How to Read and Write the Date, and How NOT To!

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I'm Rebecca from engVid, and I have a simple question for you today.

What date is this?

Look at it, and tell me what date it is.

Now, you probably said one of these.

You might have said: "April 3rd, 2018" or "the 4th of March, 2018", and that's the problem,

that not everybody who is watching this video from different parts of the world said the same thing.

Can you imagine all of the problems that would ensue, that would follow if you announced

this date for a major event where people from all over the world are going to attend?

You could lose your job for this one, and I'm not exaggerating.

This is a really serious point to learn in today's lesson.

Now, let's take it a little bit further.

Let's imagine that you're organizing a conference.

Let's pretend you're organizing a lecture at a university, or let's pretend that you're

planning a wedding for a friend and you're sending out invitations.

Let's see what happens if you write the date like this.

Lots of interesting things, I assure you.

All right, so let's see what happened.

If you sent out an invitation or an announcement with the date written like this: "04-03-2018",

the Americans and Filipinos wrote: "April 3rd, 2018" in their diaries.

In the meantime, the Brits, Germans, Russians, Mexicans, Indians, and a whole lot of others wrote:

"4th of March, 2018" in their diaries.

Already confusion is on the horizon. Right?

Lots of expenses, lots of confusion, lots of issues.

And the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese, they really weren't sure because you weren't actually

following their system at all, so they're flooding your inbox to ask you:

"Which date did you actually mean?"

And all of this is leading to a lot of unnecessary problems, so I'm going to show you exactly

what you need to do, when you need to write the date in words, and at other times when

you need to write the date in numbers, how to do that and what guidelines you can follow.

Now, of course, I'm giving you the general picture, it will also depend a lot on your

company, what policies they have regarding how you write the date, the date format, and so on.

But I'm going to tell you exactly how to write the date in words and also in numbers when

you really have to.

So, as I said, when you have a choice, always write the date in words.

And I'm going to show you exactly how you can do that in the next segment.

But sometimes you don't have a choice.

Sometimes, for example, if you're filing out a job application online or a government form,

or a visa application, or you're writing the date on a cheque, sometimes you're going to

see little squares where something is written in the background very lightly.

It's usually a "D" or an "M" or a "Y", or all of them.

So what does that "D", "M", and "Y" stand for?

The "D" stands for "Day", the "M" stands for "Month" and the "Y" stands for "Year".

So that already will help you a whole lot anytime you're filling out any kind of form.

Now, these are the different options you might see there and what will...

I'm just trying to show you an example of how you would change the information based

on what they're asking you with the "D", "M", and "Y".

So let's suppose that you're filling out an application, a visa application, and they're

going to ask for your birthdate.

And let's suppose your birthdate is January 3rd, 1986.

If the form says: "Day/Month/Year", then you would write: "03/01/86".

Now, usually they have two spots available for the day and the month, because they obviously...

December is 12.

You can't have more than two digits for the day or for the month.

So if it just says...

If it just has two, four, six spots there with a "D" and a "Y", you're going to write

the date like that.

Sometimes they switch it around, then you'll know: "Month/Day/Year", so in this case it

would become January 3rd, '86.

This is a situation in which the year is only asked for in two digits.

Sometimes you see it like this: Year, month, day, then you would write, in this case: "86-01-03".

Year, day, month: "86-03-01".

And sometimes you'll see that they ask for the year in four digits.

Then it's like this: "YYYY", right?

So then it would be: "1986", month: "03", day: "01", or it could be the same thing with

four digits for the year, and day and month.

So, here we've looked at some different options where if you had to write this date, you might

be asked any of these ways to write it, and you want to make sure you write it properly

so that you don't have a lot of problems afterwards, bureaucratic and otherwise, because you wrote

the wrong date.

And then they think they're not who you think you are, and all kinds of other problems.

So you really don't want that.

Now, one other thing.

Sometimes in some situations they ask for the month, not in two letters, okay?

Or numbers, but as three.

So you might see: "MMM".

What does that mean?

How can you write three?

Are you supposed to put another zero?

When you see three Ms, that means they're asking for the month, part of it, to be written

So, which letters?

How do you abbreviate that?

In this case they're asking you to put the first three letters of the month, so: "Jan",

"Feb", "March", okay?

