Understanding Days, Dates, and Months in English

Days, dates, and months in English are commonly used in daily life, especially if your work involves documents, invoices, or communication with people from other countries. This emphasizes their importance, so today, Mytour will guide you on how to write and read days, dates, and months in English correctly.

1. Writing Days of the Week

We use the preposition 'On' before the day of the week.

For example: on Friday, on Saturday, and so on...

2. Days within the Month

3. Months within the Year

4. Pronouncing Days, Dates, and Months in English

There are two ways to write and pronounce days, dates, and months in English: British English and American English.

British English follows the format: Day + Date + of + Month + Year

• You can omit the preposition 'of' before Month, add the ordinal number after (e.g., st, th...) and notably, Date always precedes Month.
• Commas may also be used before Year.
• For example:

7th (of) October (,) 2003 (October 7th, 2003)

On June 1st, 2007 (Date: May 1st, 2007)

• When reading dates in British English style, use the definite article before the date.
• For example: March 2, 2009 - March the second, two thousand and nine

In American English, dates are written and read in the format: Day + Month + Date + Year

• When writing dates in American English style, the month always comes before the date and is preceded by an article.
• For example: September (the) 18th, 2010 (Date: September 18th, 2010)

You can also express dates using numbers.

For example: 5/6/09 or 5-6-09

Due to the potential for confusion and misunderstanding in English, it's advisable to write dates in words (e.g., June instead of just the number 6) or use common abbreviations (e.g., Aug, Sept, Dec,...) which are common shortcuts.

The example above can lead to misunderstanding because interpreted in British English style, it would be June 5th, 2009, but in American English style, it would be May 6th, 2009.

Hence - When reading dates in American English style, you can omit the definite article:

For example: March 3, 2001 - March third, two thousand and one.

Note: Use the definite article before the date and the preposition 'of' before the Month according to proper English grammar.

Example:

March 3, 2001 - the third of March, two thousand and one.

December 1, 2007 - the first of September, two thousand and seven.

We hope that the information compiled by Mytour above will assist you in acquiring valuable insights into reading and writing days, dates, and months in English for both professional and daily communication purposes.