The date in Spanish is reversed from the date in English. In Spanish we always begin with the day rather than the month:
| Es el tres de marzo. | It is the 3rd of March (March 3rd.) |
| Es el veintiuno de abril. | It is the 21st of April (April 21st.) |
The full date is written out:
"El ___(# date)____ de ___(month)____ de _____(year)"
For example: June 16, 1999 would be written as:
- The only date that doesn't use a number
is the first of each month. We say el primero.
- If I want to refer to April 1, 1996, I say "el primero de abril de mil novecientos noventa y seis."
"El dieciséis de junio de mil novecientos noventa y nueve"
El Año
In English we can break the year in half and say "Nineteen Ninety-nine" or "Seventeen seventy-six." Unfortunately in Spanish there is no shortcut to giving the year. We must start from the top:
- mil novecientos noventa y seis [in other words, one thousand nine hundred ninety-six]
- dos mil, dos mil uno, dos mil dos... (2000, 2001, 2002...)
Other helpful vocabulary:
| Hoy | Today |
| Ayer | Yesterday |
| Mañana | Tomorrow (also, Morning) |
| Anteayer | Day before yesterday |
| Anoche | last night |