올해
초에 at the beginning of this year
중반에 in the middle of this year
말에 around the end of this year
월
초에 at the beginning of the month
중순에 in the middle of the month
말에 at the end of the monthe
7월 초에 at the beginning of July
12월 중순에 in mid-December
3월 말에 at the end of MArch
6월 말까지 by the end of June
다음 달
초순에 inthe early part of next month
중순에 in the middle of next month
하순에 in the latter part of next month
오늘 안으로 today
다음 주 중에 in the next week
며칠 안으로 in the next couple of days
10월 11일 이후(11일 포함) on or after October 11
10월 11일 이후(11일 불포함) after October 10
정오 전후에 sometime before or after 12:00 (noon)
저녁 6시 이후 after 6:00 in the evening
아침 8시 까지 until 8:00 in the morning
오전 10시부터 밤 9시 까지 from 10:00 in the morning until 9:00 in the evening (from 10:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m.)
1/4분기
초에 at the beginning of the first quarter
말에 at the end of the first quarter
연
초에 at the beginning of the year
말에 at the end of the year
There is a difference between how dates are written in British and American English.
In British English dates are usually written in the day-month-year format, for example:
6 October 2017
In American English dates are usually written in the month-day-year format:
October 6, 2017
(note the comma between the day and the year)
In British English we can also use the abbreviated form as follows:
6/10/17
(different punctuation marks may be used: 6.10.17 or 6-10-17)
Caution is required here, however, as Americans usually put the month first:
10/6/17
As you can imagine, this can lead to ambiguity as the above date might be understood as 10 June 2017 instead of 6 October 2017.
In an attempt to avoid ambiguity resulting from the different ways of writing dates around the world, an ISO standard was adopted in 1988. This uses the year-month-day format as follows: 2017-10-6. However, this format is not widely used in Britain or the US.
How to say dates
6 October 2017 is said as follows:
the sixth of October twenty-seventeen (note “the” and “of”)
October 6, 2017 is said as follows:
October sixth, twenty-seventeen
23 April 2005 is said as follows:
the twenty-third of April two thousand and five
The year 2000 is said as “two thousand”.
We tend to say “two thousand and…” up to 2009.
2010 may be said as “two thousand and ten” or “twenty-ten”.
From 2011 onwards we tend to say “twenty-eleven”, “twenty-twelve” etc.
Years before 2000 are said as in these examples:
1984 — nineteen eighty-four
1902 — nineteen oh two
1848 — eighteen forty-eight
1492 — fourteen ninety-two
1066 — ten sixty-six
As we use ordinal numbers (first, second, third, fourth, etc.) when we say dates, sometimes we add the endings of ordinal numbers when we write dates, as follows:
6th October 2017
October 6th, 2017
This style used to be more popular, but it seems to be rather out of fashion now. If you do use it, remember to add the correct ending (st, nd, rd or th):
1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, then use th until 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, etc.
Abbreviations of months
All the names of the months have short forms except May and June:
Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, Jul, Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec
Remember we always capitalise months, whether we write them in full or abbreviate them. Some style guides may add a full stop/period after the abbreviation, but it is generally OK not to use one.
Abbreviations of days
All the names of days have short forms:
Mon, Tues/Tue, Wed, Thurs/Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun
For Tuesday and Thursday, Tues and Thurs are common, but for the sake of consistency I advocate the three-letter style – bolded above.
Remember we always capitalise days, whether we write them in full or abbreviate them. Some style guides may add a full stop/period after the abbreviation, but it is generally OK not to use one.
How to write the date in English
Now let’s look at how to write dates in English – the shortest form first.
In American English, we write MONTH / DAY / YEAR – so Christmas Day would be 12/25/2022.
Or sometimes we just write the last two letters of the year – 12/25/22.
But in British English, and in many other parts of the world, the DAY comes first, so it would be 25/12/2022.
This is very important to know, because something like 10/5/22 would be:
- October 5th in American English
- May 10th in British English
This short form is most often used in less formal communications like e-mails between friends, text messages, chatting, and so on.
For more clarity, we can write the date in a longer form:
- October 5, 2022
- October 5th, 2022
We could write just the number 5 or we could write 5th, but the important thing is that there is ALWAYS a comma between the day and the year, and we ALWAYS say 5th and not just 5 when speaking.
