Is this the correct way of writing a date either BrE or AmE? If so, is it formal or informal?
On the 25th of August
On the 17th of April
On the 2nd of May
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1Those would all be OK in a piece of narrative, because they reflect the way we would say it. In a formal or technical context, it would be written On 25 August or On August 25.– Kate BuntingCommented Oct 27, 2022 at 10:37
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Did you do any searching before asking here? What did you find?– gotube ♦Commented Oct 27, 2022 at 15:37
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@gotube Of course I did but unfortunately I did not find a definite answer as to using ordinals in writing is okay, others say it is poor choice, etc.– BeqaCommented Oct 28, 2022 at 3:37
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2 Answers
The way that dates are spoken in both dialects broadly follows the date formats of each country, ie 'dd/mm/yy' in England and 'mm/dd/yy' in the USA.
British English speakers tend to say the day first, and the month second:
The 25th of June.
In American English, the month usually comes first:
June 25th.
There is not a strict rule, however. Spoken dates (or written as if spoken) would be almost certainly be understood either way around. There may be regional differences within both countries. And there are also some notable dates that may be said a certain way, for example, "the fourth of July" is a notable date in US history and tends to be said that way around, perhaps for historical reasons.
answered Oct 27, 2022 at 11:25
The correct format depends on where you are (or where your audience are).
In most of the world, using digital notation it would be dd/mm/yy.
In the US and a few other places, mm/dd/yy.
Writing out the date, either:
"the third/3rd of November" or "November the third/3rd", are equally correct, anywhere.
