How to ask and tell or read dates in English - Learn English in Contexts

As an ESL speaker, you can follow either the American or British way of telling the date. This blog will explain how to tell the date in American English, which differs from the British way and is more casual. In the American system, the month comes first, followed by the day in ordinal form, and then the year.
 
For example, the date 1/3/2021 is pronounced as "January third, 2021" or "January the third, 2021." For full dates like this, the preposition "on" is used, as in "The meeting is scheduled on January third, 2021."
 
This is an a cartoon photo of two people asking for and telling the date, featured in the a blog post on the same topic
 
Note that British and other Commonwealth countries follow a different practice, putting the day first, followed by the month. So, the same date (1/3/2021) would be pronounced as "the third of January, 2021" by those following British English.
 

Common ways of asking about/for dates are as follows!

  • What day is it today? What day is it tomorrow?
  • What date is it today? What date is it tomorrow?
  • What is the date today? What is the date tomorrow?
  • What is the day today? What is the day tomorrow?
  • What is today's date? What is tomorrow's date?
  • What date is it?
  • Can you tell me the date?
  • Do you know the date?
  • Can I know the date?
  • What date is your doctor's appointment?
  • What is the date of your doctor's appointment?
  • Can you tell me the date of your doctor's appointment?

 Similarly, if there is a need, you can frame your questions like these:

  • What's the deadline for the project?
  • When is the project due?
  • What's the due date for the project?

 

How to tell dates

  • It is Friday, the eighth./ It is Friday, eighth.
  • It is March third./ It is March, the third.
  • The function is on twenty ninth (It is on 29th).
  • It is Monday today.
  • Today is Monday.
  • Today is the eighteenth.
  • It would be on the week of the 15th.
  • It is the eighth.

("the" before the ordinal numbers is optional, mostly left out in informal speeches.)

Phrases like on the week of OR for the week of imply that the exact date is not known to the speaker by has an inkling that it belongs to a week that includes the mentioned date.

  • I'll hear back from them on the week of the 15th. (Exact date unknown, but likely around 15th)
  • The package will arrive on the week of the 22nd." (Sometime during the week of the 22nd)
  • "I'm on vacation for the week of the 10th." (Whole week, including 10th, is vacation time)
  •  "The meeting is scheduled for the week of the 25th." (Meeting will happen sometime during that week) 



Support My Mission: This is a single-man venture. If you find value in the free English lectures and resources provided here, please consider making a donation to support my ongoing efforts. Your contribution helps me maintain and expand my content, ensuring I can continue offering quality education at no cost. Every donation, big or small, makes a significant difference and is deeply appreciated. Thank you for your support! You can google-pay me at +918848516911(When you do, add a note mentioning, "it is to support our English forum."

For registering for online and offline classes: https://maps.app.goo.gl/zHgPYU5WUaAXHYV68 





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who Are OR Who Is?

Image
ESL people are sometimes at a loss about the correct SVA (Subject Verb Agreement) aspect of sentences with "who." There are two angles to look at this question from. 1. Where only "Who IS" right! Suppose you are walking into a room where a number of people are present. Would you use a singular verb or a plual verb in these sentences? Who is/are interested in Football? Who wants snacks? Who is eating pizza tonight? Even if you are asking this question to a group of people and sure that there will be more than one person as an answer, you are supposed to use A SINGULAR VERB. It is because we donot know the number of people beforehand. 2. Where only "Who ARE" right! However, there are instances where you need to use a plural verb. It is when you know the number of people in advance. In fact, here, you are not trying to count the people, but rather you want to know the names or something of those persons. Suppose you are going to a restaurant and see two peopl...
Read more

Learn cooking and kitchen vocabulary in English | Learn English in contexts

Image
cooking and kitchen vocabulary in English This American English lesson has incorporated both kitchen vocabulary and cooking vocabulary because while you prepare a meal both scenarios work out at the same time. In this spoken English lesson, you will learn 200 cooking-time dialogues, cooking instructions, cooking verbs, cooking vocabulary, kitchen vocabulary, and kitchen verbs. Although the lesson has plenty of content, the best part is that there are only so many verbs and phrases we say in English while we cook in the kitchen. Once you have mastered them, you are all set for talking about cooking in English. A trick to master cooking and kitchen verbs; the majority of them are in the form of phrasal verbs. If you have a knack for choosing the correct preposition with a verb, you can make many more commands with the same verbs with the same verb maneuvering them for separate contexts. For example, the verb "cut" can be used with prepositions like "off, out, in". For...
Read more

How To Read Years in English?

Image
Unlike reading digits, reading years in English can be a bit tricky since the natural way of reading dates can vary from decades to decades and century to century. This blog will cover everything you need to know about telling years in English. Reading years in English 1. Years before 999 For years before 999, read them just like numbers. in 999 CE - in nine hundred and ninety-nine CE in 900 CE - in nine hundred CE in 801 CE - in eight hundred and one CE in 71 CE - in seventy-one CE 2. Years from 1000 to 1999 Reading dates from 1000 to 1999 is rather difficult since varied ways are there. We need to sub-categorize them further for convenience. 1. Years ending in 00 Read them as hundreds. in 1800 - in eighteen hundred in 1100 - in eleven hundred 2. Years ending in 01, 02, 03, 04, to 09 Read the first digits in tens, read the zero as "oh" and read the last digit in 1901 - in nineteen oh one in 1105 - in eleven oh five in 1509 - in fifteen oh nine 3. Years with first and third d...
Read more