different ways you can choose to write it:

• [month name] [day], [full year]
• [month number]/[day]/[full year]
• [month number]/[day]/[last two digits of year]

I’ll use today’s date as an example for each of these options:

• February 8, 2019
• 2/08/2019
• 2/08/19

All of these are equally acceptable to use. (Note that for the day [8], I put a 0 in front. This is optional, and is just a way to indicate that it’s simply “8” and not “18” or “28.” )

2. Dates in English: Years

Now that you better understand the basic formats you’ll likely see and hear while in the United States, we can go more into detail about how these dates are pronounced.

1- Rules

Years Before 2000:
Say the first pair of numbers separately, usually a “teen” number, followed by the number formed by the second pair of numbers.
(1428 = fourteen twenty-eight, 1957 = nineteen fifty-seven, 1066 = Ten Sixty-six.)

Note: There are some people who include the word “and” between the teen number and second pair of numbers. In the above examples, this would look like: 1428 = fourteen and twenty-eight; 1957 = nineteen and fifty-seven. However, this format isn’t common and is considered an inaccurate way of phrasing the year.

Years After 2000:
Up to 2009: Say it as “Two-thousand number” or “Two-thousand and number.”
(2004 = two-thousand four or two-thousand and four.)

2010 and above: Say it as “Two-thousand number” or “Two-thousand and number” or “Twenty-number.” While you may hear it in any of these formats, keep in mind that the most commonly used format is the second one: Two-thousand and ___.
(2015 = two-thousand fifteen or two-thousand and fifteen or twenty-fifteen.)

2- Saying the Years Aloud

For your convenience, here are some more examples of how this works:

• 1990 (nineteen-ninety)
• 2008 (two-thousand-eight or two-thousand and eight)
• 2019 (two-thousand-nineteen or two-thousand and nineteen or twenty-nineteen)

Now keep in mind that I haven’t shown you all of these different formats to confuse you. It’s just important that you’re aware of them, mainly to avoid confusion in case you hear a less-used date format or one you’re not too familiar with. However, memorizing all (or most) of them can certainly help you communicate more like a native speaker.

That said, work on memorizing the “typical” format we went over before you try memorizing the others.

3- Additional Information

In the United States, there are a few terms we use to describe the passing of time relating to years. These include: year, decade, century, millennium.

A “year” is twelve months, a “decade” is ten years, a “century” is 100 years, and a “millennium” is 1000 years.

3. Dates in English: Months

Now that the years are out of the way, with all their seemingly endless format options, we can move on to the simpler topics, like how to say the months in English. Some of these can be tricky to learn how to spell and pronounce, but once you have them down they’re actually pretty simple. That said, here are the month names in English as well as abbreviations for the months in English and additional info.

• “January”
  • This is the first month of the year.
  • Pronunciation: Jan-u-ary
  • Popular holiday: New Year’s
  • Abbreviation: Jan.
• “February”
  • This is the second month of the year, and is known as being the shortest (with only 28 days, or 29 if it’s a leap year, which is every four years).
  • Pronunciation: Feb-u-ary (This one can be tricky because it’s spelled differently than it’s actually pronounced.)
  • Popular holiday: Valentine’s Day
  • Abbreviation: Feb.
• “March”
  • This is the third month of the year.
  • Pronunciation: Pronounced exactly as the word “march.”
  • Popular holiday: St. Patrick’s Day
  • Abbreviation: Mar.
• “April”
  • This is the fourth month of the year.
  • Pronunciation: Ape-rel
  • Popular holiday: Easter
  • Abbreviation: Apr.
• “May”
  • This is the fifth month of the year.
  • Pronunciation: Pronounced exactly as the word “may.”
  • Popular holiday: Mother’s Day
  • Abbreviation: None (just “May” )
• “June”
  • This is the sixth month of the year.
  • Pronunciation: J-oon (Imagine saying the word “soon” but with a J at the beginning.)
  • Popular holiday: Father’s Day
  • Abbreviation: Jun.
• “July”
  • This is the seventh month of the year.
  • Pronunciation: Ju-lie (Simply make the J sound, and then say the word “lie” immediately after.)
  • Popular holiday: Independence Day
  • Abbreviation: Jul.
• “August”
  • This is the eighth month of the year.
  • Pronunciation: O-gest (Make the short “o” sound, followed by the pronunciation of “gest” with a short G sound.)
  • Popular holiday: Umm… school starting? : )
  • Abbreviation: Aug.
• “September”
  • This is the ninth month of the year.
  • Pronunciation: Sept-tem-bur (In this word, the “t” is pronounced as though there were two of them, though there’s only one in the spelling.)
  • Popular holiday: Labor Day
  • Abbreviation: Sept.
• “October”
  • This is the tenth month of the year.
  • Pronunciation: Okt-o-bur
  • Popular holiday: Halloween
  • Abbreviation: Oct.
• “November”
  • This is the eleventh month of the year.
  • Pronunciation: No-vem-bur
  • Popular holiday: Thanksgiving
  • Abbreviation: Nov.
• “December”
  • This is the twelfth, and final, month of the year.
  • Pronunciation: Dee-sem-bur
  • Popular holiday: Christmas
  • Abbreviation: Dec.

