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  • Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

  • Let's talk about dates.

  • I'm not talking about going on a date, I'm talking about the day, the month, and the

  • year.

  • Today we're going to be talking about how to talk about these dates in American English.

  • I recommend writing down any of these expressions or sentences that are new for you so that

  • you can go back and review them and use them in your own daily conversations.

  • Let's get started.

  • What day is today?

  • Today is February 8th, 2019.

  • Notice that I used in ordinal number, eighth.

  • These ordinal numbers are 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 30th, 29th,

  • 15th.

  • These ordinal numbers are necessary for talking about today's date.

  • It is February 8th, 2019.

  • This is the most general way to describe the day.

  • It's February 8th, 2019.

  • But what if you want to take it up a level?

  • You might say, "What day is today?"

  • It's February the 8th.

  • We're adding the word the or the word the before that ordinal number, February the 8th.

  • Or you might say, "It's the 8th.

  • It's the 8th."

  • Or you might say, "It's Friday, the 8th.

  • Notice in all of these examples the word the comes directly before that ordinal number.

  • It's the 5th.

  • It's the 17th.

  • It's the 30th.

  • Theplus the day.

  • Let's imagine that you have to work next weekend.

  • You might say, "Oh, I have to work on the 8th.

  • I have to work on the 8th," or, "I have to work on the 17th.

  • It's still directly before that ordinal number.

  • Let's talk about the next way to describe dates.

  • The next category of dates are events.

  • We talk about events using two different prepositions, on and in.

  • Let's start with the first one on, which we use to talk about the day.

  • My birthday is on Saturday.

  • My birthday is on the 4th.

  • In both of these examples, the word Saturday and the expression, the 4th, is referring

  • to the day.

  • My birthday is on Saturday.

  • My birthday is on the 4th.

  • When's the meeting with Google?

  • It's on Friday the 14th.

  • It's on Friday.

  • Here we're talking about the day.

  • Or, you could say, "When's the meeting with Google?"

  • It's on the 14th.

  • Here's a little extra tip, though.

  • Unlikein,” which we're going to talk about in just a second, the wordon

  • for the day is completely OPTIONAL.

  • Let's go back to our first examples with this, and let's see what it looks like if we take

  • out the wordon.”

  • My birthday is Saturday.

  • My birthday is the 4th.

  • This is perfectly fine.

  • So, you've got two options.

  • My birthday is on Saturday or my birthday is Saturday.

  • When's the meeting with Google?

  • It's Friday the 14th.

  • It's on Friday the 14th.

  • Or without the wordon,” it's Friday the 14th.

  • Both of these options are perfectly fine.

  • Let's go on to the second preposition that we use to talk about dates, and that isin.”

  • We useinto talk about longer periods of time, months, or years.

  • My birthday is in September.

  • This is true, the month of September.

  • My birthday is in September.

  • Or, we could say the year.

  • My birthday is in 1987.

  • We have a month and a year and we're usingin.”

  • This is required.

  • Notice, notice, warning, warning.

  • This is 100% required in the sentence.

  • Unlike the previous prepositionon,” which was optional, this is 100% necessary.

  • So, make sure that when you're talking about longer periods of time, my birthday is in

  • September, my birthday is in 2007 ... That's a little bit too recent, but maybe that's

  • true for you.

  • Well, you need to usein.”

  • That is required.

  • Let's go on to talk about how we talk about years.

  • How can you say years?

  • Well, the most general way is to separate 14-92.

  • We're just having two numbers and putting them together.

  • 14-92, or you might say 18-12.

  • You don't need to say one thousand eight hundred twelve, just 18-12.

  • But, some thing's a little bit different if we're talking about the first couple of

  • years of each century.

  • What if you want to talk about this date?

  • How can you pronounce that?

  • We would say seventeen hundred, seventeen hundred.

  • What about the next year after that?

  • Seventeen oh-one, and then seventeen oh-two, seventeen oh-three.

  • We don't say zero.

  • Usually with dates we sayohand this is a common way to express zero.

  • Sometimes if you're saying your phone number, you might say, Oh instead of zero.

  • You might hear people say that when they're talking about their phone number.

  • So when you're talking about the first couple years of each century.

  • 18(oh)5, 18(oh)6, 18(oh)7, 18(oh)8, 18(oh)9, 18-10.

  • That's when we start to separate it by two numbers, 18-11, 18-12.

  • What happens when you reach 2000?

  • Well, two different things could happen.

  • The most common is that we say two thousand, two thousand one, two thousand two, two thousand

  • three, two thousand four, two thousand eight, two thousand ten, two thousand eighteen, two

  • thousand nineteen.

  • But, you might also hear once you reach 2010, you might also hear 20-10, 20-11, 20-18, 20-19.

  • This is less common, but some people say it.

  • And if you want to say it, go ahead.

  • You've got that choice.

  • Now that we've already talked about days, months, years, let's talk about decades.

  • You might say she grew up in the '50s.

  • She grew up in the '30s.

  • This implies 1950s, 1930s.

  • I was born in the '80s.

  • This implies 1980s.

  • What if you want to talk about before 1930s?

  • What if you want to talk about 1830s, 1790?

  • What can you say?

  • The French Revolution was in the 1790s.

  • I'm not telling you the specific year, but just in general, this decade was when the

  • French Revolution happened.

  • The French Revolution was in the 1790s.

  • DO NOT say, "The French Revolution was in the '90s."

  • If you say this, everyone will think 1990s.

  • So make sure if you're talking about before 19, before that 18, 1790s, 1690s, 1390s, make

  • sure that you save the full date, 1790s.

  • Were any of these ways of expressing dates new for you?

  • I hope it was a good review at least to help you ingrain these common expressions into

  • your mind.

  • And now I have a question for you.

  • When's your birthday?

  • Let's do a quick review so that I can show you different ways to talk about your birthday

  • in the comments.

  • My birthday is on September 4th.

  • Remember, “onis optional, so you could also say, "My birthday is September 4th."

  • Or if we're talking about the month, my birthday is in September.

  • My birthday is in 1987 or my birthday is in the '80s.

  • Don't forget that S when you're talking about the decade.

  • What if your birthday is this month?

  • You could say, "My birthday is the 15th."

  • You don't need to say the month because we can assume it's this month.

  • My birthday is the 15th.

  • Come and have a party with me.

  • My birthday is ... All right, I hope that you can use these expressions in the comments.

  • Let me know when's your birthday.

  • Use these great expressions.

  • Thanks so much for learning English with me, and I'll see you again next Friday for a new

  • lesson here on my YouTube channel.

  • Bye.

  • The next step is to download my free e-book, Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English

  • Speaker.

  • You'll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently.

  • Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lessons.

  • Thanks so much.

  • Bye.

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

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