This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2167, Jan 1 or January 1st.
How to express dates in English.
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When you make an appointment in your social life or in business.
There are many different ways that you could say the date.
Today, find out what your choices are and all of the key differences when it comes to making plans.
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Hi, Lindsay.
How are you?
Excellent.
I'm feeling fantastic today, Michelle.
How are you doing?
I am good.
Lindsay, are you good at remembering birthdays?
To be honest, Michelle, I'm not great.
I actually, a few years ago, I downloaded an app and I loaded all the birthdays into it.
And then the app offloaded when I needed it and I lost all the birthdays.
I'm not the best.
I do my best, but yeah, my niece's birthday is coming up soon.
So I got to remember that one.
What about you?
How are you at that?
I think the really important.
I mean my family.
I know my family's birthdays and some very close friends.
And besides that, I don't know that I'm great at it, but I think social media sometimes tells you when it's somebody's birthday, and that's helpful.
But yeah, I'm not amazing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, no, yeah, it's true.
I don't sign into Facebook all that much anymore, but I feel like there was a period where Facebook kind of took care of that, because if you signed in most days they would tell you when someone has a birthday, but that I feel like people aren't signing in quite as much maybe.
So that's a thing.
Well, that is true.
I do think that's true, because even on my birthday I mean, maybe I'm just getting less popular, but I know, remember when it was people write on your wall for your birthday
Yeah.
And it used to be the most, oh my gosh, I'm so excited to see what people wrote.
And over the years, it's not as high volume.
It's not as high volume.
Well, it might just be the platform is not as high volume.
I don't know.
We'll see what our listeners think here.
I need more friends.
Maybe we'll ask a poll question today about that.
Something about birthdays and remembering birthdays and using social media.
But we do have a listener question, which is kind of tied into remembering dates today.
Yes.
I'm excited about this one.
Yes, we're talking about dates.
So should I read the question?
Yeah, let's do it.
Go for it.
Let's do it.
This is from Nati Martins.
And Nati says, hello, gorgeous ladies.
Well, thank you.
Thank you.
I heard a professor in one of the episodes say December 21, as opposed to December 21.
Is that how people say it nowadays?
And this is from Spotify, a Spotify question.
This is a good one.
This is a really good one.
I'm excited to get into Nati's question.
But guys, first, go ahead and hit follow right here on All Ears English.
If you are not currently following the show, you won't get every episode.
We're going to have some amazing episodes grammar vocabulary, guest episodes this spring and summer.
So hit that follow button.
It is a good question, Michelle.
This is fun.
Have things changed or are we just going to show our listeners their options when it comes to talking about dates?
What do we think we're gonna talk about?
What we do?
We're gonna talk about what, when one might be more appropriate than the other.
So we're gonna go through it.
Um, so let's teach some vocab first.
Okay, cardinal number, cardinal number, so that's the base number, like one two ten, five.
Okay, that's a cardinal number.
Now the word ordinal number, that's when you're adding 3rd 4th 5th 6th 21st, 22nd.
So just so you know those are, if you're, if you're looking for those words, now you have them.
Um so, do you ever?
Do you ever say a date and say january 1?
Yeah, i do both.
I actually do both.
Yeah, i do january 1st and i do january 1.
I feel like for me just not knowing exactly what direction we're taking today for me, I tend to say the January 1 date more, I think, in business actually.
I thought you were going to say that.
Yeah, because it feels a little more formal, a little more official.
Yes.
I agree.
I think I have heard you use just the cardinal number and I would say it's in more of a business context.
So it's interesting.
I don't really say if I'm scheduling something with a friend just randomly.
I don't know that I say, let's meet on March 4.
Right, right, right.
It feels little off to do that in your social life, doesn't it?
This is a real nuance guys right, but that's why you listen to all there's english, to get the real nuances of english, and this is our native speaker experience.
This is when we use that and when we don't, i agree with you.
I don't think i would say hey uh, do you want to get drinks on january 5?
But if we're talking about a business deadline, a goal, you know, july 1, we analyze the first two quarters of the year.
Yeah interesting, that is interesting.
Okay, i'm glad we agree.
Um yeah, but i do.
I do sometimes think that when people say just january 3 or something, i think it does it.
There's a certain confidence to doing that.
I don't know what it is, but it always does sound to me a little bit confident, cool.
Um yeah, so you can do it in your personal life, but it's just a little bit different.
Yes, I agree.
It just makes it a little bit more official, a little more businessy, more formal, more like not important, I would say, because obviously your personal appointments are just as important, but it elevates that date.
Yeah, yeah, interesting.
And actually, guys, we did an episode a little ways back.
Episode 2124 was Day or Date?
How to Make Plans in English.
And I believe that was also a listener question.
So you guys are asking really good questions.
