How to say the dates correctly?

leochang · Post by **leochang** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 4:04 am

Hi, everyone:

I am an English teacher in Taiwan. Currently, I'm teaching my students to say the date and this is what I have in mind:

Two ways of saying the date:

Today is Wednesday, November sixteenth, two thousand five.
(Wed., Nov. 16th, 2005)

Today is Wednesday, the sixteenth of November, two thousand and five.

I know there isn't really an official way of saying the dates, however, I do want to offer my students a systematic way to learn it.

Today I happened to come across one of my colleages' lesson and He taught the students to say:

Today is Wednesday, sixteenth November, two thousand five.

Now here comes my confusion...Is that also the correct way?

Or actually there isn't any "correct" way of saying the dates?

Such as the common saying of "ninteen O five" (1905) instead of "ninteen hundred and five."

Stephen Jones · Post by **Stephen Jones** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 4:30 am

All you mention are correct.

cftranslate · Post by **cftranslate** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 10:16 pm

I have noticed a tendency of my students to say the day before the month as we always do in Spanish. I somehow encourage them (maybe I am wrong to do so) to say the month before the day which sounds more natural to me.

Other note:

I edited part of an article in Wikipedia writing -th with the day and saw the next day it had been corrected deleting the -th. It seems that's Wikipedia standard following mostly American English.

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 11:33 am

I think I'm correct in saying that "ten thousand five" is American English and "two thousand and five" is British. I have no idea what the standard is in Australia, New Zealand or South Africa.

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 11:38 am

I know there isn't really an official way of saying the dates

As there isn't an Academy of the English Language (as there is for French and Spanish), there isn't really an "official" way of saying anything, although, of course, certain forms and standards are more or less generally adopted. There are plenty of books out there to help you with style but they report, rather than proscribe, what is generally accepted/acceptable and certainly don't have any kind of "official" status.

moonchild7903 · Post by **moonchild7903** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 2:01 pm

Why don't you try teaching them the version that's most common in their immediate context? For example, if they are learning GAE, teach them the version that's common in that standard. If for example, they are using EIL (English as an International Language), you will need to teach them the relevant version there. For example, my Filipino students are used to GAE and use the language in within the context of GAE and so I teach them, Wednesday, November 16. My Korean students speak to other Asians with English as an International language and they seemed to say Wednesday, 16th November. And so that's what I teach them.

Stephen Jones · Post by **Stephen Jones** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 2:24 pm

If for example, they are using EIL (English as an International Language), you will need to teach them the relevant version there.

Which is?

Teacher Discussion Forums

How to say the dates correctly?

How to say the dates correctly?

Note