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How to read and write the date, and how NOT to!
If you don’t know how to write the date correctly, you could lose your job. Are you scheduling a meeting, organizing an event, or planning a party? Watch this lesson first to avoid confusion. By reading or writing the date incorrectly, you could lose your job, miss an event, or even DIE. The date is written differently in different parts of the world, so it is important to know how to write for the people in your life. I’ll show you how the date is written in different parts of the world, and teach you how to ALWAYS use the right date format. You’ll learn when to write the date in words, when to use numbers, and whatDD-MM-YY means. This lesson is important for everyone, but especially those who work with people from other countries.
Quiz
Test your understanding of this English lesson
Test your understanding of the English lesson by answering these questions. You will get the answers and your score at the end of the quiz.Levels
Lesson Topics
183 COMMENTS
Learned a lot.Thanks
Great! So glad I could help you. My best wishes to you, vickeaz.
Hi Rebecca! Hungarians use the ISO 8601. :)
Great video thank you!
In Italy we follow the British system. So today is 11th January 2018 or 11/01/2018.
Thanks for sharing! It’s so interesting to learn of the different time formats used around the world. It just emphasizes that we need to be careful, and preferably use words instead of numbers. All the best to you,Osrevinu.
There is another interesting thing the date separator. In video there are two “-” and “/”, but in my country Slovenia we use “.” as date separator and we never (except of formal documents where required) write leading zero, so 11th January 2018 in Slovenia is written as 11.1.2018 (DD.M.YYYY).
But I once have had a problem with Serbian they write spaces as date separator so “11 1 2018”.
“@But I once have had a problem with Serbian they write spaces as date separator so “11 1 2018”.“
I cant bealive….always problems with Serbian…..Serbian never ever write date in that way!
Another interesting video would be the time. You know the AM/PM confusion. Another mess is time-zones. I like using UTC+1 it means London time plus one hour.
That’s a good idea, especially because in North America there are different names for the time zones. E. g. UTC-8 is “Pacific Standard Time”, because it’s the time zone for areas bordering the Pacific Ocean. Daylight Savings Time also complicates things.
Got 09/10. ☺ I live in pakistan ,but I prefer to write the date in american standard like today is january 11,2018 while mostly people write in numbers what i see. Superb lesson rebecca.Best regards to you. Thank you so much!
In Indian system, we usually use DD/MM/YYYY format but in some form, we are asked to write in MM/DD/YYYY format.
cool topic
11/01/2018 Russia
So nice. Thank you Teacher Rebecca
Spain, 11/01/2018: thank you so much Rebecca, I really appreciate your lesson ;)
But be careful, as there were two mistakes on the board at 5.30 of the video. The last 2 of them were wrong. They had to be 1986-01-03 (YYYY-MM-DD) and 1986-03-01 (YYYY-DD-MM).
We all make mistakes ;)
Yes, I am sorry about that. Thank you for pointing it out. I had planned to write it in a different order! In any case, I am so glad you are paying attention closely. All the best to you.
OMG! Imagine those dates were on a can of beans, you might have hurt yourself. haha!
Hello,
for this question : 3. What do DD-MM-YY stand for?
dog, monkey, yak
day, morning, yesterday
date, month, year
i think the DD is for the Day(not for date)!! :)
Hello. Day is used for days of the week, for example – Monday, whereas date – for data.
Thanks a lot Rebecca.it is really important to know how to read and write the date.
In kuwait we follow the British system. So today is 11th January 2018 or 11/01/2018.
Hi Rebecca I think you made a mistake in the video.
For jan 3 1986 You wrote YYYY-MM-DD equal 1986-03-01 instead of 1986-01-03 and YYYY-DD-MM equal 1986-01-03 instead of 1986-03-01
Yes, just checking that everyone was paying attention! Thank you, my friend. You are 100% right. All the best to you.
Dear Teacher Rebecca in this lesson one should practice in order to understand what is question and don’t forget the regulation for announcing the date whichhas been set for each specific country.
In France: 11/01/2018
Thank you Rebecca! You are the best!
In Brazil, today is eleven of January of two thousand and eighteen.
In Brazil DD/MM/YY;
thanks for the lesson
In Japan I usually use YYYY/MM/DD.
But generally, HY/MM/DD now.
H is stand for Heisei(an era name).
ex. H30/1/12 or H30-1-12 now.
