The Ultimate Guide To Writing And Saying Dates In English

In this post, you’ll learn everything you need to know about how to write and say dates in English.

How do we write them? Are there any differences between American and British English when it comes to dates? And, most importantly, how do we pronounce dates?

Let’s talk about all this. 

It’s not that hard – I promise!

Writing Dates In English: British English

In British English, the most common way to write dates is this:

• 1 April 2024
• 30 March 2022
• 2 September 1987
• 23 January 2009
• 9 November 1965

As you can see, we write them following a day-month-year sequence. Also, notice that the names of the months begin with a capital letter. It would be wrong to write *1 april 2024. 

Sometimes we add the last two letters of the ordinal number (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 25th, etc.). If you need to revise ordinal numbers, check out my post about numbers in English.

So you can also write the dates above like this:

• 1st April 2024
• 30th March 2022
• 2nd September 1987
• 23rd January 2009
• 9th November 1965

You can include a comma between the month and the year, but this isn't that common anymore unless you’re including the date in a sentence. So you can write:

• 2nd September (,) 1987
• I was born on 2nd September, 1987 (or I was born on 2 September, 1987).

You can write dates using numbers only. Again, in British English, you’ll need to follow the day-month-year sequence. To separate the numbers, you can use a slash (/), a hyphen (-) or a full stop (.).  

Like this:

• 1st April 2024 – 01/04/2024 or 01-04-2024 or 01.04.2024
• 30th March 2022 – 30/03/2022, or 30-03-2022, or 30.03.2022
• 2nd September 1987 – 02/09/1987, or 02-09-1987, or 02.09.1987
• 23rd January 2009 – 23/01/2009, or 23-01-2009, or 23.01.2009
• 9th November 1965 – 09/11/1965, or 09-11-1965, or 09.11.1965

If you’re writing using an informal style, you can use abbreviations. So 1st April 2024 becomes:

1 Apr or 1 Apr 2019

A few more examples:

• 30 Mar or 30 Mar 2022
• 2 Sep or 2 Sep 1987
• 23 Jan or 23 Jan 2009
• 9 Nov or 9 Nov 1965

If you’d like to use abbreviations, here's how the names of longer months are abbreviated :

• January: Jan
• February: Feb
• March: Mar
• April: Apr
• May: May (May is already short, so it remains the same.)
• June: Jun
• July: Jul
• August: Aug
• September: Sep
• October: Oct
• November: Nov
• December: Dec

You normally don’t need the full stop (.) after the abbreviation.

In more formal contexts, we normally use “the” and “of.” Like this:

• The 1st of April(,) 2024
• The 30th of March(,)  2022
• The 2nd of September(,) 1987
• The 23rd of January(,)  2009
• The 9th of November (,) 1965

If you want to add the day of the week, this should come before the date. 

Like this:

• Monday, 1st April 2024
• Monday, the 1st of April 2024

Let’s now see how to write dates in English in American English.

Writing Dates In English: American English

The main difference between British and American English is that they follow a different order.

While in British English you would write the first day of April 2024 as 1st April 2024  (day-month-year), in American English, we usually write the month before the day (month-day-year). 

Like this:

• April 1, 2024
• March 30, 2022
• September 2, 1987
• January 23,  2009
• November 9, 1965

Also in America English you can use abbreviations. Like this: 

• Apr 1
• Apr 1, 2024
• April 1st
• April the 1st

The last two, however, are not very common.

If you need to add the day of the week, this comes at the beginning (the same as British English). 

• Monday, April 1, 2024
• Wednesday, March 30, 2022
• Wednesday, September 2, 1987
• Friday, January 23, 2009
• Tuesday, November 9, 1965 ​

In numbers, these dates become:

• 04/01/2024 or 04-01-2024 or 04.01.2024
• 03/30/2022 or 03-30-2022 or 03.30.2022
• 09/02/1987 or 09-02-1987 or 09.02.1987
• 01/23/2009 or 01-23-2009 or 01.23.2009
• 11/09/1965 or 11-09-1965 or 11.09.1965

Okay, so far we’ve seen how to write dates in British and American English. Let’s now see how we pronounce them.

How To Say Dates In English

Let’s say today is Tuesday, 2 April 2024. Someone asks you, “What date is it today?” Here are three ways you can reply:

• It’s the second of April (two thousand twenty-four)
• April the second
• April second (American English)
• It’s Tuesday, the second of April, two thousand twenty-four

Some other examples in British English:

British English

30 March 2022

• It's the thirtieth of March, two thousand and twenty-two.
• March the thirtieth, two thousand and twenty-two.
• It's Wednesday, the thirtieth of March, two thousand and twenty-two.

2 September 1987

• It's the second of September, nineteen eighty-seven.
• September the second, nineteen eighty-seven.
• It's Wednesday, the second of September, nineteen eighty-seven.

