14 April. The use of ''on''

[Glizdka]

Not a teacher

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Hello, Rachel!

If I'm correct, the Russian language uses an ordinal number followed by a month in the genitive case to tell what date it is. So, "Четырнадцатое апреля". I remember I was taught the genitive case is mandatory because the nominative case ("Четырнадцатый апре́ль") would sound like there are multiple Aprils, of which the one I'm talking about is number fourteen, and this is not what the sentence is meant to mean.

I believe a similar thing happens in English, and is reflected by of, which is mandatory much like the genitive case in Russian. "Fouteenth April" reads like there's a sequence of Aprils, and April number fourteen is the one the sentence refers to, to me at least.

You don't want a sequence of Aprils; you want a sequence of days within April. This is what of is for. "April fourteen" has the similar feeling, like "Page fourteen", that it's a sequence of Aprils (pages), and it's its number in the sequence.

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Am I correct that "The fourteenth of April" is a shorter version of "The fourteenth day of April", where day is omitted?

Is it correct to say "It will have been the fourteenth February the fourteenth in a row I spend alone" if I'm a lonely no-life who's never had someone to spend a Valentine's Day with?

 

[Tdol]

Glizdka, no offence, but I would love to hear an explanation of the reason for editing your last post.

 

[Glizdka]

Glizdka, no offence, but I would love to hear an explanation of the reason for editing your last post.

My memory is worse than my writing, but if I remember correctly it was:

• I forgot to apply the nominative case to Четырнадцатый,
• I forgot to mention "April fourteen",
• Reworded some awkward wording.

It's not that I hadn't checked it before I editted; I double check after I post on top of that, usually finding something that I could've written better, or is just plain incorrect.

 

[Rachel Adams]

I'm not sure where the confusion is, Rachel Adams.

I think it lies in the fact that some of us are thinking that you're asking how to read aloud written dates and some of us are thinking you're asking generally about how to say dates. I think the confusion is also related to the fact that when the date is part of a sentence, you have to use a preposition because it usually appears as part of a preposition phrase.

Look:

"I was born on April (the) fourteenth."

In the sentence above, you have to include on. The sentence is a transcription of what somebody would say.

April 14

Written alone like this, the date is not part of a preposition phrase, so no preposition is necessary. The words are not a transcription of what somebody would say.

I am so sorry. Yes, I was asking about how to read aloud written dates and about how to say dates too. That's why I reasked if we are saying that something happened on that day or someone was born on that day ''April fourteenth'' and ''April the fourteenth'' are used but not April fourteen. Am I right?

 

[emsr2d2]

I think Tdol was referring to your actual explanation. You wrote as your reason for editing, "Some extra words to fail". What does that mean?

 

[jutfrank]

Am I correct that "The fourteenth of April" is a shorter version of "The fourteenth day of April", where day is omitted?

Is it correct to say "It will have been the fourteenth February the fourteenth in a row I spend alone" if I'm a lonely no-life who's never had someone to spend a Valentine's Day with?

Yes and yes.

(Actually, there are some issues with the tenses in your sentence, but the bit about the dates is right.)