I was confused this quiz. But it was good study for me.
Thank you, Rebecca :)
Thanks to all of you for sharing the date format used in your country. Look at all the variation! Just emphasizes the importance of writing out the words whenever possible. Thanks for watching, learning, and playing along! My best to each of you.
I’m very grateful for your help in your all lessons. …. in all Arabic country we write the date DD-MM-YYYY if the day or month one number write D-M-YYYY …. the Arabic write From right to left – — ex.
2018-1-التاريخ اليوم 10
I think you are now write it in Chinese form DD:.
same Italy, In Vietnam we follow British system it meant the day have format: DD/MM/YYYY. but almost computers has default date is United States because they used window system, therefore there are many mistake when you use them special Excel it part of Office
Very interresting that course ,but I don’t understand the différence here in the last question of the quiz: any and none?
Thank you very much.
Here in Québec it is not easy to know What is the best system. I appreciate the Iso 8601.
In Armenia the format is DD.MM.YY
You are always teaching an important lesson! Thanks, Rebecca!go on!
thank you for your video it was great
dear teacher the lesson was very intersting
thank u so much.
In Brazil:
DD/MM/YYYY
Thank you, Rebecca!
Last question of the quiz,WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE
IN BETWEEN ANY AND NONE ??????
THANKS
Any = in ALL of the first three options (government forms, checks AND job applications).
None = all first three options are wrong (NOT used for government forums, NOT used for checks, NOT used for job applications).
Thank you Rebecca.
12/01/2018
The twelfth of January two thousand and eighteen.
thank you.interesting. not when you do not think about this
in Latvia – dd.mm.yyyy
great lesson!
You have forgotten Africa miss Rubbica
In Brazil today is 13/01/2018
Thank you for your excellent explanation.
Thank you so much for your impressive explanation.
You’re perfectly right: even if it seems nothing, a wrong starting point, such as misunderstanding a date, could lead to a real disaster!
Greetings from Italy.
Macedonia DD/MM/YYYY. So today is 14/01/2018
thank you alot for flush out my confusion
thanks a lot .
Thank you very much.Interesting and usefull video. I love all your lessons.
I think there is a mistake in video about date separators. In Japan they use YYYY/MM/DD, but ISO 8601 standard explicitly states there should be dash used as date separator.
Japan: 2018/01/18
ISO: 2018-01-18
Thank you Rebecca.
Morocco : DD-MM-YYYY
Thanks Rebecca..
In Brazil we follow the British system
Thank you. I would never think how much important to know correct date format for each country. Also, I hadn’t known about the third ISO option of date format.
In Ukraine today 17-01-2018 and 17 January 2018
Hi, in Brasil we follow the DD/MM/YYYY system. So today is 17th January 2018 or 17/01/2018. Thank you.
Thank you, Rebecca, very much for your lession. It is very useful for me. The Vietnamese date format is: DD-MM-YYYY and so the date today is written as 17-01-2018.
Thank you Rebecca :D
hi everybody
thank you Rebbeca for lesson
Thank you, Rebecca.
We follow the yyyy/MM/dd format in China.
I have learned that is the ISO 8601 format.
Today is Thursday 2018/01/18.
Thank you a lot, this is a great lesson. In Argentina we use DD/MM/YY.
Hoje é 18 de janeiro de 2018 – Today’s Wednesday 18 January 2018.
Thank you, Rebecca!!!!
Very useful information, thanks so much! And it’s funny, from all the days of the year the 1st of August was chosen – my birthday :D
Hi,Rebecca…Can you explain me the difference between Aldo,too and as well?
Also, too and as well
Thank you Rebecca,You always teach us useful things.
I’m from Saudi Arabia and we use the dd\mm\yyyy format
It is cool the way you teach, rebecca.
Thank you teacher, it is a great topic I learn very much with each lesson.
In India as you mentioned we follow British system, and today’s date is 1/2/2018 – 1st Feb 2018
In Ukraine: DD.MM.YY
السلام عليكم
Hi Rebecca
Thanks for the best way to learning English
HI.Great Video and Great Performance.
Thanks you for this quiz. am learning a lot with you!
a thorough explanation, thanks
Tnx
Hi Rebeca. I really like your lesson. thanks
Hi! In Brazil we use the date in format DD-MM-YY, but I think that the most of Brazilian people know that in another countries, the people use in this format MM-DD-YY.
