This page explains everything you need to know about reading and writing the Spanish Dates.
How to Say The Date in Spanish
Spanish dates are very different from English ones. Let’s see an example:
2 de enero de 1992 (dos de enero de mil novecientos noventa y dos).
January 2, 1992.
- The elements of the date must be named in ascending order: day + month + year.
- To “connect” day, month and year, always use the preposition de (of).
- Both years and days of the month are expressed using normal cardinal numbers (dos, tres, cuatro, …, treinta y uno), except the first day of the month, which is usually expressed using an ordinal number (primero, instead of uno). In Spain, though, the first day is also expressed with a cardinal: uno.
Asking and Responding: How to Say “What is the Date?” in Spanish
When asking or giving the date, you can use either the verb ser or estar.
- The verb estar is used in the first-person plural (estamos), along with the preposition a:
¿A cuántos estamos? Estamos a tres de febrero.
What’s the date today? It’s the 3rd of February.
¿A qué (día) estamos? Estamos a lunes.
What day is today? It’s Monday.
- The verb ser is used in the third-person singular (es), without any preposition:
¿Qué día es? Es cuatro de marzo.
What date is it today? It’s the 4th of March.
¿Qué día (de la semana) es? Es martes.
What day is today? It’s Tuesday.
- With any other verb, use the article el:
¿Cuándo llegarás? Llegaré el cinco de abril.
When will you arrive? I’ll arrive on April 5.
¿Cuándo me llamarás? Te llamaré el miércoles.
When will you call me? I’ll call you on Wednesday.
- In some cases, like on letters or formal documents, you can replace the article el with the preposition a:
Expido el presente certificado en Madrid, a 6 de mayo de 1999.
I hereby issue this certificate in Madrid on May 6th, 1999.
- In order to say just the month and/or the year, the preposition en must be used:
Estamos en mayo (de 2019).
It’s May (2019).
Ana Comneno nació en 1083.
Anna Komnene was born in 1083.
- If you want to explicitly include the word mes (month), then it must be followed by the preposition de (mes de…). This is optional (and rather unusual) in the case of the word año (year).
Estamos en el mes de junio.
It is the month of June.
Steve Jobs murió en el año (de) 2011.
Steve Jobs died in the year 2011.
- In many cases, the article el is used just before the year. This is more frequent from the year 2000 onwards, but it’s only required when abbreviating the year by omitting the first two digits (for example, 27 instead of 1927):
Nací en el 75.
I was born in ’75.
Heath Ledger murió en (el) 2008.
Heath Ledger died in 2008.
Estamos en enero de(l) 2016.
It’s January 2016.
Years in Spanish
As we have seen, in order to say the year you simply name the corresponding cardinal number. To know how to form any cardinal, visit our article about numbers in Spanish.
A frequent error is to write the year with a dot to separate the thousands (2.016).
For dates before the year 1 BC, the expression antes de Cristo (before Christ) is typically used. After Christ would be después de Cristo. The abbreviations are a.C. and d.C., respectively:
Roma se fundó en el año 753 a.C. (antes de Cristo).
Rome was founded in 753 BC.
Marco Aurelio nació en el año 121 d.C. (después de Cristo).
Marcus Aurelius was born in 121 AD.
Date intervals: How to say “From date to date” in Spanish
In order to express date intervals, you can use the prepositions de – a, or also desde – hasta.
Estaré de vacaciones del 1 al 15 de julio.
I will be on vacation from 1st to 15th July.
Esa tienda estuvo cerrada desde el 7 de agosto hasta el 8 de septiembre.
That shop was closed from August 7th until September 8th.
How to write the date in Spanish
For the most part, writing dates in Spanish is no different than saying them aloud. You just have to keep in mind some spelling guidelines:
- Typically, the day of the month and the year are written with numbers, and the month (which, unlike in English, is never capitalized) is written with letters, like so: 11 de octubre de 2017.
- The days of the week are also written with lowercase letters (unless, of course, they are at the beginning of the sentence): Es viernes.
- In some legal documents, bank checks, etc., the dates may be written entirely with letters: Veintiséis de marzo de mil novecientos ochenta.
- The year can also be written with Roman numerals. This is only normal in monuments and commemorative plaques.
Shorthand notation
Very frequently, dates are written in abbreviated format with numbers only (17 de diciembre de 2009 → 17/12/2009):
- The order is still “day + month + year“.
- The year can also be abbreviated, by omitting the first two digits: 17/12/09.
- Sometimes, Roman numerals are used to express the month: 17/XII/2009.
