writing dates in spanish

Mark on your calendar that today’s the day you’ll learn how to write las fechas! You may want to write an email, book your next holiday to a Spanish-speaking destination, or schedule an event.

Learn how to write dates in Spanish so you can enjoy planning holidays, events, and days out, while also making sure that you’ll be there at the right time. Once you understand the core differences between English dates and Spanish dates, you’ll be writing out plans in no time!

Understanding the structural differences between dates in Spanish and dates in English will help you master the calendar faster. One key difference is that Spanish dates use a cardinal number while English dates use an ordinal number. Cardinal numbers are the original form of a number, such as 1,2,3, etc. Ordinal numbers look like 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.

Another key component to learning how to write dates is understanding their order. Spanish dates are ordered by day, month, year rather than the English order of month, day, year.

Days of the week in Spanish are not capitalized. To say “on a certain day” use el or los.

Monday — lunes
Tuesday — martes
Wednesday — miércoles
Thursday — jueves
Friday — viernes
Saturday — sábado
Sunday — domingo

Ejemplos:

Me voy el lunes.
I’m leaving on Monday.

Yo juego los sábados.
I play on Saturdays.

Just like with the days of the week, months in Spanish are not capitalized. If you want to say “in a certain month,” just use en.

January — enero
February — febrero
March — marzo
April — abril
May — mayo
June — junio
July — julio
August — augusto
September — septiembre
October — octubre
November — noviembre
December — diciembre

Ejemplo:

Voy a México en junio.
I’m going to Mexico in June.

Cómo agregar el año

When using dates from past years it’s important to show which year you are talking about. To add a year, simply add de and then the year. However, when talking about the current year, it’s okay to omit the year (just as you’d do in English).

Try and remember this form:

es + el + day + de + month + de + year

Ejemplos:

It is April 18, 2020. — Es el 18 de abril de 2020.

It is December 27, 1933. — Es el 27 de diciembre de 1933.

It is March 22, 1865. — Es el 22 de marzo de 1865.

Añadir los días de la semana

Now that you know how to write dates out in Spanish, you can make them even more specific by adding the day of the week. All you have to do is place the name in front of the date and add a comma.

Ejemplos:

Hoy es lunes, el 9 de marzo.
Today is Monday, March 9th.

Hoy es viernes, el 2 de febrero.
Today is Friday, February 2nd.

Hoy es jueves, el 12 de mayo.
Today is Thursday, May 12th.

Vocabulario del calendario

You can get even more precise in your time telling skills with this calendar vocab list. Add these words to your sentences to talk about today, tomorrow, yesterday, or even last week.