How Do I say It in English: Dates

Hello!

How did you ring in the New Year 2012? I hope you did it in style.... :)

Today I would like to talk about dates for a bit. And I know what you are going to say – either: “Thanks, but no thanks, Karolina;” or “Thank you, Captain Obvious.” But I still hope some of you will benefit from reading today's post.

You have probably heard that the British and Americans write their dates differently. I've been presented with the following patterns when it comes to writing dates:

AMERICAN

January 1, 2012 (please make a note of the comma)

BRITISH

1(st) January 2012

I've decided to compare the patterns I know against data I can find on the internet. Here are the results:

US

edition.CNN.com – CNN

January 3, 2012

europe.wsj.com – World Street Journal

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

USAToday.com – USA Today

01/03/2012

NYTimes.com – New York Times

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

washingtonpost.com

Tuesday, January 3

UK

BBC.co.uk – BBC

3 January 2012

Telegraph.co.uk – the Daily Telegraph

Tuesday 03 January 2012

Guardian.co.uk – Guardian

Tuesday 3 January 2012

HeraldScotland.com – Herald

Tuesday 3 January 2012

WalesOnline.co.uk – Western Mail (Wales)

3 January 2012

Economist.com – the Economist

Jan 3rd 2012

And here are the conclusions:

• Americans write dates according to the /MM/DD/YY/ format.
• The British write dates according to the /DD/MM/YY/ format.
• Therefore, to be on the safe side, it is better to write the name of the month in full (or write the short version e.g. Jan, Feb etc.)
• It is nowadays common to skip ordinal abbreviations: 'st', 'nd', 'rd' and 'th', when writing dates.
• Commas are used by Americans and don't seem to be used by the British.

I've also asked native speakers how they say dates. The British use two forms. Some of them show preference for form (1), which follows the order in the written pattern.

(1) the third of January,

(2) January the third,

whereas Americans will say

(1) January third (most often),

(2) January the third,

and sometimes 

(3) the third of January.

There's one more issue left. How do we say “2012”? Some internet users solved this problem two years ago:

click on me

Is it

2010 two thousand (and) ten OR twenty ten

2011 two thousand (and) eleven OR twenty eleven

2012 two thousand (and) twelve OR twenty twelve ?

YOU DECIDE! :)

(AND it is actually for the speaker to decide.)

And just in case, the remaining patterns:

1400 fourteen hundred

1900 nineteen hundred

1409 fourteen oh nine

1901 nineteen oh one

1810 eighteen ten

1999 nineteen ninety-nine

2000 two thousand

2001 two thousand (and) one

2009 two thousand (and) nine

Oh, and most importantly,

Happy New Year 2012!!!!!!

GLOSARRY:

to ring in the New Year – powitać Nowy Rok (dzwonami)

for a bit – przez chwilę

Captain Obvious – a sarcastic name for someone who states the obvious; obvious – oczywisty

to benefit from – skorzystać z czegoś

to make a note of something – zapamiętać, zapisać (to write something down or remember it carefully)

a comma – przecinek

a pattern – wzór (a particular way in which something is done, organized or happens)

data – dane

to be on the safe side – na wszelki wypadek

to skip – opuszczać, omijać

an ordinal (number) – (liczba) porządkowa

an abbreviation – skrót

to follow the order – tut. odzwierciedlać kolejność

an issue – kwestia

just in case – na wszelki wypadek

remaining – pozostałe

and most importantly – a co najważniejsze