Today, we are talking about dates in Spanish – no, not dating, but instead knowing how to express the day/month/year in written or verbal form.
The difference between writing and saying dates in Spanish vs in English is mostly subtle.
In most cases, it will depend on whether you are expressing a date in an informal or formal context – the latter being something like a legal document.
Let’s begin by stating two differences between days of the week/months in Spanish vs English.
For example:
In Spanish, you do not say or write dates in their ordinal form (2nd, 15th, 21st etc).
The only exception to this rule is for the first day (primero) of each month, as shown below:
For any other date, you use cardinal numbers (2,15, 21).
The formula for expressing other date sis simple: cardinal number + de + month
The major difference here is that in Spanish, the month always comes after the day, whereas in English, the month can go before or after the day.
For example:
Just like in English, there are two ways to express certain years, depending on how specific you want to be.
For example, 1970 (specific) vs the 70s (not-specific).
Let’s see more general examples:
With certain periods (i.e. 1900 to 1999) you can say the complete year or just the two last cardinal numbers of the year.
Just like in English, referencing the 2000’s always require you to state the full year:
Here is a final reminder of how you could say specific years in Spanish.
Year | Spanish |
1900 | Mil novecientos |
1910 | Mil novecientos diez |
1950 | Mil novecientos cincuenta |
1980 | Mil novecientos ochenta |
1990 | Mil novecientos noventa |
2000 | Dos mil |
2010 | Dos mil diez |
2020 | Dos mil veinte |
And to finish, you can see how entire dates are written and said in Spanish.
When stating the entire date, the year usually comes after the month and day, just like in English.
In the written form, you can choose to use de or del before the year, with the latter being a bit more formal
Format | Shorthand | Written Form | Verbal Form |
DD/MM/YY | 05/02/2020 | 05 de febrero del 2020 | El cinco de febrero del dos mil veinte |
DD-MM-YY | 06-02-1980 | 06 de febrero de 1980 | El seis de febrero de mil novecientos ochenta |
Weekday, DD/MM/YY | Lunes, 10/02/2020 | Lunes, 10 de febrero del 2020 | El lunes diez de febrero del dos mil veinte |
YY – MM – DD | 1990, Octubre 15 | — | Mil novecientos noventa, octubre quince |
Ahora tú!
STEP 1. Say today’s date! What date is today? ¿Qué fecha estamos?
STEP 2. Say when where you born! When where you born? ¿Cuándo naciste?
STEP3. Say when is your birthday! When is your birthday? ¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños?
(In this case you don’t need to state the year).
¿En qué fecha estás leyendo esto? On what date are you reading this?
¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños? When is your birthday?
¿En qué año naciste? What year were you born?
Let me know in the comments below! Can’t wait to hear from you 😊
Un abrazo,
Raquel
CEO of The Spanish Tribe