These are good, specific, fun questions.
So thank you.
Please keep sending them.
Keep sending them.
Keep sending your questions.
You can send them to lindsay at allearsenglish.com.
Send your specific questions.
We love to answer them, guys.
Let's get into this a little bit more.
Michelle, when might you hear this?
Should we get into it?
Well, we did say that.
We said business, right?
Right.
Business.
Or I mean, I was thinking, maybe if you are doing something in your personal life, maybe you're scheduling a delivery.
Oh, you know, I need this to arrive by March 7.
When should we send it?
But again...
I think, Lindsay, you really hit it when you said the word elevate.
I think it elevates it a little bit.
Even if it is in your personal life, it's just an elevated situation somehow.
It's elevated.
Do you think expiration dates too on packages?
This expires January 1.
When I look at packages to see if I can eat the thing coming out of the fridge, I'll look at the day and say oh, this expired 12-13.
I'll actually just look and imagine the dash, the forward slash line delineating the date.
I don't think I would say this expires December 13th.
That makes sense.
Yeah, you're right, that's it.
That's another option, just saying the numbers 12, 13.
There's a lot of that.
Yeah yeah lindsay, how serious are you about expiration dates?
Depends on the product.
I tried to stick to them, but some products I know you can go a little beyond.
It just depends.
I use the visual cues.
Do I see mold on the thing?
Our fruit tends to go bad really fast.
I eat a ton of fruit.
Blackberries, blueberries, strawberries.
Sometimes you get moldy really quickly.
In like a week.
Oh, even less than a week.
To me strawberries are a real pain and they're so delicious, you know, and but they just it just like turned terrible so quickly.
Well, side point.
But I think some of that is actually where you live in the country, because I notice when I go home to see my parents on the East Coast it's worse, because I think a lot of this is grown in California is my hunch right and then in California I think it's fresher when you get it and it's a little fresher here and then it's.
That's just my theory.
We have to double check that distance from the source of growth.
That makes sense, right?
That does make sense.
Yeah.
So, oh, wow.
We could go on and on about.
We'll do another episode.
Another episode.
I think that would be fun.
Yeah.
But in just a minute we're going to come back and we're going to talk about some examples around these numbers.
All right.
Let's get into some examples, Michelle, shall we?
Let's do it.
All right.
So you go first.
All right.
So I'll just go ahead and say this out.
So if he arrives on November 28, we will still have time to do the photo shoots.
Okay.
So here I didn't say 28th, right?
I think it's elevated, right?
It sounds a little bit more businessy.
I think if you're doing a business, I think it's more common to use either or.
Whereas if you are just in your casual conversation, I think it's more common to say the first second third fourth, right.
Can we of agree on that, do you think?
Yeah, i agree with that.
I think it's true, i also.
I also think it might depend on are you in that month.
Like it'd be more common to add the th if you're in november, whereas if i'm in like october or september, i think i might be more likely There might be something there, but we'll have to explore that in a different episode.
Very interesting, Lindsay.
Yeah, interesting.
So, well, another thing you could say is I need this done by March 2.
Again, that very businessy sounding.
Yeah, March 2.
I like that.
And what are other ways, Michelle, that we can say dates?
What do we think?
Do we have other options?
Yes.
Yes.
Let's go through a few.
So the first one is the X of Y.
Right.
So this has to be with ordinal numbers.
You can't say that.
Can you say the two of April?
No, no, no, no, no, no.
We want to stay away from that.
We'd have to say the second of April.
Right, right, right.
Or this one goes back to what the expiration date talk.
You can just use just the numbers.
So you could say something like, please call me by 623 to let me know if you want to book.
So we often do this with, for example, birthdays.
When we need to give them a date by which they need to reply.
Right.
That kind of thing.
Yeah.
Or you know, if you go to the pharmacy, they'll often ask you for your birthday and you'll just generally, I think it's common to just say the numbers like this.
Yeah.
And then if we want to, we can also do the blank week in the month.
So if we want to be a little bit less specific, right?
The third week in May.
This is where we're being broad and we're kind of targeting a broad range of dates, like between the first and the between, like the 14th and the 22nd or something.
Right.
Yeah, exactly.
Which one of these are you most likely to use?
Do you think, do you have a favorite?
I think 623.
The numbers I like is The blank of blank, like the 3rd of January takes too long to say for me.
I also think you'd see that on a wedding invitation, like the 22nd of May, 2023.
Yeah, we invite you to.
Yeah, too formal for me in a fast-paced life.
Personally, what about you?
Yeah, I think there's a time and place for it.
I do think that that is a more elevated one as well.
You might use it if you are... scheduling something or you're looking at your calendar.
Oh, I can do the second of May.
Yeah, something like that.
If you're if you're kind of thinking through dates.
So I agree with you, though.