Thanks…so Thanks for your efforts. Great Work.
year, the word plus number is the best way to express the date.
thanks so much, learnt a lot,
Thank you very much for your comprehensive lecture. In Myanmar, we usually follow British system.
Thanks to all of you who took the time to share your comments and the date format in your country. Such an important point! I wish you all the best.
Hi Rebecca,
I have a question about writing the dates. Is it true that it’s perfectly acceptable to separate the items in a date by using a dot (full stop)like this:
11. February 2018 (or:)
11.02.2018
A substitute teacher told us so the other day, even though all other teachers that I’ve had before said that you don’t use dots in dates in English. Now I’m confused.
Thank you very much, also for all the other videos that you have made. They are great.
Katrine
Many thanks,
BR,
It’s my pleasure I have been listening you in this video it was valuable lecture .
Thanks again ,,,,
Our time format in Saudi Arabia it’s UK
DD/MM/YYYY
In Egypt as you mentioned we follow British system, and today’s date is 12/2/2018 – 12th Feb 2018
Thanks Rebecca …
Thank you so much Rebeca
Im new here and I really need learn business English for job
How could I improve myself during the short term?
This information is really usefull. Teacher can you tell me how to know what english level I am? Do you have an english level test or something like so?
PD: I’m from Colombia and here the time format is DD/MM/YYYY
In Philippines the Date today is February 16, 2018.Thanks rebecca for the lesson.i never knew that writing a date is very interesting :)Godbless
9 out of 10
i loved your lessons, it’s very useful .. thank you
HI,Rebecca!Could you please explain the differences between This and It?
i never imagined that tha date was a Big problem but now i recognize it and i understand the Lesson well, thank you
Thank you Rebecca. You’re awesome !
Very Cool!
Wow! I was really surprised that russian, indian and british have the same date standart!
So today is 16.03.18 – 16 March 2018 in Russia!
Thank you
Great lesson Rebecca! Glad to see it. There is a mistake, but I saw that other guy has already mentioned. I gonna keep viewing yours lessons!
Hihihi your right. Here in Philippines we common use mm-dd-yyyy a lot. Hihihi :D thanks for informative lesson..Now I know why sometimes the date was ramble, the way we write it, when we fill up any form here in Philippines.
Thank you for the lesson!
In Belarus we use ‘british’ variant with point as separator.
Today is 23.03.2018 or 23 March 2018.
You got 8 correct out of 10.
thanks
THANK YOU BY HELP ME REBECA …
I got 10 correct out of 10. Thank you Rebeca. I think the lesson is very useful.
thank you ?
thanks Rebecca got 10 on second attempt
Thanks a lot!!! It was simple but very interesting.
In Russia we write DD/MM/YYYY
Thank you Rebecca, I have known so many different types of date writing.
And I like to watch your videos to learning English.
great video, thank you.
thanks!
Thank you. The lesson helped me to clarify this issue.
Hi Rebecca, very nice lesson!
Here in Brazil, we follow the Britsh system:
Example: 13 de Agosto de 2018.
Hi. Thank you.
ISO 8601
In Iran we follow this one YYYY,MM,DD
Hi Rebeca
Thank you for you very good teaching.
I’m learning a lot.
It was great! Thank you Rebecca!
Hi , Thank you for your thoughtful lesson !
In Iran the Shamsi Hijri calendar is the official calendar and It begins on the March equinox (Nowruz) as determined by astronomical calculation for the Iran Standard Time meridian (52.5°E or GMT+3.5h) and has days of 365 or 366 days.
(Wikipedia)
We write YYYY,MM,DD.
Thanks for the information, Why will not the English and the American system join?
Saudi Arabia
DD/MM/YYYY
Angola and Portugal
DD/MM/YYYY
Thank you, Rebecca
Hi, I’m from Venezuela. we follow the British system: 22 August 2018
YYYY-MM-DD
Lithuania.
Glad we follow ISO recommendations. Feels like team work :)
A bit surprised neighbors Latvians and Russians do upside down, as it always was this way, even in Soviet Union times.
In India we write 03-Sep-2018.
Thank you very much for this lesson.
