Hello!
How did you ring in the New Year 2012? I hope you did it in style.... :)
Today I would like to talk about dates for a bit. And I know what you are going to say – either: “Thanks, but no thanks, Karolina;” or “Thank you, Captain Obvious.” But I still hope some of you will benefit from reading today's post.
You have probably heard that the British and Americans write their dates differently. I've been presented with the following patterns when it comes to writing dates:
AMERICAN
January 1, 2012 (please make a note of the comma)
BRITISH
1(st) January 2012
I've decided to compare the patterns I know against data I can find on the internet. Here are the results:
US
edition.CNN.com – CNN
January 3, 2012
europe.wsj.com – World Street Journal
USAToday.com – USA Today
NYTimes.com – New York Times
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
washingtonpost.com
Tuesday, January 3
UK
BBC.co.uk – BBC
3 January 2012
Telegraph.co.uk – the Daily Telegraph
Tuesday 03 January 2012
Guardian.co.uk – Guardian
Tuesday 3 January 2012
HeraldScotland.com – Herald
Tuesday 3 January 2012
WalesOnline.co.uk – Western Mail (Wales)
3 January 2012
Economist.com – the Economist
Jan 3rd 2012
And here are the conclusions:
- Americans write dates according to the /MM/DD/YY/ format.
- The British write dates according to the /DD/MM/YY/ format.
- Therefore, to be on the safe side, it is better to write the name of the month in full (or write the short version e.g. Jan, Feb etc.)
- It is nowadays common to skip ordinal abbreviations: 'st', 'nd', 'rd' and 'th', when writing dates.
- Commas are used by Americans and don't seem to be used by the British.
I've also asked native speakers how they say dates. The British use two forms. Some of them show preference for form (1), which follows the order in the written pattern.
(1) the third of January,
(2) January the third,
whereas Americanswill say
(1) January third (most often),
(2) January the third,
and sometimes
(3) the third of January.
There's one more issueleft. How do we say “2012”? Some internet users solved this problem two years ago:
Is it
2010 two thousand (and) ten OR twenty ten
2011 two thousand (and) eleven OR twenty eleven
2012 two thousand (and) twelve OR twenty twelve ?
YOU DECIDE! :)
(AND it is actually for the speaker to decide.)
And just in case, the remaining patterns:
1400 fourteen hundred
1900 nineteen hundred
1409 fourteen oh nine
1901 nineteen oh one
1810 eighteen ten
1999 nineteen ninety-nine
2000 two thousand
2001 two thousand (and) one
2009 two thousand (and) nine
Oh, and most importantly,
Happy New Year 2012!!!!!!
GLOSARRY:
to ring in the New Year – powitać Nowy Rok (dzwonami)
for a bit – przez chwilę
Captain Obvious– a sarcastic name for someone who states the obvious; obvious – oczywisty
to benefit from – skorzystać z czegoś
to make a note of something – zapamiętać, zapisać (to write something down or remember it carefully)
a comma – przecinek
a pattern – wzór (a particular way in which something is done, organized or happens)
data – dane
to be on the safe side – na wszelki wypadek
to skip – opuszczać, omijać
an ordinal (number) – (liczba) porządkowa
an abbreviation – skrót
to follow the order – tut. odzwierciedlać kolejność
an issue – kwestia
just in case – na wszelki wypadek
remaining– pozostałe
and most importantly – a co najważniejsze
