Have conversations faster, understand people when they speak fast, and other tested tips to learn faster. Show
Today, we are talking about dates in Spanish – no, not dating, but instead knowing how to express the day/month/year in written or verbal form. (For vocab on dates of the romantic kind, read here) The difference between writing and saying dates in Spanish vs in English is mostly subtle. In most cases, it will depend on whether you are expressing a date in an informal or formal context – the latter being something like a legal document. Let’s begin by stating two differences between days of the week/months in Spanish vs English.
For example:
(You can find a separate post on days, months and seasons vocab here) Now, back to dates in SpanishIn Spanish, you do not say or write dates in their ordinal form (2nd, 15th, 21st etc). The only exception to this rule is for the first day (primero) of each month, as shown below:
For any other date, you use cardinal numbers (2,15, 21). (the only other exception is some legal/formal documents that tend to have dates written in their ordinal form) The formula for expressing other date sis simple: cardinal number + de + month The major difference here is that in Spanish, the month always comes after the day, whereas in English, the month can go before or after the day. For example:
How to express the year in Spanish?Just like in English, there are two ways to express certain years, depending on how specific you want to be. For example, 1970 (specific) vs the 70s (not-specific).
Let’s see more general examples:
With certain periods (i.e. 1900 to 1999) you can say the complete year or just the two last cardinal numbers of the year. Just like in English, referencing the 2000’s always require you to state the full year:
Here is a final reminder of how you could say specific years in Spanish. YearSpanish1900Mil novecientos1910Mil novecientos diez1950Mil novecientos cincuenta1980Mil novecientos ochenta1990Mil novecientos noventa2000Dos mil2010Dos mil diez2020Dos mil veinteFinally, how do you write or say entire dates in SpanishAnd to finish, you can see how entire dates are written and said in Spanish. When stating the entire date, the year usually comes after the month and day, just like in English. In the written form, you can choose to use de or del before the year, with the latter being a bit more formal FormatShorthandWritten FormVerbal FormDD/MM/YY05/02/202005 de febrero del 2020El cinco de febrero del dos mil veinte DD-MM-YY06-02-198006 de febrero de 1980 El seis de febrero de mil novecientos ochenta Weekday, DD/MM/YYLunes, 10/02/2020 Lunes, 10 de febrero del 2020 El lunes diez de febrero del dos mil veinte YY – MM – DD1990, Octubre 15—Mil novecientos noventa, octubre quince0 Get our FREE 7-day email course, Shortcut to ConversationalThe exact strategies you need to become conversational in Spanish this year. Join the course now, before we come to our senses and charge for it! How do you say today's date?We sometimes write it May 21 and sometimes May 21st, but when speaking we always say third, sixteenth, twenty-first. You'll sometimes hear people say: the third of June.. Say: June THIRD, not June THREE.. Say: February SIXTEENTH, not February SIXTEEN.. Say: May TWENTY-FIRST, not May TWENTY-ONE.. What is the correct way to say the date in Spanish?For saying the entire date in Spanish including the year, you can use a simple formula: el + (day) + de + (month) + de / del + (year) el veintidós de junio de dos mil veinte – June 22, 2020.
How do Mexicans write the date?For Mexico, the day comes before the month, everything is lowercase and the article "de" ia used. In Japan, the day of the week is not displayed and the translations for "year", "month" and "day" act like numeric separators. In the US, the full weekday name is followed by the month name and day number, then the year.
What date is Thursday in Spanish?Spanish days of the week. |