Unit One, Lesson One
The Number Comma with
Dates
When used with dates, the number comma separates the day of a week from the month and the day of a month from the year.
This use of the number comma with dates is also referred to as the date comma. In standard American usage, complete date information is arranged as the day of the week, month, day of the month, and then the year:
Notice that the date comma has two uses, and they’re both connected to the days of a date:
1) the date comma separates the day of the week from the month:
2) and it separates the day of the month from the year:
Expanded
Insights
This Should Help You Memorize the Pattern:
Expanded
Insights
This Should Help You Memorize the Pattern:
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It helps to think of these different time references as distinct units:
Whenever a date uses more than one of these units side by side, a date comma separates them. And when more than one of these units appear side by side with other words after them in a sentence, a pair of date commas surround the final unit:
That’s it! These are the only uses of the date comma.
It’s simple: if you don’t use a day in the date, you don’t use the date comma. You never use it to separate the month from the year or the season from the year, not even when they occur in sentences with information after them:
Additionally, don’t use the date comma when determiners (such as a, the, every) or prepositions connect a date’s units together:
United Kingdom Standard English differs from American usage by placing the day of the month before the month:
Tuesday, 12 March 2019
That will be handy to know when you apply to Oxford U.
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