July 4, 2005

[whl626]

July 4, 2005

This has been bogging my mind for so long, I wonder how we should read the date ?

July the fourth two thousand and five OR

July the four two thousand and five ?

I know that we should read the former, but is it wrong to read as ( four ) ? Since it is just a number ( 4 ) instead of being written as ( 4th ).

Second question is it is OK to write as July 4th, 2005, right ?

[mykwyner]

In the dialects of English that I hear (US) you can say July fourth. or the fourth of July. Anything else would be nonstandard, especially July the four.

[whl626]

Since it is supposed to read as July the fourth, then it is not wrong to write as ( July 4th, 2005 ), right ?

So the omission of th is for convenience sake, I believe.

[mykwyner]

Actually, when I write dates within the context of a narrative, I always use the ordinal (th) number. I use the cardinal numbers when the date stands alone.