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Ways to ask the date?
Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 8:42 pm
by cftranslate
I usually say:
What's the date today?
Are the following herad?:
1. What day is today?
2.OR What day is it today?
3. What date is it today?
Re: Ways to ask the date?
Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 9:11 pm
by Lorikeet
If you ask me, "What day is today?" I'll answer "Tuesday." Same with number 2. I usually use "What's the date today?" I suppose "What's today's date?" would be okay too.
Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 2:01 am
by charmedboi82
What's the date?
What date is it?
What day is it? (Of course, I use this one for the date and the day).
The date?
Today's date? Please.
Kevin
Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 1:34 pm
by fluffyhamster
In a moment of madness, I once told students that the exact form of the question didn't matter, all that mattered was eliciting the answer you desire, thus:
A: (?)What's...today? (ambiguous, potentially non-standard, "learner")
B: Tuesday.
A: No, I mean...
B: Oh, the 25th!
A: Ah, right, thanks!
Upon reflection, however, that kind of dialogue does seem to assume that B is a helpful native-speaker just a little too much, so I guess one would need to teach a standard phrase or two to help students make themselves clear from the start (I was just trying to get them to "give it a shot" even when they weren't sure of how to exactly phrase their initial question).
What's today?
> What day is it (=today)? It's Tuesday, right?
>> What's the date (today)? (/What's today's date?) It's the 25th, right?
There are subtle differences in the word orders/syntax/grammar, but the main difference the student should become aware of is in the overall "phrasing", especially the lexical difference between what: "day (is)" and "(is) the date".