Learning English

Dates and ordinals

So far you've listened to 6 Minute English and practised spelling ordinal numbers. Now let's practise using dates correctly.

This is where Marcus comes in. He's a very disorganised man. He's always losing his diary and getting confused about dates. Which is bad for him - but good for us, because it lets us practise more ordinals!

We're going to read a short story about Marcus, then answer some questions. But first, let's review:

Remember

We often say dates with the and of:

• the eighth of April

But we can also say:

• April the eighth
• (And April eighth in American English)

But we don't write them like that. We write them as:

• 8th April
• April 8th
• 8 April
• (On the BBC website we use the last kind in news reports)

We usually use the definite article the with ordinal numbers:

• on the first evening
• The second time I tried sushi

But sometimes we use possessives:

• my seventieth birthday
• Bob's second car

Read the text and complete the activity

To do

Read Marcus' story and then answer the questions.

• Questions 1-3 will test spoken forms
• Questions 4-5 will test written forms of dates
• Questions 6 and 7 will look at ordinals with possessives

There will only be one possible correct answer each time.

Poor Marcus. Well, let's hope his bad memory means his wife gets more presents, not fewer!

Please note

Although you selected some different written forms in the test, we recommend you don't mix different forms in your essays or business communications. You should pick one form - and stick to it. Consistency is much more professional.

End of Session 1

And that's the end of the first session in this unit. We hope you enjoyed it, and that you now feel a bit more confident about using ordinals in English.