Days and Dates

Days of the week | Months of the year | Dates | Prepositions | What to say

Interesting Stuff

The days of the week:-

The working week The weekend

Sunday
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
(the Sabbath)

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun  

The months of the year:-

January February March April May June

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

July August September October November December

Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Dates:-

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

Expressing the year

How
we write 2008 1900 1959 2000
the year

How
Two thousand and Nineteen fifty-
we say Nineteen hundred The year 2000
eight nine
the year

Expressing the date

How we
1st January 2004 07/09/1959 August 12 2003
write the date

How we
The first of January The seventh of September August the 12th
say
2004 1959 2003
the date

Prepositions
For single days and dates we use on.

For example:

I was born on the 7th of the month.

For months we use in.

For example:

I was born in September.

! My birthday is on September the 7th.

Naturally speaking

How to ask the day or date

o What day is it please?  It's Tuesday.

o What date is it please?  It's the 1st of April.

o What's the date today please?  It's the 1st of April.

Interesting Stuff

AD stands for Anno Domini (Latin for "In the year of (Our) Lord"), abbreviated as AD. It
defines an epoch based on the traditionally-reckoned year of the conception or birth of
Jesus of Nazareth. it is used in the English language to denote years after the start of this
time.

BC stands for Before Christ (from the Ancient Greek "Christos" or "Anointed One", referring
to Jesus), abbreviated as BC, it is used in the English language to denote years before the
start of this time.

Some non-Christians also use the abbreviations AD and BC without intending to

acknowledge the Christian connotation, but some people prefer the alternatives 'CE'
(Common Era) and 'BCE' (Before Common Era), arguing that they are more neutral
terms. .
A millennium (pl. millennia) is a period of one thousand years.

A century is a period of one hundred consecutive years. Centuries are numbered ordinally
(e.g. "the nineteenth century").

A decade is a period of 10 years.

The decades from 1920 to 1999, are called "the Twenties", "the Sixties", etc. But the
current decade has no universally accepted name. Some refer to the decade as the "twenty
hundreds" while others may refer to it as the "two thousands". In written form, this could
appear as "the '00s" or "the 2000s". But writing "the 2000s" or simplysaying "the two-
thousands" can cause confusion, since this could refer to the entire 21st century or even
the entire millennium. Some people tried to popularize "the Noughties" as the decade's
name. This is a play on words, nought means "zero" and noughties sounds both
like nineties and naughty.

You'll find some more interesting facts about days and dates in the Interesting Facts Blog.

!Note - When writing the date as numbers British and American English differ. To write
the date 7th of September 2007 a Brit would write dd/mm/yy (07/09/07) and an American
would write mm/dd/yy (09/07/07). This often causes great confusion. It's better to write the
date in full (7th September 2007 or September 7th 2007). It also looks nicer.

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