Learn about days and dates(requires Real Player).

The days of the week:-

The working week
The weekend
Listen to English Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
(the Sabbath)
Listen to English
Write English Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun  

 

Watch and listen to this video (requires access to YouTube.)

 

The months of the year:-

Listen to English January February March April May June
Write English Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Listen to English July August September October November December
Write English Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Now you have a go:-

Dates:-

In figures In words Listen to EnglishPronounce 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

Write EnglishHow we write the year 2008 1900 1959 2000

Listen to EnglishHow we say
the year

Two thousand and eight Nineteen hundred Nineteen fifty-nine The year 2000

 

Expressing the date

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

Listen to EnglishHow we say
the date

The first of January 2004 The seventh of September 1959 August the 12th 2003

 

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

  • It's Tuesday.
  • It's the 1st of April.
  • 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 simply saying "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.