English in Use/Time and Date
General | Contents • Introduction |
Parts of speech | Articles • Nouns • Verbs • Gerunds and participles • Pronouns • Adjectives • Adverbs • Prepositions, Conjunctions and Interjections |
Other topics | Orthography • Punctuation • Syntax • Figures of Syntax • Glossary |
External | Resources |
Here are some hints on how to express the date and time in English:
Date
edit- The day of the month, the month, and the year:
- Use on + ordinal of the day. On the 1st of June.
- Use in + only and the month. In June.
- Use about the + date (for approximate dates). About the 25th of December.
- Day of the week: precedes on. Example: open on Sundays.
- Ask the date: what's the date and what day is it (or today)?.
- Answer a date asking: today's the + ordinal. Today's the 16th.
- Century: in the + the ordinal of the century. Example: in the 20th century.
- Decade:
- Precedes in with the number in plural: in the 1990s.
- Follows something for undetermined year of the decade, in other words: in 1980 something.
- Era:
- A.D. = Anno Domini, Latin for in the year of the Lord, in other words the Christian Era.
- B.C. = Before Christ, in other words before Christian Era.
Time
edit- Ask the time: What time is it? and What is the time?
- Answer: It is and the part of the hour or the minutes, seconds: It is five o'clock.
- Parts of the day:
- Parts of the hour:
- O'clock, for example: It is one o'clock (1:00).
- Past and to:
- It is 4 minutes past 5 (5:04) (or 4 minutes after 5 in USA).
- It is 20 to 5 (4:40) (or 20 before 5 in USA).
- Quarter:
- A quarter past, for example: It is a quarter past 9 (9:15) (or a quarter after 9 in USA).
- A quarter to, for example: It is a quarter to 12 (11:45) (or a quarter before 12 in USA).
- Half past, for example: It is half past 9 (9:30).
- Answer to when?:
- Certain time: At, for example: At 5 p.m..
- Proximity:
- Nearly, about : It is about 10 o'clock.
- Just after: It is just after 10 (a few minutes past 10).
- Synonyms for times:
- Noon, Midday: 12:00 in the 24 hour clock. It is 5 past noon (12:05).
- Midnight: 0:00 in the 24 hour clock. Half past midnight (00:30).