Spanish Vocabulary: Telling the Date

Posted by LEAF Architect on Saturday, February 20, 2016 · Leave a Comment

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Identify

Spanish Vocabulary: Telling the Date
el vocabulario español: decir la fecha

Identify and utilize dates on the calendar.
Make plans for the present and future.

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Connect

LEAF Spanish Vocabulary: Months of the Year

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Study

Here is how to ask the date:

¿Cuál es la fecha? : What is the date?

Here is another helpful word about time:

Cuándo : when

¿Cuándo es su cumpleaños?

To tell the date in English, we use ordinal numbers (second, seventh, twenty-fourth, thirty-first, etc.). To tell the date in Spanish, we use cardinal numbers (dos, siete, veinte, etc.); the only exception in Spanish is the first of the month: el primero.

In Spanish, the day always comes before the month. The construction for telling the date is…

el + number + de + month

Hoy es el nueve de febrero.
Today is February ninth.
(literally, “the ninth of February”)

Mi cumpleaños es el veintinueve de marzo.
My birthday is March twenty-ninth.
(literally, “the twenty-ninth of March”)

Ellos se van a casar el primero de mayo.
They are going to get married on May first.
(literally, “the first of May”)

Note: The date in Spanish is normally written using numerals, just like in English. It is spelled out in the examples above only for the purpose of illustration.

In Spanish, the years 1100-1999 can be expressed in either of two ways:

1996 – mil novecientos noventa y seis.
one thousand nine hundred ninety-six

2016 – veinte dieciséis.
twenty sixteen

To say in what month or year, use “en“. Do not translate the English word “on” to say that something happens on a specific date. In this case, just continue to use el.

¿En qué mes es la navidad?
In what month is Christmas?

La navidad es el 25 de diciembre.
Christmas is (on) December 25th.

As you’ve now seen, dates in Spanish are expressed as day + month + year (for example, el 16 abril, 2014). Therefore, when the Spanish date is written in numbers, the sequence still follows the pattern day + month + year.

el 20 julio, 1989 : [20.7.89]
July 20, 1989: [7/20/89]

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