25 February 2014

Writing the Date in English

Writing the Date

There are several different ways to write the date in English. They vary from formal to informal, and there are differences between British and American English. The following table shows some typical formats.

FormatBritish: Day-Month-YearAmerican: Month-Day-Year
Athe Fourteenth of March, 2011March the Fourteenth, 2011
B14th March 2011March 14th, 2011
C14 March 2011March 14, 2011
D14/3/20113/14/2011
E14/3/113/14/11
F14/03/1103/14/11

Note: which format to use is a question of formality, politeness and personal choice. Generally, the longer formats, such as B or C, are more polite (since they show more respect for the reader). Shorter formats, such as D or E, are used in less formal situations, for example a memo, a letter between friends or an impersonal business letter. Format F is rather official and is typically seen on an invoice or an official or technical document. Format A is extremely formal and mainly used on printed items, for example a wedding invitation. The numerical formats may use a full stop (.) or hyphen (-) instead of a slash (/), for example: 14.3.2011 or 03-14-11

TIP

Note that another format exists which writes the date numerically in the order Year-Month-Day, for example: 2011/03/14. This is rare in British or American English and used mainly in very official or technical documents.
Months
NumberNameAbbreviations
1JanuaryJanJ
2FebruaryFebF
3MarchMarM
4AprilAprA
5MayMayM
6JuneJunJ
7JulyJulJ
8AugustAugA
9SeptemberSepS
10OctoberOctO
11NovemberNovN
12DecemberDecD
In English, months are correctly written with an initial capital: January, February...
Days of the Month
1stfirst
2ndsecond
3rdthird
4thfourth
5thfifth
6thsixth
7thseventh
8theighth
9thninth
10thtenth
11theleventh
12thtwelfth
13ththirteenth
14thfourteenth
15thfifteenth
16thsixteenth
17thseventeenth
18theighteenth
19thnineteenth
20thtwentieth
21sttwenty-first
22ndtwenty-second
23rdtwenty-third
24thtwenty-fourth
25thtwenty-fifth
26thtwenty-sixth
27thtwenty-seventh
28thtwenty-eighth
29thtwenty-ninth
30ththirtieth
31stthirty-first

Credits: English Club

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