- The separators can be either hyphens, slashes or dots (without spaces): 26-9-1998, 12/III/1971, 14.10.00.
- Unless, for technical reasons, it is strictly necessary, it’s recommended to avoid leading zeros: 04-02-2010.
On a letter
On letters, it’s common to add the city before the date. Also, it’s recommended to omit the article (noviembre de 2006, better than noviembre del 2006).
Los Angeles, 21 de octubre de 1967.
Firmado en Madrid, a 3 de septiembre de 2003.
Spanish vocabulary related to dates
Here are some of the most frequently used words and expression related to dates:
| date | (la) fecha |
| today | hoy |
| yesterday | ayer |
| the day before yesterday | anteayer* |
| tomorrow | mañana |
| the day after tomorrow | pasado mañana |
| tomorrow and the day after | mañana y pasado |
| day | (el) día |
| week | (la) semana |
| weekend | (el) fin de semana |
| weekday | día de entre semana |
| month | (el) mes |
| season | (la) estación |
| year | (el) año |
| leap year | año bisiesto |
| decade | (la) década |
| century | (el) siglo |
| millennium | (el) milenio |
(*) A variant of the word anteayer is antier, which is frequent mainly in Central America and Mexico.
Days of the week
The days of the week in Spanish are:
| Monday | lunes |
| Tuesday | martes |
| Wednesday | miércoles |
| Thursday | jueves |
| Friday | viernes |
| Saturday | sábado |
| Sunday | domingo |
All of them are masculine nouns: el próximo lunes, los domingos…
Note: In the Spanish-speaking countries, the first day of the week is not Sunday, but Monday (lunes), as you can see in the calendar above.
Months of the year
The names of the months of the year in Spanish are:
| January | enero |
| February | febrero |
| March | marzo |
| April | abril |
| May | mayo |
| June | junio |
| July | julio |
| August | agosto |
| September | septiembre |
| October | octubre |
| November | noviembre |
| December | diciembre |
Although less frequent, the form setiembre is also acceptable, instead of septiembre.
Like the days of the week, the names of the months are masculine nouns (a cold December → un frío (mes de) diciembre) and are never capitalized.
Seasons
Here are the four seasons of the year in Spanish:
| spring | (la) primavera |
| summer | (el) verano |
| autumn | (el) otoño |
| winter | (el) invierno |
Unspecific dates
Sometimes you know a date only approximately. These are some frequently used expressions for those unspecific dates:
| past (year/week/…) | (el año/la semana/…) pasado/a |
| next (year/week/…) | (el año/la semana/…) que viene |
| at the beginning of | a principios de (mes/año/…) |
| in the middle of | a mediados de |
| at the end of | a finales de |
Try Our Spanish Dates Interactive Translate Tool
Special Spanish dates
As in any other language, there are some special dates with “proper name” in Spanish:
| New Year’s Eve | (la) nochevieja / (el) fin de año |
| New Year | (el) año nuevo |
| solstice | (el) solsticio |
| equinox | (el) equinoccio |
Of course, there are also many special days in the Christian tradition:
| Christmas Eve | (la) Nochebuena |
| Christmas | (la) Navidad |
| Holy Week | (la) Semana Santa |
| Palm Sunday | (el) Domingo de Ramos |
| Maundy Thursday | (el) Jueves Santo |
| Good Friday | (el) Viernes Santo |
| Easter Sunday | (Domingo de) Pascua |
| Easter Monday | (el) Lunes de Pascua |
| Ash Wednesday | (el) Miércoles de Ceniza |
Example sentences and idioms
El pasado miércoles, 21 de diciembre, fue el solsticio de invierno.
Last Wednesday, 21st December, was winter solstice.
El año que viene es bisiesto.
Next year is a leap year.
Volveré dentro de dos semanas y media.
I’ll be back in three and a half weeks.
Marta volvió al cabo de tres semanas.
Marta came back after three weeks.
Compré el carro hace tres sábados.
I bought the car three Saturdays ago.
David era un jovencito de veinte primaveras.
David was a young lad of twenty summers(in Spanish we say primaveras —Springs—, or also abriles —Aprils—).
Gracias a las olimpiadas, los hoteles están haciendo su agosto.
Thanks to the Olympic games, hotels are having a field day.
No fue nada del otro jueves.
It was nothing to write home about.
¡Miércoles!
Sugar! (euphemism for ¡mіеrda! —sh*t—).
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References
- Articles, in Spanish, by the RAE’s Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas about:
- the fecha (date).
- the días de la semana (days of the week).
- the word anteayer (the day before yesterday).