reading dates

[rosagold]

In British English the date is written as it follows:
8 July 2010.

How is this read? Is 'the 8th of July 2010' correct?

Thanks

 

[Abstract Idea]

----- I am not an ESL teacher -----

In British English the date is written as it follows:
8 July 2010.

How is this read? Is 'the 8th of July 2010' correct?

Thanks

Hi, I asked a similar question here last year:
https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/ask-teacher/105106-reading-dates.html

 

[Abstract Idea]

In British English the date is written as it follows:
8 July 2010.

How is this read? Is 'the 8th of July 2010' correct?

Thanks

I was listening to a BrE mp3 file in which the speaker read a date.
I immediately remembered this thread (and also that old one of mine above mentioned and for some reason already closed).
I checked the transcription, it said:

"Mission Berlin. November 9, 2006, ten o ten am." (written)

The speaker read it:
"Mission Berlin. November nine two thousand and six ten o ten a m." (spoken)

She didn't read 9th. Well, at least to my ears it seemed so (the pronunciations of "nine two" and "ninth two" are similar).

I know this is just a single example, but I thought it worth mentioning it.
The mentioned files (both mp3 and transcript pdf) can be found here:

Mission Berlin 03 ? Richtung Kantstraße | Mission Berlin - Episoden | Deutsche Welle

 

[bhaisahab]

In British English the date is written as it follows:
8 July 2010.

How is this read? Is 'the 8th of July 2010' correct?

Thanks

I would say "the eighth of July two thousand and ten". Many people say "twenty-ten".

 

[rosagold]

Thank you both.

I remember that in my first English grammar book it was 'the eighth of July two thousand and ten' and it was written 'the 8th of July 2010'. That was the reason why I was confused but now is clear.

Thanks

 

[Abstract Idea]

Now regarding AmE:

The American reporter Mark Strassmann has read the following extract from a newspaper article in the TV news program CBS News:

"it's possible to be ready to stop the well between July 20 and July 27."

Although it was written with cardinal numbers twenty and twenty-seven he clearly read it "July twentieth and July twenty-seventh," that is, with ordinal numbers.

 

[bertietheblue]

There are many ways to write the date in BrEng:

(a) the 10th of July[,] 2010 -although it is now rare to see the date written out as we speak it
(b) the tenth of July[,] 2010 - as above (I do occasionally see dates still written out this way in very formal legal documents, eg in property deeds)
(c) 10th July, 2010 - I would say this 'full' version was the most common until quite recently and is still often used - and, indeed, would be my choice if I was writing by hand
(d) 10th July 2010 - not common to have the th/st/rd/nd ordinal 'marker' (is that the word?) but no comma
(e) 10 July, 2010 - not common to have the comma but no ordinal 'marker'
(f) 10 July 2010 - this stripped-down version has become the most common in the age of the computer*
(g) July 10th, 2010
(h) July 10, 2010

The last two are AmEng style, but you do see them in British publications sometimes and in BrEng we do say either:

'the tenth of July' - more common
or
'July the tenth' - but people do often say dates this way in BrEng

In BrEng, we always abbreviate to:

dd-mm-yy, so 10.07.10 or 10/07/10 (or dd-mm-yyyy: 10.07.2010 or 10/07/2010)

unlike in AmEng, where the style is:

mm-dd-yy, so 07.10.10 etc.

So if you see a date written as 10.07.10, you won't know whether it means 10 July 2010 (BrEng) or 7 October 2010 (AmEng) unless you know whether the publication/writer is British or American.


* I don't know why - does anyone know? - but there is a general tendency to remove unnecesary punctuation when writing on the computer - compare 'Dear Mr Bloggs, ... Yours sincerely,' when writing by hand, but 'Dear Mr Bloggs ... Kind regards' (where commas are optional) when writing on the computer.

 

[rosagold]

Thank you bertietheblue.Your reply is very thorough.I do not know if I am allowed to say it here, but I would like to say that Newton Abbot, where you are from, is a nice town. I have been there a couple of times.

 

[bertietheblue]

(e) 10 July, 2010 - not common to have the comma but no ordinal 'marker'
.

This is in fact the style in the law firm I work for, but I would still say '10 July 2010' is the most common nowadays.

So you've been to Newton Abbot, rosagold. Not an obvious place to land up in if you visit Devon, although it's well located if you want to go to the moors or the beach.

 

[rosagold]

I would still say '10 July 2010' is the most common nowadays.

Yes, it seems that we try to simplify quite everything nowadays.
By the way, in Romanian we write '10 iulie 2010', that is '10 July 2010'.

Actually, I visited a friend who lives in Torquay. Have also visitedDartmouth, Brixham and was in the moors too. Yo have a wonderful country and a lovely language. I make my best to learn it