The worldwide standard advises putting the date in the following format: YYYY-MM-DD. So, if both the Australian and the American utilized this, the date would be 2019-02-03. By placing the year first, this method of writing the date eliminates misunderstanding. Years are read from right to left.
In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, the date is usually written as DD/MM/YY. So, 3/02/19 is recorded as simply 03/02/19. The term "day number three, February" describes the day within its month. Month numbers range from 1 to 12, so 2 represents the second day of the month.
In India, the date is written as dd/mm/yy. So, 03/02/19 is recorded as simply 02/03/19. The term "date number three, February" describes the day within its month.
In Latin America and Spain, the date is written as dd/mm/aaaa where aaaa represents the century (such as 17 for 1917), the month as a single letter, and the day as two digits.
The worldwide standard suggests writing the date in the format YYYY-MM-DD. If you have a choice, it is recommended that you use this standard when writing dates in letters or emails.
If you want to be able to read other people's letters, it is advisable to include your own contact information. This can be done by writing your full name followed by your email address in the subject line of the letter.
The United States is one of the few countries that employs the date format "mm-dd-yyyy," which is quite unusual! Most countries write the day first and the year last (dd-mm-yyyy), however some, such as Iran, Korea, and China, write the year first and the day last (yyyy-mm-dd).
In American newspapers, the date is usually written in two sentences. The first sentence is the month followed by the day of the month, for example, "John died on March 15, 1933." The second sentence is the year, also in three-letter words: "He was 27 years old." We use words instead of numbers to avoid confusion. For example, it's not clear whether "27" refers to March or January.
Other countries also use word order to indicate the date. In French, for example, you would say "John died on jeudi 15 mars 1933." Jeudi is French for Thursday, so this sentence means "Thursday, 15 March 1933." You can see that French uses the preposition on before the date, while English doesn't.
Of course, writing the date requires knowing the day of the week and the month. English doesn't have any special words for Sunday or Monday, so we just use the regular words for each day of the week. It's very common, however, to find articles like "an" or "the" used with dates to indicate that they are about a specific person or event.
Dates in British English are commonly written in the order day-month-year, but dates in American English are written month-day-year. There is no right or wrong way to write a date; each method has its advantages and disadvantages.
The words "day", "days", "daytime" and "daily" all mean "number of days". So, the word "day" by itself can be used as a noun, a verb, an adjective and even a pronoun. For example, you can say "I like days," "Days go by quickly," "It's daily exercise that keeps me fit," and "Daily prayers help me stay focused."
The word "week" means "seven days". So, we can say that a "weekday" is any day other than Sunday. You will also hear people say that something is a "weekly" habit, meaning that it happens every week. Traveling by plane is a "weekly" activity for most people because they do it so often.
Months have different numbers of days in them, so writers usually use words such as "monthly", "quarterly" and "annually" to describe activities that happen at regular intervals.
In the United States, the date format begins with the month and finishes with the year (MM/DD/YYYY), which is a somewhat uncommon arrangement. In most of the rest of the globe, the day comes first and the year comes last (DD/MM/YYYY), while in China, Korea, and Iran, the sequence is reversed (YYYY/MM/DD).
The best way to provide your date of birth on an official document is to use the MM/DD/YYYY format. If you were to put "10/02/1965" instead, it would be difficult for some people to read that correctly. Also, make sure that the order of the months and days are correct. February has 28 days not 30!
When writing dates in English, it is common to leave out the year when it is known or assumed. This is particularly true for dates before 1900. If you want to be sure that someone understands that you are giving them a real date, rather than a generic one, then you should still include it. For example, "I turned 18 in 1999" rather than "I turned 18 in 2000".
Years can also be omitted when referring to a close relative: "My birthday is October 2nd" can be shortened to "My birthday is October 2". However, this practice is not recommended if you do not know who else may be able to understand what date it is.