Will Western use number as abbreviation of months?

[Steven Mai]

I hear people say that sometimes people use number as an abbreviation of months in English, I mean 1 instead of January, 2 instead of February, etc. But my former teacher told me that we only use Jan. Feb. and never use number. Could you please tell me will English native use number instead of Jan. etc.? Thank you in advance.

 

[Raymott]

I hear people say that sometimes people use number as an abbreviation of months in English, I mean 1 instead of January, 2 instead of February, etc. But my former teacher told me that we only use Jan. Feb. and never use number. Could you please tell me will English native use number instead of Jan. etc.? Thank you in advance.

Of course we do. You don't have to go very far to see 6/04/2012 as today's date in English (or 4/6/2012 in American).
I've got it twice on my desktop.
However, it's best not to use the number for the month if there could be any confusion between the American and British (and other) systems.

 

[SoothingDave]

Of course we do. You don't have to go very far to see 6/04/2012 as today's date in English (or 4/6/2012 in American).
I've got it twice on my desktop.
However, it's best not to use the number for the month if there could be any confusion between the American and British (and other) systems.

Exactly. I will use 4/6 with a purely American audience, but if I deal with foreigners I get explicit with the month, so there is no confusion. 6 Apr

 

[konungursvia]

I think it's important to say that we don't generally do this in speech. Exception: infamous dates, like 9/11.

Of course we do. You don't have to go very far to see 6/04/2012 as today's date in English (or 4/6/2012 in American).
I've got it twice on my desktop.
However, it's best not to use the number for the month if there could be any confusion between the American and British (and other) systems.

 

[emsr2d2]

I use numbers in speech if I'm giving my date of birth over the phone, usually as part of a series of security questions to a bank or an insurance company. Let's say my date of birth is the 7th of May, 1954 (it's not!). When asked for my date of birth on the phone, I would say "seven five fifty-four". The person on the other end of the phone would type 7-5-54 which would indeed be my birthdate.

There would be an issue with the difference in number order for American dates. If I repeated those numbers to an operative from an American company, they would assume my date of birth was the 5th of July, 1954.