How to write dates in Spanish
Alicia Fernández
• Mar 22, 2024
• 7 minutes
Updated Mar 22, 2024
In this volume, we discuss the alphabet, definite and indefinite articles, and verbs ser and estar, among other topics.
Writing dates in Spanish is very similar to English: We need the number of the day, month, and year. Sometimes we can also add the specific day of the week: el miércoles 28 de febrero fue el cumpleaños de mi abuela.
In this article you will learn everything you need to know about writing dates in Spanish. We will go over the days of the week, months of the year, numbers, and formats.
Ready? Let’s begin!
¡Ojo! Remember that in Spanish, weeks begin on Monday, not Sunday. Also, don’t forget that we do not capitalize days or months, unless they are in the beginning of a sentence.
Now, let’s take a look at numbers. Let’s start with the basics, you will need at least numbers 1-31 to talk about days and months:
Numbers 30 and up are easy, just add y uno/dos/tres/cuatro… to 40, 50, 60… and so on. For example, 45 would be cuarenta y cinco; 67 would be sesenta y siete; 89 would be ochenta y nueve; what about 91? That’s right! It would be noventa y uno.
¡Ojo! The numbers 60 and 70 are very similar! Don’t get them confused. Students normally confuse these two numbers since their only difference is one letter!
Now, let’s see larger numbers. Note that 500s, 700s, and 900s do not follow the same formula as the others; they do not combine a number (dos, tres, cuatro) plus cientos (doscientos, trescientos, cuatrocientos). They would be irregular (500 would NOT be *cincocientos but quinientos.)
As you have seen, 100 by itself is just cien; however, starting with 101 it is ciento. You will also notice that starting with 200 the word is now the plural cientos, since now we are talking about more than 1 hundred.
As for mil (one/a thousand) it will always be mil (not its plural form miles) unless you are talking about thousands of something: ¡Había miles de personas! (There were thousands of people!) But Había dos mil personas. (There were two thousand people.) Does that make sense?
A common mistake with students who are learning Spanish is to add an article to cien (100) or mil (1000). That is because in English we use the indefinite article a or the number one when talking about hundreds or thousands (one hundred students, a thousand miles). In Spanish we do not need these articles. We will simply say cien estudiantes or mil millas.
Spanish speakers use a coma instead of a period for decimals. For numbers with more than four digits, they are grouped in threes, starting from the right, and separated by spaces (5 898 234). Four-digit numbers, especially when used for years, are written with no spaces: 2024.
Don’t worry! For the most part you do not have to worry about gender. However, with the number one or any number ending in one, we change uno to una when talking about something specific, not just counting. For example:
1: una fiesta (one party)
21: veintiuna mesas (twenty one tables)
41: cuarenta y una razones (forty one reasons)
101: ciento una flores (a hundred and one flowers)
Also, any number that ends in -tos (which are numbers in the hundreds) we change to -tas when followed by a feminine noun:
200: doscientas ciudades (two hundred cities)
300: trescientas mariposas (three hundred butterflies)
400: cuatrocientas personas (four hundred people)
Finally, something else to watch out for when it comes to the number one or any number ending in one, is that uno turns to un when a masculine singular noun follows it:
Un momento (One moment. It is NOT *Uno momento as I am sure you have heard many times.)
21: veintiún estudiantes. (twenty one students)
51: cincuenta y un libros. (fifty one books)
201: doscientos un euros. (two hundred and one euros)
¡Ojo! Notice that the number veintiún has an accent mark.
In Spanish we write dates starting with the day, then the month, and then the year:
Hoy es 29 de febrero de 2024. (Today is February 29, 2024.)
We can also add the day of the week:
Hoy es jueves, 29 de febrero de 2024. (Today is Thursday, February 29 2024.)
As you can see, we add the preposition de between the day and the month and between the month and the year.
Here are a few more examples:
El día de San Valentín es el 14 de febrero. (Valentine’s day is on February 14.)
La Navidad es el 25 de diciembre. (Christmas is on December 25.)
El día de la independencia de Estados Unidos es el 4 de julio. (U.S. Independence Day is July 4th.)
Mi cumpleaños cae en domingo este año. (My birthday falls on a Sunday this year.)
When writing the date with only numbers format, in Spanish we follow these formats: DD/MM/YYYY or DD/MM/YY. The day always goes before the month.
03/04/24: That is April 3rd, not March 4th.
05/06/23: That is June 5th, not May 6th.
¡Ojo! In English ordinal numbers (July 4th, April 16th) are sometimes used. However, in Spanish cardinal numbers are used instead. In some Latin American countries the first day of the month is expressed with an ordinal number (primero de marzo.)
You should feel very comfortable writing dates in Spanish now! We have covered days of the week, months, numbers, and format. I am sure you knew some of the material covered, and hopefully, you also learned something new! Remember, in Spanish the day goes before the month.
Are you ready to practice what you learned?
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Answer key:
A. 20 de marzo de 2022
B. 2 de enero de 2024
C. 15 de abril de 2021
D. 28 de febrero de 2023
E. 30 de mayo de 2020
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Answer key:
A. El domingo 12 de mayo.
B. El martes 19 de marzo.
C. El domingo 16 de junio.
D. El lunes 15 de enero.
E. El lunes 2 de septiembre.
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Answer key:
Alicia Fernández is a content writer at Berges Institute.