23 January 2009

• It's the twenty-third of January, two thousand and nine.
• January the twenty-third, two thousand and nine.
• It's Friday, the twenty-third of January, two thousand and nine.

9 November 1965

• It's the ninth of November, nineteen sixty-five.
• November the ninth, nineteen sixty-five.
• It's Tuesday, the ninth of November, nineteen sixty-five.

American English

March 30, 2022

• March thirtieth, two thousand twenty-two.
• It's Wednesday, March thirtieth, two thousand twenty-two.

September 2, 1987

• September second, nineteen eighty-seven.
• It's Wednesday, September second, nineteen eighty-seven.

January 23, 2009

• January twenty-third, two thousand nine.
• It's Friday, January twenty-third, two thousand nine.

November 9, 1965

• November ninth, nineteen sixty-five.
• It's Tuesday, November ninth, nineteen sixty-five.

The tricky part of pronouncing dates is usually the year. So let’s focus on that now.

Dates In English: Saying The Years 

When saying the years, we normally divide them into two parts: the first two digits and the last two digits. So, for example, we divide 1987  into 19 and 87 and say nineteen eighty-seven.

Here are a few more examples:

• 2024: twenty twenty-four
• 1965: nineteen sixty-five
• 2001: two thousand (and) one (British English speakers say “and” but usually not Americans)
• 1999: nineteen ninety-nine
• 1987: nineteen eighty-seven
• 2022: twenty twenty-two
• 2050: twenty fifty
• 1900: nineteen hundred (For years like 1900, we commonly say nineteen hundred instead of nineteen zero-zero.)

Let’s see a few specific cases.

Years Between 2000 And 2009

The year 2000 is pronounced “two thousand.”

For the years between 2001 and 2009, we normally say two thousand and then the number.

Like this:

• 2001: two thousand (and) one
• 2002: two thousand (and) two
• 2003: two thousand (and) three
• 2004: two thousand (and) four
• 2005: two thousand (and) five
• 2006: two thousand (and) six
• 2007: two thousand (and) seven
• 2008: two thousand (and) eight
• 2009: two thousand (and) nine

Again, in British English people say the “and” whereas as in American English, you don't normally say it.

2010 And After

For 2010 and years of that decade, you can say two thousand plus the following number, or divide the number into two separate ones.

For example:

• 2010: two thousand (and) ten or twenty ten
• 2011: two thousand (and) eleven or twenty eleven
• 2012: two thousand (and) twelve or twenty twelve
• 2013: two thousand (and) thirteen or twenty thirteen
• 2014: two thousand (and) fourteen or twenty fourteen
• 2015: two thousand (and) fifteen or twenty fifteen

And so on.

Years Ending In A Number From 01 To 09

How do you say 1901, 1603, 1709? You say the first two digits followed by O /əʊ/ and then the last digit.

Like this:

• 1901: Nineteen oh-one
• 1603: Sixteen oh-three
• 1709: Seventeen oh-nine
• 1502: Fifteen oh-two
• 1407: Fourteen oh-seven

Years Ending In 00

These may be the easiest ones to pronounce:

• 1300: Thirteen hundred
• 1600: Sixteen hundred
• 1800: Eighteen hundred
• 1900: Nineteen hundred
• 700: Seven hundred
• 800: Eight hundred
• 900: Nine hundred
• 1000: One thousand
• 1100: Eleven hundred
• 2100: Twenty-one hundred

Indicating BC And AD

The construction of the Colosseum in  Rome began in 72 AD, 72 years after the birth of Christ. 

This is to tell you that we may sometimes need to indicate whether an event happened before or after the birth of Christ, usually in historical contexts.

In those cases, we use BC (=Before Christ) and AD (=Anno Domini, from Latin “year of the Lord”). BC comes after the year; AD before it.

Here are some examples:

• The festival was created roughly around 508 BC.
• The printing press was invented by Johannes Gutenberg around AD 1440. 
• This indigenous civilization collapsed around 1700 BC.
• These remains date to around 950 BC.
• The Declaration of Independence was signed in AD 1776.

A quick note on pronouncing BC and AD:

AD is typically pronounced before the year. For example, “AD 476” can be spoken as “AD four hundred and seventy-six.”

“BC,” on the other hand, is pronounced after the year. For example, “500 BC” is pronounced as “five hundred BC.”

In both cases, you just pronounce the letters of the abbreviation.

Mastering Saying And Writing Dates In English

So, as you can see, writing and pronouncing dates is not that hard. I hope you think I kept my promise!

But if you still feel confused about them, follow the rules of StoryLearning and try noticing how they’re pronounced or written when reading or listening to a short story in English.

That will help you a lot!   

And if you're looking for engaging and interesting stories to read, check out my collection of Short Stories in English.