English learner
Thanks for the good post Skype121English.
More samples here:
Writing the date
We write the date in English in different ways. The most common way in British English is to write the day of the month first, then the month (starting with a capital letter) and then the year:
20 January 1993
14 November 2005
We can also write the date in numbers only:
20 January 1993 = 20/1/1993
14 November 2005 = 14–11–2005 or 14.11.05
Sometimes the last two letters of the number as spoken can be used (th, rd, st, nd):
Today is the 7th September.
The grand opening is on 1st June. or … on June 1st.
With the exception of May and June, months can be shortened as follows:
Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, Jul, Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec.
Dates in American English
In written American English, the month of the date comes before the day and year. For example, Independence Day in the USA is on July 4th each year. In the year 2000 the date was 4/7/2000 in British English. In American English this is written 7/4/2000.
Jocelyn
However, American military writes the dates like the British.
Something I’ve always thought should be changed, because it causes mass confusion, is the different date formats in British and US English. If an American speaker writes 7/8/2014 they mean the 8th of July 2014, but if a Brit writes exactly the same date 7/8/2014 they are writing the 7th of August 2014. So, remember, day/month/year for UK English and the reverse for US English! More than that, the format of date writing varies: in the US it’s common to hear ‘on April 3rd’ but British English is generally happier to retain traditional forms and extra (slightly unnecessary) articles, so prefers ‘the 3rd of April’ or, to keep things shorter, ‘on April the 3rd’. Try writing the dates in different formats to practise these styles!
Please contact me for 1-1 Skype lessons, I am a British Native.
