The Spanish date is built with el<\/span>, the number, de<\/span>, the month, and de<\/span> again before the year.<\/p>\n\n Hoy es lunes, 5 de octubre de 2026.<\/span>Today is Monday 5 October 2026.<\/small><\/p>\n\n Mi cumplea\u00f1os es el 12 de marzo.<\/span>My birthday is on 12 March.<\/small><\/p>\n\n El examen es el 3 de junio.<\/span>The exam is on 3 June.<\/small><\/p>\n\n 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<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n \u00bfQu\u00e9 fecha es hoy?<\/span>What’s the date today?<\/small><\/p>\n\n \u00bfA qu\u00e9 fecha estamos?<\/span>What’s the date today? (literally: at what date are we?)<\/small><\/p>\n\n Estamos a 5 de octubre.<\/span>It’s 5 October.<\/small><\/p>\n\n In Spain you will also hear the informal \u00bfA cu\u00e1ntos estamos?<\/span>. Note that the answer Estamos a\u2026<\/span> never takes an article before the number. \u00bfQu\u00e9 d\u00eda es hoy?<\/span> can be answered with the day of the week, the date, or both.<\/p>\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n At the top of a letter, the place comes first: Madrid, 5 de octubre de 2026<\/span>. You may occasionally see the month in Roman numerals in formal Spanish documents (5-X-2026).<\/p>\n\n Years are written without a full stop or space: 2026, not 2.026. That rule is specific to years; larger ordinary numbers are different.<\/p>\n\n The year is read as a single number: dos mil veintis\u00e9is<\/span>. This is where English interferes most. English splits a year into two halves (“nineteen ninety-eight”), Spanish never does.<\/p>\n\n “In 2026” is en 2026<\/span> or en el a\u00f1o 2026<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n Nac\u00ed el 3 de mayo de 2013.<\/span>I was born on 3 May 2013.<\/small><\/p>\n\n Decades are los a\u00f1os noventa<\/span> or los noventa<\/span>, written los a\u00f1os 90<\/span>: 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<\/span> is el siglo veintiuno<\/span>, and the ordinal (vig\u00e9simo primero<\/span>) is rare in speech.<\/p>\n\n Key dates give the routine a cultural angle: el 6 de enero<\/span> (el D\u00eda de Reyes<\/span>, when children in Spain traditionally receive presents), el 12 de octubre<\/span> (Spain’s national day), el 1 y el 2 de noviembre<\/span> (el D\u00eda de Muertos<\/span> in Mexico), el 31 de diciembre<\/span> (la Nochevieja<\/span>).<\/p>\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n This is exactly what a daily routine does: a minute a day, until the sentence comes out without thinking.<\/p>\n\n 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<\/span>, all in lower case. Once the class says the date aloud every lesson, the written version follows naturally.<\/p>\n\n 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 a\u00f1o pasado\u2026<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" El + day + de + month + de + year: the pattern, the first of the month, the year, the questions, and a daily routine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"menu_order":4,"template":"","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"The Date in Spanish: How to Say and Write It | VocaDial","_seopress_titles_desc":"How to say and write the date in Spanish: el 5 de mayo, uno or primero, reading the year, and the mistakes English-speaking pupils make. For teachers.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_vd_topic":"date","_vd_target":"es","_vd_module":"fecha","_vd_level":"A1\u2013A2","_vd_minutes":"6","_vd_card_word":"el 5 de mayo","_vd_answer":"In Spanish the date follows the pattern el + day + de + month + de + year: el 12 de marzo de 2026<\/span>. Use ordinary numbers (el 5 de mayo<\/span>, not \"the fifth\"), except that the 1st can be el 1 (uno)<\/span> or el primero<\/span>. The month takes no capital letter.","_vd_faq":"[{\"q\":\"How do you write the date in Spanish?\",\"a\":\"Day first, then month, then year: 5\\\/10\\\/2026, which is read el 5 de octubre de 2026<\\\/span>. The month is written in lower case.\"},{\"q\":\"How do you say the first of the month in Spanish?\",\"a\":\"El 1 de mayo<\\\/span>, read uno<\\\/span> (usual in Spain) or primero<\\\/span> (frequent in Latin America). Both are correct. From the 2nd onwards, only ordinary numbers are used.\"},{\"q\":\"How do you say the year in Spanish?\",\"a\":\"As one whole number: 2026 is dos mil veintis\u00e9is<\\\/span> and 1998 is mil novecientos noventa y ocho<\\\/span>. Spanish never splits the year into two halves as English does.\"},{\"q\":\"How do you ask what the date is in Spanish?\",\"a\":\"\u00bfQu\u00e9 fecha es hoy?<\\\/span> or \u00bfA qu\u00e9 fecha estamos?<\\\/span> The answer can be Hoy es 5 de octubre<\\\/span> or Estamos a 5 de octubre<\\\/span>.\"},{\"q\":\"How do you say \\\"my birthday is on\\\" in Spanish?\",\"a\":\"Mi cumplea\u00f1os es el\u2026<\\\/span>, followed by the date: Mi cumplea\u00f1os es el 12 de marzo.<\\\/span> No preposition is needed.\"}]","_vd_key":"date-es","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-47","vd_ressource","type-vd_ressource","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vocadial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vd_ressource\/47","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vocadial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vd_ressource"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vocadial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/vd_ressource"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vocadial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vd_ressource\/47\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vocadial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Asking the date<\/h2>\n\n
Writing the date<\/h2>\n\n
Saying the year<\/h2>\n\n
Spanish<\/th> Year<\/th><\/tr><\/thead> mil novecientos noventa y ocho<\/td> 1998<\/td><\/tr> dos mil<\/td> 2000<\/td><\/tr> dos mil cinco<\/td> 2005<\/td><\/tr> dos mil diez<\/td> 2010<\/td><\/tr> dos mil veintis\u00e9is<\/td> 2026<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n Decades and centuries<\/h3>\n\n
Around the date<\/h2>\n\n
Typical mistakes of English-speaking learners<\/h2>\n\n
In class: the date routine<\/h2>\n\n
Adapting to your class<\/h3>\n\n