It's not I don't use this all the time.
And Michelle, can I add a bonus here that I've heard and I think is acceptable?
I say it.
This is kind of fun.
I've heard even in business.
I've heard this actually, especially in business. are shortening months.
For example, I've heard the 3rd of Jan or Jan 3, Jan 1, Feb 1, but I think it's only for those two months, because what other months could you really shorten?
None of them.
You can't shorten any of the fall months.
You could shorten November, but no one says Nov.
No one says Nov.
It's just Jan and Feb.
It's funny that you say that, because I was thinking in the beginning when we were talking about it.
We said January 1 and I was thinking I often hear Jan 1, Feb 1, but those are the yeah interesting.
I hear this in international business.
I feel like I've heard this from Australian English speakers, people I've done business with, from India, for example.
I feel like this is kind of an international thing, shortening these months, the two months.
So that's kind of interesting.
Yeah.
Things you don't think about on an everyday conversation.
Let's give it a role play.
All right.
We know our listeners love role play, so let's do it.
So here I'm calling you to schedule a doctor's appointment.
Here we go.
All right.
Okay.
So what dates is the doctor available?
Well, I have a 1230 on June 20.
Hmm.
620.
I'm out of town.
Okay, how about the first weekend of July?
Oh, that could work.
Great, how about July 3rd?
Do you have anything open on the 2nd of July?
Yes, July 2nd is good, 2 p.m.
Perfect, thank you.
All right, sounds like a very typical conversation you would have.
I just got a haircut yesterday and had the same conversation with my hairdresser, right?
Making that next appointment.
I think a lot of our listeners are gonna have this conversation if they're living in the US Totally.
And what's more satisfying than going through the dates and then you get a good day and you're like this works.
Actually, I have to tell you, last week I showed up for a haircut appointment 24 hours early.
Oh no Michelle i yeah, i went in, i said oh, i'm michelle kaplan, i'm here for pam, and and he said michelle, we have you down for tomorrow.
And you know, your first inkling is like, oh no, like that has to be wrong.
I, i would never have done something, and that sure enough.
Yep, 24 hours early, the early bird gets the worm, lindsay.
So that's why i like to show up for everything 24 hours early.
Oh, it happens, we once booked a hotel in western mass for wrong weekend or something like that.
We showed up that weekend and our booking was for like or the wrong month or something, i don't know.
It was bad.
This kind of thing.
We're human, michelle.
Yeah, we're all human, it's okay, exactly.
Um, takeaway for our listeners today we didn't go through it.
Oh yeah, i forgot.
Oh, let's do it.
Yeah, because this is very technical, let's get into it here.
So yes, yeah.
So i said okay.
So what dates is the doctor available?
You said i have a 12 30, so here i mean time.
So you want to be careful with that because it could get a little confusing.
Um, if you're yeah um, i have a 12 30, the time on june 20.
So here i didn't use the if i didn't say june 20th, but you could have said june 20th, 100 you could have.
That would have been okay.
I just want to make sure that's clear.
It's not prescriptive.
Here we're showing our listener, not to you and everyone else.
There are options.
You have.
Options tends to be more common the 20 in business, but not necessarily all the time.
And it's interesting how you say, well, I have a 1230, and you mean appointment, right?
A date or an appointment, right?
I have a 1230 appointment.
Or you could also say, well, I have 1230 on June 20, right?
That means I have time at 1230 on June 20.
So that's two different ways to present that.
That'll be another episode for another day.
It's interesting all these different variations we have.
That could, when you think about it, could be quite confusing.
For sure.
And then I said, hmm, 620, I'm out of town.
And then I said, okay, how about the first week of July?
I could have said of July.
I could have also said in July, right?
Yeah, we have a lot of options.
We're going to have to follow up another episode for this.
I said that could work.
And then you said, great.
How about July 3rd?
So you started broad by saying that first week in July or of July, and then we nailed down a date.
You suggested the third.
Yep.
So then you fired back with, do you have anything open on the 2nd of July?
And then you said, yes, July 2nd is good.
2 p.m.
That's that moment when you find it.
You find that very satisfying.
I love it.
You came to agreement.
Yes.
I think today's episode is super practical.
And just to go back to Nati's question, this is not like a nowadays thing or a before.
It's not an old-fashioned English or a new English.
It's just you have options when it comes to the dates.
Don't you think, Michelle?
Yeah.
I definitely agree.
I don't think there's one right answer.
We gave you are ideas of when one might be more common than the other.
But experiment with these, try them out, see how it feels.
It's kind of fun to, to just switch things up a little bit.
I love it.
Good stuff, Michelle.
Well, I'll see you in the next one.
You have a good day.
Bye.
Bye Lindsay.
Thanks for this question.
Bye.
All right.
Take care.
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