Time Expressions for Days and Dates
There are a number of words and expressions that you can use to explain which day you are talking about. Learn the proper spelling of the English days, months, and seasons. You also need to learn which prepositions of time go with each time expression.
A. Seasons, Days, and Months
SEASONS DAYS MONTHS
| • Winter | • Sunday | • January | • July |
| • Spring | • Monday | • February | • August |
| • Summer | • Tuesday | • March | • September |
| •Fall/Autumn | • Wednesday | • April | • October |
| • Thursday | • May | • November | |
| • Friday | • June | • December | |
| • Saturday |
B.Useful Time Expressions (Days and Dates) C. Prepositions of Time (Days and Dates)
FUTURE
- tomorrow
- the day after
tomorrow
- three days from now
- next week
- in a few days
- this Tuesday
(upcoming)
- this weekend
(upcoming)
- next weekend (after this one)
- in two weeks’ time
- mid-month
- early next month
- next year
PRESENT
- today
- right now
- this week
- this year
PAST
- yesterday
- the day before yesterday
- four days ago
- a few years ago
- last week
OTHER
- on Wednesdays
- on the weekend*
- every Wednesday
- every other month
For specific dates or days, we use “on”:
- My birthday is on September 7th.
- I’ll be there on
For months (without specific days), we use “in”:
- My birthday is in
For seasons, we use “in the”:
- I was born in the
We don’t use “on” or “in” with time expressions that include this, next, last, or every:
- I go swimming every
- Sarah saw her sister last
- I’ll see you next
How to Write the Date
A. Writing the Date
There are a few different ways to write the date in English.
In the US, the date is usually written in this order: month, day, year. Here are some different ways to write the date:
- January 3, 2015
- January 3rd, 2015
- Jan 3, 2015
- Saturday, January 3, 2015
- 01/03/2015
- 01/03/15
- 01-03-15
B. Abbreviations
| DAYS | MONTHS | ||
| • Mon • Fri | • Jan | • May | • Sept |
| • Tues • Sat | • Feb | • June | • Oct |
| • Wed • Sun | • Mar | • July | • Nov |
| • Thurs | • Apr | • Aug | • Dec |
C. Practice
What is the date today?
How many ways can you write it?
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