4. Dates in English: Days

In the U.S. calendar, each month can have anywhere from 28 to 31 days, but never more or less. Here’s a rundown of the ordinal numbers in the U.S. calendar, along with the spoken pronunciation. (Keep in mind that we also have a separate article on English numbers, in case you need to brush up on this, as well as a Numbers vocabulary list.)

• 1st (first)
• 2nd (second)
• 3rd (third)
• 4th (fourth)
• 5th (fifth)
• 6th (sixth)
• 7th (seventh)
• 8th (eighth)
• 9th (ninth)
• 10th (tenth)
• 11th (eleventh)
• 12th (twelfth)
• 13th (thirteenth)
• 14th (fourteenth)
• 15th (fifteenth)
• 16th (sixteenth)
• 17th (seventeenth)
• 18th (eighteenth)
• 19th (nineteenth)
• 20th (twentieth)
• 21st (twenty-first)
• 22nd (twenty-second)
• 23rd (twenty-third)
• 24th (twenty-fourth)
• 25th (twenty-fifth)
• 26th (twenty-sixth)
• 27th (twenty-seventh)
• 28th (twenty-eighth)
• 29th (twenty-ninth)
• 30th (thirtieth)
• 31st (thirty-first)

Keep in mind that oftentimes, people omit the st, nd, and th when actually writing these numbers down, but the sounds remain. (For example: “1st” is simply written “1” but still pronounced first and “29th” is simply written “29” but still pronounced twenty-ninth.) In short, the dropped letters at the end have no effect on how the number is pronounced out loud.

5. How to Say the Days of the Week in English

There are seven days in the week, and each one has its own name. Further, the week is divided into “weekdays” which are the days that people normally have work or school, and “weekend days” which are days that people normally take off to relax.

Let’s go over how to say the days of the week in English:

Weekdays:

• Monday (Mun-day)
• Tuesday (Tooz-day)
• Wednesday (Whens-day)
• Thursday (Therz-day)
• Friday (Fry-day)

Weekend Days:

• Saturday (Sat-er-day)
• Sunday (Sun-day)

6. Making Appointments

Now you have a basic working knowledge of how to read and say U.S. calendar dates. With this information, you can begin to effectively set up appointments. Here are a few phrases you can use (or that you may hear) when setting up appointments or other dates:

• “How does ___ [date or day of week] sound?”

  In the blank above is the date you’re talking about. Use this phrase to ask someone if a certain date works for them.

  For example:

  You: Would you like to go get sushi together sometime?
  Friend: Sure! When?
  You: How does next Saturday sound?
  Friend: Sorry, I’m busy that day.

• “Are you available on ___ [date]?”

  This is very similar to the above phrase, though it’s a more specific question requiring a yes or no answer. A conversation using the second phrase could look like:

  Friend: Do you want to see a movie tonight?
  You: I’m sorry, I already have plans…
  Friend: How about another time?
  You: Well, are you available on February 17?
  Friend: Yes! What movie do you want to see?