In Turkey, we use British System DD.MM.YY. For exeample, the date of today is 19 September 2018. At the same time, I wanna to say this course is very great:))
dear Rebecca,
you can’t imagine what a great teacher you are! I really appreciate you. i have learned a lot from your courses. In Iran we write the date as ISO 8601. I mean YYYY-MM-DD
FYI it seems there is a mistake on the video where you were teaching at the 2nd part of your course. you were explaining an example: “Jan 3 1986” but on the whiteboard you changed it in digits wrong in last 2 lines.
Thank you
I got 8 correct got out of 10.
:)
thank you
We in egypt use the britsh system to write the date, thanks alot it was realy useful videoand i get 8 in the quiz
me learn so much
thx rebecca
me want to put more videos
me subscribe to your channlle
thanks madam rebecca learned a lot.
Thanks so much!
ISO 8601 standard looks more perfect than the others.
Thank you for the lesson, Rebecca.
I have a question about the ninth item in the quiz. Is the second option preferable to be said in formal situations?
Thanks a lot Rebecca
Thank you for your lesson Rebecca!
THANK YOU SO MUCH WILL TRY UNDERSTAND
thank you so much i found much helpful all your lessons
Thank you Rebecca for the useful lesson!
Hi Rebecca.
I am Vietnam born but have lived in US for many years and I still have problem when it come write date. Thanks for your lesson I am now able to understand for example:
Today is 25 May 2019 in Vietnam
May 25, 2019 in US
I didn’t know that writing dates could be a huge problem ? thanks a lot
Thanks a lot for this lesson, In my country’s Egypt we follow British style so the date of today is 28 July 2019.
100….thank you
In Uganda we follow the British style. So today is: 20(th)-Aug-2019.
Though some computers return the date as: Tue,Aug 20,2019 (The American style)
I think its because you can choose which style your computer should use when setting it up
firstly, i want to thank you for this great lesson about how to write a date correctly, i understood Assalam Alikoume.
This lesson and now i can make difference between all these formats, the preferable for me is the British format, we start by the date, the month and finally the year. Thank you again Rebecca for this clarify.
Thank you so much
Thanks a lot. It was very useful. in Korea we follow YYYY-MM-DD like you mentioned and I think we often use .(dot) between. 2018.04.12
and if time followd afterwards it will be 2018.04.12.13:30
Thank for video it’s very useful and helpful i learned ISO 8601 Standart. I live in Greece. here is used DD/MM/YYYY (britsh form ) but i m using MM/DD/YYYY (US form) because i work for Us organization.
9/10, thanks a lot!
I’ve learned a lot. A very silly mistake in writing a date create a huge problem on the individuals or business company if both parties misunderstood each other. Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank´s. In México, we write it as in England
Thanks, Rebecca! Here in Brazil we use the Brithish System. For 2 days I almost watched this video on 1 August 2020 hahaha
Very useful lesson. Thanks a lot Rebecca!
We use like this in Azerbaijan: 5 november 2020th year
We use in Argentina for example 6/23/2020 or 6/23/20
Thanks a lot Rebecca.
Good morning Rebecca,
Here in France we use DD/MM/YYYY
It is true with all the systems date , we do many mistake.
Thank you.
Does it need spaces between date, month and year?
short lesson but i learned a lot wow….
Too anxious …thanks so new to me. My birth is 2 de julio,1960.Mexico not sure
I watched the video twice on September 16, 2021, and took the quiz after watching it once. I got ten correct out of 10.
10/10
mine date 2 NOV 2021
Thank a lot, Rebecca
you are very supportive teacher
Thanks a lot, Rebecca. You are amazing. (Azores Islands, 14Nov2021);
Teacher, you did a excelent lesson! Today is 22/02/2022, and I follow the british model because I´m from Latin America.
Today is 18July,2022
Thanks Rebecca.
I got 9/10.
Thank you! :)
i am so greatful for you teaching us. and i encourage you to continue with your job and i wish you all the best in your life, career and families
Thanks a lot Rebecca
I found your explication wonderful and unique ;thanks a lot.
Thanks for this lesson Rebecca, It didn’t occur to me before I saw the lesson.
Thanks a lot for the class. It is the first time for me to hear about ISO 8601.
thanks a lot Rebecca!!
thanks a lot
Hello Rebecca! Love your lessons.
In Ukraine we often use DD.MM.YYYY format, but sometimes I find other variations on products’ packages.
It is also interesting does contractions for names of the months in English somehow standardized? Cauze different online resources have different options. Like Sep. and Sept., or Jun. and June.
Do*