In Spanish the date follows the pattern el + day + de + month + de + year: el 12 de marzo de 2026. Use ordinary numbers (el 5 de mayo, not “the fifth”), except that the 1st can be el 1 (uno) or el primero. The month takes no capital letter.
The pattern
The Spanish date is built with el, the number, de, the month, and de again before the year.
Hoy es lunes, 5 de octubre de 2026.Today is Monday 5 October 2026.
Mi cumpleaños es el 12 de marzo.My birthday is on 12 March.
El examen es el 3 de junio.The exam is on 3 June.
- Ordinary numbers. Spanish says “the five of May”: el cinco de mayo. Pupils who follow spoken English (“the fifth of May”) produce “el quinto de mayo”, which is wrong.
- The first is the exception. El 1 de octubre is read uno in Spain and very often primero in Latin America. Both are accepted by the Real Academia Española; in writing you may also see 1.º for primero.
- Two de. One before the month, one before the year: el 5 de octubre de 2026. Leaving one out is a frequent slip.
- El replaces “on”. “On 5 May” is el 5 de mayo, with no preposition. “En el 5 de mayo” is wrong.
- No capitals. Days and months are written in lower case: lunes, 5 de octubre.
When the day of the week comes first, it is followed by a comma and the article before the number is usually dropped: Hoy es lunes, 5 de octubre.
Asking the date
¿Qué fecha es hoy?What’s the date today?
¿A qué fecha estamos?What’s the date today? (literally: at what date are we?)
Estamos a 5 de octubre.It’s 5 October.
In Spain you will also hear the informal ¿A cuántos estamos?. Note that the answer Estamos a… never takes an article before the number. ¿Qué día es hoy? can be answered with the day of the week, the date, or both.
Writing the date
Good news for UK pupils: Spanish-speaking countries write the day first, as in Britain. 5 October 2026 is 5/10/2026, 05/10/2026, 5-10-2026 or 5.10.2026. Only pupils who have picked up the American month-first order will stumble.
At the top of a letter, the place comes first: Madrid, 5 de octubre de 2026. You may occasionally see the month in Roman numerals in formal Spanish documents (5-X-2026).
Years are written without a full stop or space: 2026, not 2.026. That rule is specific to years; larger ordinary numbers are different.
Saying the year
The year is read as a single number: dos mil veintiséis. This is where English interferes most. English splits a year into two halves (“nineteen ninety-eight”), Spanish never does.
| Spanish | Year |
|---|---|
| mil novecientos noventa y ocho | 1998 |
| dos mil | 2000 |
| dos mil cinco | 2005 |
| dos mil diez | 2010 |
| dos mil veintiséis | 2026 |
“In 2026” is en 2026 or en el año 2026.
Nací el 3 de mayo de 2013.I was born on 3 May 2013.
Decades and centuries
Decades are los años noventa or los noventa, written los años 90: no apostrophe and no s after the figures, unlike English “the 1990s”. Centuries are written in Roman numerals and read as ordinary numbers: el siglo XXI is el siglo veintiuno, and the ordinal (vigésimo primero) is rare in speech.
Around the date
- ¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños?: When is your birthday?
- Es el 12 de marzo.: It’s on 12 March.
- del 3 al 7 de mayo: from 3 to 7 May
- ayer fue…: yesterday was…
- mañana será…: tomorrow will be…
- la semana que viene: next week
Key dates give the routine a cultural angle: el 6 de enero (el Día de Reyes, when children in Spain traditionally receive presents), el 12 de octubre (Spain’s national day), el 1 y el 2 de noviembre (el Día de Muertos in Mexico), el 31 de diciembre (la Nochevieja).
Typical mistakes of English-speaking learners
- Ordinals: “el tercero de mayo” instead of el 3 (tres) de mayo.
- Year split in two: “diecinueve noventa y ocho” instead of mil novecientos noventa y ocho.
- Preposition for “on”: “en el 5 de mayo”.
- Missing de: “el 5 mayo”, “5 de mayo 2026”.
- Capital letters on the day and the month.
- “Mi cumpleaños es en el 12 de marzo”: it is es el 12 de marzo.
- Adding an article after estamos: “Estamos a el 5” or “Estamos el 5”.
In class: the date routine
The date is the ideal opening ritual: it changes every day, so the sentence is never quite the same, and it recycles numbers, days and months at once.
- Display today’s date in figures only: 05/10/2026.
- Ask ¿Qué fecha es hoy? and let the class build the sentence aloud.
- Reveal the full written sentence: Hoy es lunes, 5 de octubre de 2026. Pupils check the de, the lower case and the year.
- Give the role of questioner to a different pupil each day.
- On Fridays, look ahead: ¿Qué fecha es el lunes?
This is exactly what a daily routine does: a minute a day, until the sentence comes out without thinking.
Many UK departments ask pupils to write the date in the target language at the top of their work. It is a good habit to keep, provided the written model is correct: lunes, 5 de octubre de 2026, all in lower case. Once the class says the date aloud every lesson, the written version follows naturally.
Adapting to your class
- A1Day and date without the year: Hoy es lunes, 5 de octubre.
- A2Add the year: … de 2026.
- B1Add yesterday and tomorrow: Ayer fue domingo, 4 de octubre. Mañana será martes, 6 de octubre.
- B2Add the season and the week number: Estamos en otoño, en la semana 41.
At KS2, the day and the date are enough. At KS3, the year is where pupils consolidate the big numbers. At GCSE level, the date becomes a springboard for tenses: El 5 de octubre del año pasado…
The “La fecha” module does it for you
Every morning, VocaDial projects today’s date in figures, then reveals the full sentence, at your class’s level. No preparation needed: try everything free for 15 days of use.
Frequently asked questions
How do you write the date in Spanish?
Day first, then month, then year: 5/10/2026, which is read el 5 de octubre de 2026. The month is written in lower case.
How do you say the first of the month in Spanish?
El 1 de mayo, read uno (usual in Spain) or primero (frequent in Latin America). Both are correct. From the 2nd onwards, only ordinary numbers are used.
How do you say the year in Spanish?
As one whole number: 2026 is dos mil veintiséis and 1998 is mil novecientos noventa y ocho. Spanish never splits the year into two halves as English does.
How do you ask what the date is in Spanish?
¿Qué fecha es hoy? or ¿A qué fecha estamos? The answer can be Hoy es 5 de octubre or Estamos a 5 de octubre.
How do you say "my birthday is on" in Spanish?
Mi cumpleaños es el…, followed by the date: Mi cumpleaños es el 12 de marzo. No preposition is needed.