A1 · Beginner

Numbers, Dates and Telling the Time in English (A1)

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Numbers, dates and clock times follow patterns English states nowhere else, and a beginner meets all three in the first week. This lesson gives you cardinal and ordinal numbers, the two ways to say a date, and both ways to tell the time.

Numbers, dates and clock times are the parts of English that a beginner meets on day one and that no amount of grammar study prepares them for. They follow their own patterns, those patterns are stated nowhere else in the language, and every one of them appears in the first real conversation you have: how old are you, when were you born, what time does it start, how much is it.

Some of the trouble is arithmetic disguised as language. Quarter to seven requires you to know that the clock reads 6:45, convert it, and produce the phrase, all inside the pause of a normal conversation. That is a real cognitive load, and it is why so many confident learners freeze on the time when they would not freeze on a tense. The remedy is to learn the digital form — six forty-five — as a fully acceptable answer, and to treat the traditional form as an upgrade rather than a requirement.

The rest is convention, and conventions differ. British English says the third of May and writes 3 May; American English says May third and writes May 3. Years split into halves up to 1999 and then behave differently for a decade. Ordinal numbers appear in dates and nowhere else in daily speech. None of it is difficult, but all of it has to be met explicitly, because it will not be inferred from exposure alone.

How to form Numbers, Dates and Telling the Time

The four patterns that cover almost every number you will say aloud.
Type	Pattern	Example
21-99	tens + hyphen + unit	twenty-one, forty-five, ninety-nine
Hundreds (UK)	hundred + and + rest	a hundred and twenty, six hundred and four
Ordinals	number + -th (with irregulars)	fourth, fifth, twelfth — but first, second, third
Years to 1999	two halves	1985 → nineteen eighty-five
Years 2000-2009	two thousand and…	2007 → two thousand and seven
Years from 2010	two halves again	2026 → twenty twenty-six
Time to :30	minutes + past + hour	7:20 → twenty past seven
Time after :30	minutes + to + next hour	7:50 → ten to eight

Numbers, Dates and Telling the Time: the key rules

Numbers from 21 to 99 join tens and units with a hyphen.

twenty-one, forty-five, seventy-eight
British English puts and before the tens in hundreds.

a hundred and twenty, three hundred and six
Dates use ordinal numbers, said with the even when written without it.

3 May → the third of May; 21 June → the twenty-first of June
Years up to 1999 are said in two halves; 2000-2009 use thousand.

1985 → nineteen eighty-five; 2007 → two thousand and seven; 2026 → twenty twenty-six
Clock times use past up to the half hour and to after it.

6:15 → quarter past six; 6:45 → quarter to seven; 6:30 → half past six

When to use Numbers, Dates and Telling the Time

Age

Stated with be, and the compound number takes a hyphen. Years old is optional.

I'm thirty-four. My son is six years old.
Prices

Pounds and pence, dollars and cents. The currency word is often dropped in speech.

It's four pounds fifty. That'll be nineteen ninety-nine.
Phone numbers

Said digit by digit, with double for a repeated pair and oh for zero.

07700 900461 → oh double seven hundred, nine hundred, four six one
Dates

Ordinals, with the and of in the spoken British form even when they are not written.

14 February → the fourteenth of February
Telling the time

Past and to for the traditional form; plain digits for the modern one. Both are correct.

9:15 → quarter past nine, or nine fifteen
Timetables and appointments

The 24-hour clock is read as two numbers, with hundred hours in formal announcements.

The train leaves at 18:40 — eighteen forty.

British and American dates

The same six characters mean two different days depending on which side of the Atlantic wrote them. This matters far beyond grammar: 03/04/2026 is a booking on a different date in each system.

British — day first

Written 3 April 2026 or 03/04/2026, and said the third of April.

The meeting is on the third of April.

American — month first

Written April 3, 2026 or 04/03/2026, and said April third.

The meeting is on April third.

Numbers, Dates and Telling the Time in example sentences

My grandmother is ninety-two years old.Hyphenated compound number, age with be.
The concert starts at half past seven.Half past, never half seven in careful English.
I was born on the twenty-first of March, nineteen ninety-eight.Ordinal for the day, two-half reading for the year.
It's a quarter to nine — we're going to be late.After the half hour, so to plus the next hour.
That comes to twelve pounds sixty, please.The pence word is dropped in everyday speech.
The shop opens at nine and closes at half past five.Two times in one sentence, both spoken forms.
There were about three hundred and fifty people there.British and between hundred and the rest.
Our flight is on the second of June at ten to six in the morning.Date and time together — the everyday combination.

Numbers, Dates and Telling the Time in a real conversation

Booking anything at all in English is mostly numbers. Read this one out loud rather than silently.

Clerk:Good morning. What date would you like to travel?

Mira:The seventeenth of September, if that's possible.

Clerk:There's a train at twenty past eight and another at ten to eleven.

Mira:The first one, please. How much is a return?

Clerk:Forty-three pounds fifty. Could I take a phone number?

Mira:Yes — oh seven double one, nine oh four, six two eight.

Common mistakes (and how to fix them)

I have twenty five years.

I am twenty-five years old.

Age uses be, and the compound number takes a hyphen.
It is half seven.

It is half past seven.

English needs past. Dropping it is a German pattern and shifts the meaning by an hour for anyone who knows that language.
in the 5 of March

on the fifth of March

Dates take on, and the day is an ordinal number.
I was born in 1990th.

I was born in 1990.

A year is a plain number; only the day of the month becomes an ordinal.

Practise Numbers, Dates and Telling the Time today

All of this is spoken language and none of it is learned by reading. Say every answer out loud.

Say these times two ways each: 6:15, 7:30, 9:45, 11:05, 2:50.
Write out the birthdays of five people you know, in the spoken British form.
Say these years aloud: 1969, 1988, 2001, 2014, 2026.
Say your phone number, your house number and your age in a single sentence.
Read yesterday's shopping receipt aloud, price by price.

Numbers, Dates and Telling the Time: frequently asked questions

How do you say the date in English?

In British English, use the plus the ordinal plus of plus the month: the fifth of November. It is normally written without the and of — 5 November — but both are said aloud. American English puts the month first and drops the of: November fifth, written November 5. Either is understood everywhere; be consistent, and be aware of the numeric ambiguity when writing 05/11 versus 11/05.

How do you say years in English?

Years up to 1999 split into two halves: 1984 is nineteen eighty-four, 1907 is nineteen oh seven. The years 2000 to 2009 use thousand: two thousand, two thousand and five. From 2010 onward both patterns are heard, with the split form now dominant: 2026 is usually twenty twenty-six, occasionally two thousand and twenty-six.

Is it 'half past six' or 'half six'?

Half past six is the standard form and always correct. Half six is common informal British speech and means the same thing. Be careful if you speak German, Dutch or a Scandinavian language, where the equivalent phrase means half an hour before six — that is, 5:30. The one-hour error this produces is a genuine source of missed appointments.

When do I use ordinal numbers?

Mainly for dates — the first of June, the twenty-third of October — and for order or ranking: he came second, the third floor, our fourth attempt. Everything else uses cardinal numbers, including years, ages, prices, phone numbers and quantities. The irregular ordinals worth memorising are first, second, third, fifth, eighth, ninth, twelfth and twentieth.

How do I say zero in English?

It depends on the context. In phone numbers it is oh: oh seven seven double oh. In sports scores it is nil in British English and zero or nothing in American: they lost two nil. In tennis it is love. In mathematics, temperatures and general counting it is zero: zero degrees, zero point five. Nought is also heard in British English for the digit itself.