Hey friends I'm a little confused. What is the date today? The 15th of April or April
the 15th. I don't know. Well, this is what today's lesson is about, we are going to look
at, How to write dates in English? And well you have two options, You can follow the British
style or the American style depending on what makes you feel comfortable. But do remember
the people who speak to you or probably write Emails to you may use one of these styles
that you don't use, but it is important for you to understand that.
Well, so we have the British and the American style. Now for example, if we say the fourteenth
of March 2016, so here I've spelt it. So the British style is you write the date first,
the month and then the year. So the fourteenth of March 2016. After March I have a comma
here. But the Americans are a little different when they write dates. They generally write
the month, the date and then the year and they also have a comma here. So an American
would say March the fourteenth 2016. Well both are correct and use what you feel comfortable
with.
The next one the same thing we have another way of writing it in the British style 14th
you have "Th" 14th March 2016, where there's no comma here. Now when you write emails this
is a good thing to follow, it’s very formal and all your official documents and emails
this is a nice one to follow. This style you don't need to follow this, this is a better
one 14th March 2016. Again they have written the date first, the month and then the year.
Now the same thing let's see, How Americans would do it? March 14th, 2016. So March 14th,
2016, so if you follow the American style this is a great one to use for your official
documents and emails. A nice one to use in your formal letters, so either you follow
this format or this real good one to use.
Okay the next one says, 14 March 2016. So if you see I don't have the “Th" here and
this is also used in formal writing. It's a good style 14 March no comma 2016. So well
you could use either this style or this style, when you use it in emails. So as usual the
British write the date first, the month and 2016, so whether you put a "Th" or not it
is correct. And the Americans follow the month, the date and the year. But they have a comma
here after the date, so you have 14 March because both are numericals comma 2016. Here
in this is a good one to write for formal letters or emails. So the second and the third
style work perfectly in formal writing. Alright friends, so I hope this is clear. Style two
and three are the best when you want to use it for emails or formal letters.
Well an informal style is something like this 14/3/2016. You can also write this as 14/03/16.
You don't have to write 2016. So as usual you have the date here, you have the month
here and the year. Identical the same thing you can do for American only they have the
month before the date, so you can have 03/14/16 this is the American style. Again like I said
it is a little informal and you can use it maybe with your friend writing casual emails
or informal emails. So these are the various styles of writing dates. Pick yours; pick
what works best for you. But remember the opposite person may not use your style, so
it is imperative that you understand that they probably are using a different style
of writing dates.
Now we're going to take a look at how do we say years? A particular year in English. So
before the year 2000, we have 1942. Now when I have 1942, we say it as
Nineteen forty-two. So for example, " My father was born in the year nineteen forty-two".
You do not say nineteen and forty-two. You say 1942. The year I was born in, I'm not
gonna tell you, but just for example, " I was born in the year nineteen ninety five.
Yes I was born in the year nineteen ninety five, so I'm not gonna say nineteen and ninety
five. So you say nineteen ninety five.
The next one is seventeen hundred, so when you have something like this all you need
to say is in the year, so you always say in the year or use in the year seventeen hundred
or maybe a world war happened in the year 1700 or something happened in 1700.
The next one is 1801, so either you say Eighteen hundred and one. So we have eighteen hundred
and one or a little informal way to say, It is Eighteen O one, don't say eighteen one,
because there is a zero there, so you say Eighteen O one. This is the informal way of
saying Eighteen O one, so maybe my grandfather was born in the year Nineteen O six or nineteen
hundred and six that's how we use or that's how we say years in English.
But this is before 2000. Now after the year 2000 how do we say? For example, it’s the
exact year 2000, you say in the year two thousand. That's exact two thousand in the year two
thousand. Supposing it is 2003, you say two thousand and three. This is a formal way of
saying it, two thousand and three. The informal style is twenty O three, because you have
twenty, you have a zero and you have three. So you say twenty o three. So this is informal
twenty o three.
2012 So for example, I moved to New York in two thousand and twelve that is a more formal
way. The informal way would be twenty twelve. Well I believe the year was supposed to end
in twenty twelve, but that was the rumour then I believe in December. But here today
we are two thousand and sixteen or twenty sixteen.
So this is how we say years formally and informally friends. Well so this is how we use dates
in English. You learn the American and the British style and this is how we speak about
years in English. And this brings me to the end of this lesson. I have a small test for
you, do take the test. Let me know your scores and I'll be back soon with a new lesson. Till
then take care and bye.