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Dates

Writing​

In Britain, the commonest way to write the day’s date is as follows. Note that the names of months always begin with capital letters (see here).

  • 30 March 2004
  • 27 July 2003

The last two letters of the number word are sometimes added (e.g. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th). Some people write a comma before the year, but this is no longer very common in Britain except when the date comes inside a sentence.

  • 30th March(,) 2004
  • He was born in Hawick on 14 December, 1942.

The date may be written entirely in figures.

  • 30/3/04
  • 30-3-04
  • 30.3.04

In the USA it is common to write the month first and to put a comma before the year.

  • March 30, 2004

All-figure dates are written differently in Britain and America, since British people put the day first while Americans generally start with the month. So for example, 6.4.02 means ‘6 April 2002’ in Britain, but ‘June 4, 2002’ in the USA.

The longer names of the months are often abbreviated as follows:

  • Jan
  • Feb
  • Mar
  • Apr
  • Aug
  • Sept
  • Oct
  • Nov
  • Dec

The names of decades (e.g. the nineteen sixties) can be written like this: the 1960s (less commonly 1960’s).

note

For the position of dates in letters, (see here).

For full stops in abbreviations, (see here).

Speaking​

30 March 1993 = ‘March the thirtieth, nineteen ninety-three’ (AmE also ‘March thirtieth …’) or ‘the thirtieth of March, nineteen ninety-three’

1200 = twelve hundred

1305 = thirteen hundred and five or thirteen oh(/əʊ/) five

1498 = fourteen (hundred and) ninety-eight

1910 = nineteen (hundred and) ten

1946 = nineteen (hundred and) forty-six

2000 = two thousand

2005 = two thousand and five or twenty oh five

To announce the date, It’s is used.

  • It’s April (the) first.

To ask about dates, we can say for instance:

  • What’s the date (today)?
  • What date is it?
  • What date is the meeting? (or When is the meeting?)

BC and AD​

To distinguish between dates before and after the birth of Christ, we use the abbreviations BC (= Before Christ) and AD (= Anno Domini – Latin for ‘in the year of the Lord’). BC follows the date; AD can come before or after it.

  • Julius Caesar first came to Britain in 55 BC.
  • The emperor Trajan was born in AD 53 / 53 AD.

However, instead of BC and AD, many people now prefer to use BCE (‘before the Common Era’) and CE (‘Common Era’).