What is the correct way to say the date in Spanish?

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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.

1. Days of the week and months in Spanish are only capitalized when placed at the start of a sentence.
2. Days of the week and months in Spanish are always masculine and single

For example:

• Monday, February 3 – Lunes 3 de febrero
• The test will be on Friday – El examen será el viernes
• Sundays are my favorite day of the week  – Los domingos son mis días favoritos de la semana.
• My parents will visit me on Saturday – Mis padres me visitarán el sábado.

(You can find a separate post on days, months and seasons vocab here)

Now, back to dates in Spanish

In 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:

• The 1st of January – El primero de enero

• The 1st of November – El primero de noviembre

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:

•  The supermarket will be open on the 2nd of January  – El supermercado estará abierto el dos de enero
• Franco was born on June 15th – Franco nació el quince de junio
• I’ll be arriving on July 4th – Llegaré el cuatro de julio
• The wedding will be on Monday, March 16th – Lunes, dieciséis de marzo será la boda

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).

• 1970 – Mil novecientos setenta
• Studio 54 was the most famous nightclub of the 70’s  – Estudio 54 era la discoteca más famosa de los setenta

Let’s see more general examples:

• 1900 – Mil novecientos
• I was born in 1984 – Yo nací en mil novecientos ochenta y cuatro

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:

• That song is from 2002 – Esa canción es del año dos mil dos
• I’m going to travel in Europe in 2021 – Voy a viajar por Europa en el dos mil veintiuno

Here is a final reminder of how you could say specific years in Spanish.

Finally, how do you write or say entire dates in Spanish

And 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

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Learning how to say and write the dates in Spanish will improve your ability to communicate with confidence. Dates in Spanish also adhere to specific rules that are different from English. For example, the months of the year are not capitalized in Spanish and the day always comes before the month. We’ll look at the easiest and the fastest ways you can learn the dates in Spanish. 

SAYING THE DATES IN SPANISH

To learn how to say dates in Spanish, it is important to understand a few basic rules of grammar. In Spanish, you will first say the number of the associated day, then the month followed by the year. 

When communicating a date in Spanish you would say: 

Hoy es el dieciséis de agosto / Hoy es dieciséis de agosto

Which translates to: 

Today is August sixteenth. 

If you are referring to the current year or today’s date in Spanish, you would drop the year as reflected in the following example: 

¿Cuál es la fecha de hoy? (What is Today’s Date?)

The correct answer would be:

Hoy es el quince de abril / Hoy es quince de abril (Today is April fifteenth)

USE CARDINAL NUMBERS WHEN SAYING THE DATES IN SPANISH

When communicating the number we use cardinal numbers to refer to the day or date we want to say in Spanish. 

Cardinal numbers include: dos, catorce, and veintidós; however, should you refer to the first of the month, you will only use primero (first), which is an ordinal number. 

WRITING THE DATE IN SPANISH

To understand how to write the date in Spanish, it is important to learn three important language rules: 

• Dates in Spanish can be written in numbers alone.
• Dates in Spanish can combine numbers and words. 
• The months in Spanish are never capitalized.

Writing the Date in Spanish with Numbers Only 

When writing a date in Spanish with numbers, you write the number, the month, then the year. You can include a 0 numeral before the corresponding day of a singular number, followed by the year. For example:

• 10/05/2001  (day/month/year)

Writing the Date in Spanish with Numbers and Words

In Spanish, the date is always written with the number first and the addition of a “de” or an “el” in the format: The number (day) + de + month + de + year.  For example:

• 15 de octubre de 2017 (October 15, 2017)
• 4 de junio de 1995 (June 4, 1995)

In letters and emails is common to use the combination of numbers and words to say the dates. 

THE CORRECT WAYS TO WRITE AND SAY DATES IN SPANISH

A cardinal rule for writing the date in Spanish is that the day will always come before the month. When saying dates in Spanish, be sure to include the relevant ‘de’ or ‘el’ in the format and communicate the number (of the day) before the month and the year. When you remember the general language rules for saying and writing the date in Spanish, it becomes easier to communicate and to have fun while improving your language skills.

Now that you know how to write and say dates in English correctly, discover the colours in Spanish!

EXERCISES  

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