You just put the first three letters.

Okay? If you see that they're asking for the month in three spaces.

And listen, it's not only for job applications and cheques, and things like that, you could

actually do yourself a lot of harm if you don't understand and you can't interpret these

dates properly.

Let's look at some other situations.

We already talked about how you or many other people might miss a very important event.

You could end up eating spoiled food, because, you know, printed on food packages is the

date and sometimes, unfortunately, it's written like this.

You could end up buying products which have expired, or you could even end up using old medicines.

All of that is really dangerous.

You can also make mistakes in legal contracts and all kinds of other complicated situations.

So, as I said, whenever possible, you should write the date in words, and that's what we're

going to look at next.

All right, so the great date debate continues.

Now, you're saying:

"You mean to tell me for something as important as this, there is no standardization in the world?"

There really isn't.

Of course, there are organizations that have tried to standardize this, a very well-known

organization is the International Organization for Standards, also known as ISO, right?

They said it is more logical to make...

To write the date in this way, to write the year, the month, and then the day.

You start from the biggest number, go down to the month, go down to the day. Right?

But unfortunately that system is not followed all over the world.

It may be followed in some countries, for example, we said in China, Korea, and Japan

they actually do follow the ISO 8601 system which says you must write it as year, month, day.

So, let's say that August 1st, 2018 would be written this way in these countries and

any other countries that actually decide to follow this ISO 8601 system.

It can not only be countries, it can also be some companies.

So always be aware and find out what your company suggests, and what they insist on

in terms of the date format.

Okay? You want to ask them about...

Use that term: "The date format".

Now, so even though, yeah, it's good if everybody followed that system it would make sense or

There are two other main systems, the American and the British.

So, just to review, the Americans put the month first, then the day, then the year,

whether the year is written in four digits or two, doesn't matter.

The British: Day, month, year.

So, August, this would be: "08-01-2018" if you're writing it in numbers, but as I said,

if you can avoid it at all do not write it in numbers.

Only write it in numbers if a form asks you for it.

Or if your company insists on it.

Rather than that, write it in words.

Now, usually in the States we write it like this: "August 1st, 2018", and why do we put the comma?

Because otherwise all these numbers can mixed up.

Right? So the comma is to separate the date from the year.

You could also write it this way: "August 1st" with the "st" for "1st", right?

Again, you need the comma, 2018.

And this, as I said, is followed in a few countries, like the USA, the Philippines,

usually in Canada also we follow this system.

There are some of our government forms which might ask for specific other formats, but

then they would say, you know: "D/M/Y" and so on.

If you're in Britain or if you're following the British system which is followed in lots

of countries, and lots of areas of the world, then you would go with day, month, year.

For example, so here would be the first of August, 2018.

They also write it in words slightly differently from the States.

They follow the same system, so they say...

And they say: "The first of August 2018."

Now, when you write the date like this you don't need to put the comma because there's

no confusion. Right?

There's a date here, there's a word, then there's a date, so there's no confusion, unlike here.

And if you want, you can also write the "st": "The 1st of August 2018."

Now, whether you write it this way or this way, it will be very clear to anybody who's

reading it anywhere in the world what that date is.

So, as I said, whenever possible, write it in words.

These are some of the parts of the world that actually follow this system, the UK, many

countries in Europe, many countries in Latin America, Australia, Russia, India, and so on.

It would be very interesting if you like, in fact, in the comments section of this video

to write your country and then put down how you write the date in your country,

which date format is followed.

If you're not sure, just check your computer.

Usually your computers have the date according to the system that's followed in that country.

So, I hope this lesson helped you a lot to clarify this issue or even to bring this issue

to your attention because maybe you weren't even aware of this difference; and yet,

I'm sure you understand now it can make such a difference, especially at work.

It can save your job, it can save your health, it can save your time, and it can save a lot of money,

and if you, god forbid, were to have ever used any medicines that were outdated,

it could even save your life.

So, I hope this lesson helped you.

If you found this lesson helpful please check out some of my other lessons on YouTube or on engVid,

and after that please go to our website at www.engvid.com to do a quiz on this

so you can really master it once and for all.

Thanks so much for watching.

Thanks for your patience.

You will be rewarded.