How to read and write the Date and the Time?

How to read and write the Date and the Time?

 

1.  Dates:-
               We may write either 27 July, July 27, or July 27^th. The first method is preferable. They are read as follows.

Written	Read
27 July	The twenty-seventh of July.
July 27	July twenty-seven (or the twenty-seventh).
July 27th	July the twenty-seventh.

 
For days number 1 to 9 the second method is less used.
For years the following points should be noted.
·      For dates 1000 and later the number is read as so many hundred. 1700= seventeen hundred (not one thousand, seven hundred).
·      When the hundreds are followed by the figures 01 to 09, the usual method is reading or speaking is to insert the word hundred. Thus 1703 is read as seventeen hundred and three (not as seventeen three).
·      When the hundreds are followed by a number denoting ten or more, the word hundred may also be inserted in reading, but the general tendency is to omit it. 1066=ten sixty-six, 1815=eighteen fifteen, 1914=nineteen fourteen.
 
The following table gives some examples.
 

Written	Read
1100	Eleven hundred
1900	Nineteen hundred
1608	Sixteen hundred and eight
1904	Nineteen hundred and four
1215	Twelve fifteen
1984	Nineteen eighty-four

 
  Dates are sometimes written merely as three numbers separated by oblique strokes: 03/09/2010. This method is not recommended except in special cases (on forms that are specially ruled for it). One difficulty is that British practice differs from American in this matter. The former uses the order day-month-year, the later month-day-year. Thus to British person 05/08/2010 means August 5^th, 2010; to an American it means May 8^th, 2010.
 
 
 
2.The Time:-
 
There are two methods of expressing the time. They are as follows.
·      By figures: 4.03, 5.30, 9.35.  This is the method used in time-tables and official notices. The minutes are always given in relation to the previous hour. Thus any time between six and seven is six-something (6.15, 6.30, 6.45).
 
·      The conversational method, in which words are used: half past ten, five past two, ten to three. In this method the minutes up to thirty are expressed in relation to the preceding hour, as so many past that hour; those from thirty onwards are related to the next hour, and expressed as so many minutes to that hour (i.e., short of it). Thus in ordinary speech 1.50 would be ten minutes to two, and 7.43 would be seventeen minutes to eight.
 
Fifteen minutes past the hour is always called ‘quarter past’, and thirty minutes past is ‘half past’. Forty-five minutes past a particular hour is quarter to the next hour. For five, ten, twenty and twenty-five minutes (either past or to an hour), the actual word minutes may be omitted (and usually is), but for others it must be inserted. The exact hour is expressed by using the words o’clock (short for of the clock) after the number: eleven o’clock. But the words o’clock are never used when a statement of minutes precedes the hour: five past eleven, not five past eleven o’clock.
 
  Midnight may be used in spoken English to indicate the hour: we did not get home until midnight; but noon is not generally used for this purpose. We should say I will meet you at twelve o’clock. Not I will meet you at noon.
 
 A.M. and P.M.  In the more formal method (a) times between 12 midnight 12 noon are denoted by the initials a.m. (abbreviations of the Latin words ante meridiem = before midday), and those from 12 noon to the following midnight by p.m. (post meridiem = after midday). But in ordinary spoken English these are not generally used. Instead we indicate the part of the day: half past ten in the morning, half past ten at night, three o’clock in the afternoon. Midnight is often spoken of as twelve o’clock at night.
 
Probably you may find the following table useful.
 

Figures	Read	Conventional   Form
10.00	Ten o’clock	Ten o’clock
10.03	Ten three	Three minutes past ten
10.05	Ten five	Five (minutes) past ten
10.15	Ten fifteen	Quarter past ten
10.25	Ten twenty-five	Twenty-five (minutes) past ten, or five and twenty past ten
10.30	Ten thirty	Half past ten
10.35	Ten thirty-five	Twenty-five (minutes) to eleven, or five and twenty to eleven.
10.40	Ten forty	Twenty (minutes) to eleven
10.45	Ten forty-five	Quarter to eleven
10.55	Ten fifty-five	Five (minutes) to eleven
10.57	Ten fifty-seven	Three minutes to twelve
11.00	Eleven o’clock	Eleven o’clock