Saying the Date

Level 2

To say when something happens, put the ordinal and the month in the genitive, with no preposition: prvého mája (on the first of May), desiateho júna (on the tenth of June).

How It Works

The pattern. Ordinal in the genitive + month in the genitive, with no preposition: Prišiel prvého marca. (He came on the first of March.) The word deň (day) is understood, which is why the ordinal has a masculine ending.

Month forms. januára, februára, marca, apríla, mája, júna, júla, augusta, septembra, októbra, novembra, decembra. These are the genitive singular forms of the month names.

Ordinal forms. Hard ordinals end in -ého: prvého, druhého, piateho, desiateho, dvadsiateho. The soft ordinal tretí ends in -ieho: tretieho. In a compound both parts change: dvadsiateho prvého, tridsiateho prvého. See ordinal numbers.

Asking and naming the date. Koľkého je dnes? asks the date, and the answer uses the genitive: Dnes je prvého mája. You can also name the date in the nominative: Aký je dnes dátum? Dnes je prvý máj. A date as a subject or heading is nominative: 1. máj je sviatok. (May the first is a holiday.)

Writing. Put a period after each ordinal figure and leave spaces: 1. mája or 1. 5. When the month is a word, do not write a leading zero: 8. mája 1999. In an all-number date, both 8. 5. 1999 and 08. 05. 1999 are correct. When you read 1. mája aloud, you say prvého mája.

The year. A year at the end is usually read as a counting number: desiateho júna dvetisíc desať. Formal speech sometimes uses a genitive ordinal instead. For the year on its own use v roku, as in hundreds, thousands and years. For a whole month use v máji, and for a weekday use v pondelok.

Examples (6)

  1. Narodil som sa desiateho júna.

    I was born on the tenth of June.

    Word by Word: I-was-born tenth of-June.

  2. Koľkého je dnes?

    What's the date today?

    Word by Word: Of-how-manyth is today?

  3. Dnes je dvadsiateho štvrtého septembra.

    Today is the twenty-fourth of September.

    Word by Word: Today is twentieth fourth of-September.

    Both parts of the compound ordinal are in the genitive.

  4. Škola sa začína druhého septembra.

    School starts on the second of September.

    Word by Word: School starts second of-September.

  5. Stretneme sa tretieho januára.

    We'll meet on the third of January.

    Word by Word: We-meet third of-January.

    Tretí is soft, so its genitive is tretieho.

  6. Zmluvu podpísali 15. marca 2024.

    They signed the contract on 15 March 2024.

    Word by Word: Contract they-signed 15th of-March 2024.

    Read: pätnásteho marca dvetisíc dvadsaťštyri.

Common Mistakes

  • Adding the preposition v, as with days of the week.

    Narodil som sa v desiaty jún.
    Narodil som sa desiateho júna.

    V + accusative is for days of the week (v pondelok). A date uses the bare genitive with no preposition.

  • Leaving the month in the nominative.

    Prídem prvého máj.
    Prídem prvého mája.

    Both words are in the genitive, so máj becomes mája.

  • Giving tretí a hard ending.

    Stretneme sa tretého apríla.
    Stretneme sa tretieho apríla.

    Tretí is a soft adjective like cudzí, so its genitive is tretieho.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Saying the DateLevel 2

Learn This First

Before Saying the Date, learn First, Second and Third and Genitive Singular Endings. Dates use ordinal numbers. The day and month appear in the genitive: piateho mája.