It’s common for people to ask you for a month and day, like today’s date, your birthday, a doctor’s appointment, and more. To answer those questions, you’ll need to know the months of the year in English. Learn their names, abbreviations, grammar rules, and tips to help you remember them all in order!
Table of Contents
What are the 12 months of the year in English?
If you speak any Germanic or Romance languages, many of these names of the months of the year in English may sound familiar to you!
| English | Pronunciation |
| January | JAN-yoo-er-ee |
| February | FEB-roo-er-ee/FEB-yoo-er-ee* |
| March | mahrch |
| April | EY-pruhl |
| May | mey |
| June | joon |
| July | juh-LAHY |
| August | aw-GUHST |
| September | sep-TEM-ber |
| October | ok-TOH-ber |
| November | noh-VEM-ber |
| December | dih-SEM-ber |
*Both pronunciations of February are correct.
Tips to correctly use the months of the year in English
Many countries and cultures around the world use the Gregorian calendar (the 12-month calendar that starts on January 1). That means some of the English grammar rules about using the months of the year may already be familiar to you! Remember these tips to write and say the months correctly.
The month names are capitalized in English
The names of the months are always capitalized in English. For example, that means January is never written with a lowercase “j” (january). You also won’t need to add any articles in English (a, an, and the).
- Correct: Summer starts in June.
- Incorrect: Summer starts in june.
- Incorrect: Summer starts in the June.
You can use abbreviations of the month names in English
Instead of writing out the entire month, you can write a shortened version called an abbreviation. When shortening the name, include a period at the end of the abbreviation. Just remember: Even the abbreviations for months are capitalized.
Some people (and style guides) only shorten the months with names that have more than five letters. Others abbreviate everything except for May, June, and July (because they’re already short). If you’re writing for school or for work, ask what rules you should follow.
| Month | Abbreviation |
| January | Jan. |
| February | Feb. |
| March | Mar. |
| April | Apr. |
| May | May (no abbreviation) |
| June | June (no abbreviation) |
| July | July (no abbreviation) |
| August | Aug. |
| September | Sept. |
| October | Oct. |
| November | Nov. |
| December | Dec. |
How to say the date with a month in English
Saying the date in English will also test your knowledge of numbers in English. You can ask for a specific date with these phrases:
- What’s the date today?
- What’s today’s date?
- What date is it?
The month is the easy part. Days of the month use ordinal numbers (like first, second, and third) rather than the usual numbers (like one, two, and three). All of these are correct ways to say May 1, but the top one is the most common:
- May first
- May the first
- the first of May
So, if someone asks you about today’s date, the conversation might sound like this:
- What’s the date today?
- The date is July fourteenth.
How to write the date in English
In some English-speaking countries, the month is always listed before the day. In American English, both of these styles are correct ways to write the first day of the year with the month spelled out:
- January 1
- January 1st
To add the year, add a comma (,) between the day and the year.
- January 1, 2025
- January 1st, 2025
In American English, you write the date with the month first, the day second, and the year last (month/day/year). However, British English switches the month and day to put the day first (day/month/year). So, to write May 1, 2025 in all numbers, it would look like:
- American English: 05/01/2025 or 5/1/25
- British English: 01/05/2025 or 1/5/25
How to use the English months of the year in a sentence
You can use English months to say the date, but you can also use them in other ways.
Months are nouns
The months in English are proper nouns, which means they always start with a capital letter and don’t need articles. You can use them in a sentence before or after a verb, just like other English nouns.
- October is the tenth month of the year.
- March was a bad month for the factory.
- My birthday is June seventh.
Using prepositions with months
Many prepositions in English can be used with months of the year. You can use any of these prepositions to talk about when something is happening in relation to a month.
| English Preposition | Use | Example |
| in | a specific month | It rains in February in Brazil. |
| on | a specific date (month and day) | We’re going to the mountains on February thirteenth. |
| every | the same month of the year for multiple years | I visit my family every January. |
| before | earlier than the month | The baby will be born before May. |
| after | later than the month | After August, I will be working at a new company. |
| since | starting in the month and still happening | She has lived in New York since March. |
| until | something will stop before that month | I’ll be in the United States until June fifteenth. |
Remember that at is not used with dates (but it is used with time in English).
Using adjectives with months
You can also use the adjectives next and last to specify when something happened.
Use next to describe the closest time a month happens in the future. For example, if it’s September, then next January would be four months from now.
- My friend is getting married next February.
Use last to describe the most recent time a month happened in the past. For example, if it’s July, then last March was four months ago.
- I graduated from college last May.
How to remember the months of the year in English
It can be a challenge to remember the English months in order if they don’t sound like the months in your native language. See if one of these tricks works for you!
Pick a holiday for each month in order
Try picking a holiday, event, or special date (like a birthday) that you know and learn those dates in English. If you can remember the order of those dates in your native language, it will help you remember their order in English.
For example:
- January: New Year’s Day (January 1)
- February: Valentine’s Day (February 14)
- March: St. Patrick’s Day (March 17)
- April: April Fools’ Day (April 1)
- May: Star Wars Day (May 4)
- June: Summer solstice (June 20 or 21 in the Northern Hemisphere)
- July: Bastille Day (July 14)
- August: Family member’s birthday
- September: Mexico Independence Day (September 16)
- October: Halloween (October 31)
- November: Friend’s anniversary
- December: New Year’s Eve (December 31)
Learn where the months got their names
The names for the English months of the year come from the calendar used by the Roman Empire. The names are based on a mix of mythology, Roman history and culture, and Latin words, which is why they are similar in many languages.
- January: named after Janus, the Roman god of doors
- February: named after Februa, a Roman festival
- March: named after Mars, the Roman god of war
- April: named for aperire, the Latin word for “to open”
- May: named after Maia, the mother of Hermes (a Greek god)
- June: named after Juno, the Roman goddess of marriage and childbirth
- July: named after Julius Caesar, a Roman general and politician
- August: named after Augustus, the first emperor of Rome
- September: named for septem, the Latin word for “seven”
- October: named for octō, the Latin word for “eight”
- November: named for novem, the Latin word for “nine”
- December: named for decem, the Latin word for “ten”
Why is September the ninth month if September comes from the Latin word for “seven”? Originally, the calendar only had 10 months. January and February were added later. Before they were added, September was the seventh month, October was the eighth month, and so on.
How to remember each month’s number of days in English
The month rhyme “Thirty Days Hath September” helps you remember which months have 30 days and which have 31 days. February, the second month, usually has 28 days. However, it has 29 days during a leap year, which happens every four years.
Hath is an old English word for has, so you could also say “Thirty Days Has September” in a more modern version of the poem. The exact lyrics have changed over several centuries, but this is one version:
“Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November.
All the rest have thirty-one,
Excepting February alone,
And that has twenty-eight days clear
And twenty-nine in each leap year.”
Study every month to achieve English fluency
There are only 12 months of the year in the English language, so you can master these words quickly as you learn to mark time in English. The best way to practice is to use them often. Switch your calendar to an English calendar, start writing the date in English, and ask your friends when their birthdays are! You can even make your own calendar (complete with the days of the week in English) to track your study schedule as you learn English.
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