If we also want to include the day of the week, we would write it like this – again, with a comma after the day of the week, and a comma between the day and the year:
- Wednesday, October 5 (or 5th)
- Wednesday, October 5 (or 5th), 2022
Sometimes in more formal writing, or at the top of letters, you might see it written this way: 5 October 2022. This form should not use any commas. Again, it’s not as common.
To practice, try writing and saying the date of an important holiday in your country. For example, in the U.S., Independence day is July 4th and it originally happened in the year 1776: July 4, 1776.
How to ask which day of the week
If you want to ask what day of the week it is, say:
What day is it today? or What’s the day today?
What day is it tomorrow? or What’s the day tomorrow?
To answer these questions you can say,
It’s Monday today. or Today is Monday.
It’s Tuesday tomorrow. or Tomorrow is Tuesday.
How to ask the date
If you want to ask what the date is, you can say:
What’s the date today? or What’s today’s date?
What’s the date tomorrow? or What’s tomorrow’s date?
You can answer by saying:
It’s 27th September. / Today is 27th September.
Tomorrow is September 28th.
How to say the date
When we say dates in English we use ordinal numbers. So for 1 January, we don’t say the cardinal number ‘one’ but we say ‘first’. And we say ‘the’ before the number followed by ‘of’. For example,
It’s the first of January.
It’s also possible to invert the month and day. For example,
It’s January first.
In this case you don’t need to say ‘the’ and ‘of’.
Ordinal numbers
Here are the ordinal numbers that you need to use:
One - First
Two - Second
Three - Third
Four - Fourth
Five - Fifth
Six - Sixth
Seven - Seventh
Eight - Eighth
Nine - Ninth
Ten- Tenth
Eleven - Eleventh
Twelve - Twelfth
From 13 to 19 we continue to add -th to create the ordinal numbers (thirteenth, fourteenth, etc.)
While from 21 to 31 the ordinal numbers end according to the ending of the second number. For example,
21 – twenty-first
22 – twenty-second
23 – twenty-third
24 – twenty-fourth
How to write the date
When we write a date we don’t need to add ‘the’ and ‘of’ as we do when we speak. For example:
It’s the first of January – speaking
It’s 1st January – writing
As you can see, you don’t need to write the number but we usually add the last two letters of the ordinal number. For example:
First – 1st
Second – 2nd
Third – 3rd
Fourth – 4th
How to say the year
There are two ways to say the year in English. Until the year 2000, every year was pronounced as two numbers. For example,
1485 – fourteen eighty-five
1750 – seventeen fifty
1900 – nineteen hundred
For the first years of previous centuries, we add ‘0’. For example:
1801 – eighteen o one
While for the first ten years of the 21st century, we use the word ‘thousand’. For example:
2000 – two thousand
2006 – two thousand six
From the year 2010 onwards you can say two numbers again. For example,
2012 – twenty twelve
However, some people continue to use ‘thousand’ and say:
2012 – two thousand twelve
Centuries
When we refer to a century in English, we use ordinal numbers. For example,
1800-1900 = the nineteenth century
1900-2000 = the twentieth century
And centuries are divided into ten decades. A decade is a period of ten years.
Historical dates
When you talk about a year in the distant past, you can use B.C. and A.D. The letters B.C. mean ‘before Christ’. For example,
The first Olympic Games were in 776 B.C.
A.D. means ‘Anno Domini’ – the year of the Lord, marking the birth of Christ. So this year is 2019 A.D. However, it’s only necessary to add A.D. when it is unclear which time period you’re referring to. For example,
Romulus Augustulus was the last Roman Emperor from 475-476 A.D.
American vs British English difference
There is a difference in the order of indicating the date and the month between American and British English. In American English it’s common to put the month first followed by the date. For example,
09.25.2019 – September 25, 2019
While in British English the same date is,
25.09.2019 – 25th September, 2019
So be careful when you write a date as numbers as above. Depending who you’re writing to, you may need to write the month to be clear.
When you make an arrangement in English – such as a meeting at work or a hotel reservation – getting the date right is really important.
'직장생활' 카테고리의 다른 글
| Meetings, 미팅과 관련된 영어 단어와 표현 (0) | 2022.08.09 |
|---|