• “What day works best for you?” or “When are you available?”

  These two phrases are both more open-ended questions, allowing the person you’re talking with to suggest a date themselves. This can be considered polite on your end, and suggests that you have a fairly flexible schedule.

  A conversation using one of these phrases could look like:

  Friend (over the phone): Hey, I’ll be in town next weekend. Do you want to hang out?
  You: That’s great! Sure. What day works best for you?
  Friend: How about Sunday?

• “Let’s set the appointment for ___ [date].”

  This phrase is more commonly used when making important appointments, such as a check-up with your doctor or a dentist appointment.

  A conversation using this phrase could look like:

  Dentist: Shall we set up an appointment in six months?
  You: Yes.
  Dentist: Okay, let’s set the appointment for August 12.

• “So, ___ [date or day of the week]? “

  This is a fairly informal phrase, but it can be used in a variety of situations. Essentially, this phrase is used in order to confirm a set appointment or date.

  Here’s an example conversation using this phrase:

  Friend: Let’s get ice cream sometime!
  You: Okay… next Saturday?
  Friend: Hmm… I have plans that day. How about Sunday?
  You: That should work.
  Friend: So Sunday it is then?

7. Phrases for Talking about Dates

We’ve gone over setting up dates and appointments, so now let’s move on to other phrases for talking about dates. Most of these involve holidays or other special occasions. Let’s take a look:

• “When is ___ (birthday, holiday, special occasion)?”

  This is a fairly simple question, used to ask when a specific occasion is. For example, you may ask your friend, “When is your birthday?” and they’ll answer with their birthdate. Or, you could ask your coworker, “When is Labor Day?” and if they know, they’ll give you the date of Labor Day for that year.

• “What day is it?” or “What’s today’s date?”

  These are a couple more simple questions. Both are asking what the current day is. The first question is more open-ended and not very specific; if you ask someone “What day is it?” they could answer with just about anything from a day of the week, to the actual date including the year.

  The second question, however, is more specific and is asking for the actual date. If you ask someone, “What’s today’s date?” they could answer, “December 12, 2019,” or whatever the date is.

• “When does your school start?”

  This is a specific question, asking when someone’s school starts back up. In the United States, this is usually around the month of August, give or take. So, if you ask someone, “When does your school start?” they may answer, “It starts back up on August 5.”

• “Is there anything going on ___?”

  This question is asking if there are any happenings on a specific date (or day of the week, depending on the situation).

  Thus, there are two basic variations of this phrase you could use:

  1. “Is there anything going on February 15?”
  2. “Is there anything going on Thursday?”

• “Is there work/school/etc. on ___?”

  This is a slightly more specific question than the one above. It’s asking whether a certain event is taking place on a date or day of the week.

  Here are a couple of examples:

  1. “Is there work on Monday?”
  2. “Is there school on August 1?”

• “What’s the date for the meeting?”

  This phrase may come in handy for you if you plan on working in the United States. It’s asking about the date of an upcoming meeting.

  An example conversation could be as follows:

  You: What’s the date for the meeting?
  Coworker: I think it’s on March 1.

8. Conclusion

In this article, we went over days and months in English, days of the month in English, dates using English grammar, writing dates in English, and even days of the week in English. Phew!

Now you know how to say dates on the U.S. calendar, as well as how to use this information in real life. This was a lot of information to go over and I know that some of it can be tricky to grasp at first. But your hard work, study, and practice will pay off in the long run!

Continue studying with EnglishClass101.com to gain useful information and learn English while staying entertained. We offer an array of insightful blog posts, free vocabulary lists, and an online community to discuss lessons with fellow English learners. Further, if you prefer a one-on-one learning experience, check out our MyTeacher program and get your very own personal English teacher!

Until next time, we hope you’ll take some time to practice saying dates from the U.S. calendar. This is a skill you’ll be oh-so glad to have once you master it! Good luck! 🙂