# Writing out and reading out today's date



## ger4

Hello,

This earlier thread is about how to read out years in different languages. In addition to that, it would be interesting to learn how you write out and read out today's date in your language, or in any other language you speak...

----
These are some of the options we have in German: 

"Heute ist der 7.4.2015." 
"Heute ist der 7. April 2015."
"Heute haben wir den 7.4.2015."
"Heute haben wir den 7. April 2015."
"Wir haben heute den 7.4.2015."
"Wir haben heute den 7. April 2015."

- heute : today
- ist : is
- der : the [definite article, nominative]
- siebte : 7th [ordinal number, nominative]
- vierte : 4th [ordinal number, nominative]
- haben wir / wir haben : we have
- den : the [definite article, accusative]
- siebten : 7th [ordinal number, accusative]
- vierten : 4th [ordinal number, accusative]
- April : April [nominative = accusative]
- zwei- : two [cardinal number]
- tausend- : thousand [cardinal number] 
- fünfzehn : fifteen [cardinal number]
----

Thank you

----
Edit: There is a very interesting thread on the topic of months and days of the week >> [languages including Swahili #37, Lao #38, Somali #52, Xhosa #54, Malagasy #58, ...]


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## apmoy70

Greek:


1/ *«Σήμερα είναι 7/4/2015»* [ˈsimeɾa ˈine eˈfta (or [eˈpta]) teˈtartu ˈðio çiʎaðes ðekaˈpende] = Today is seven of-fourth two thousand fifteen
2/ *«Σήμερα είναι 7 Απριλίου 2015»* [ˈsimeɾa ˈine eˈfta (or [eˈpta]) apriˈli.u ˈðio çiʎaðes ðekaˈpende] = Today is seven of-April two thousand fifteen
3/ *«Σήμερα είναι η εβδόμη Απριλίου 2015»* [ˈsimeɾa ˈine i evˈðomi apriˈli.u ˈðio çiʎaðes ðekaˈpende] = Today is the seventh of-April two thousand fifteen


1/ «Σήμερα» [ˈsimeɾa] (adv.): today
    «είναι» [ˈine] (verb): is
    «εφτά» or «επτά» [eˈfta] or [eˈpta] (cardinal nr. the latter is formal): seven
    «τετάρτου» [teˈtartu] (ordinal masc. gen.): of-fourth
    «δύο χιλιάδες δεκαπέντε» [ˈðio çiʎaðes ðekaˈpende] (cardinal): two thousand fifteen


2/ «Σήμερα» [ˈsimeɾa] (adv.): today 
    «είναι» [ˈine] (verb): is
    «εφτά» or «επτά» [eˈfta] or [eˈpta] (cardinal nr. the latter is formal): seven
    «Απριλίου» [apriˈli.u] (masc. gen.): of-April
    «δύο χιλιάδες δεκαπέντε» [ˈðio çiʎaðes ðekaˈpende] (cardinal): two thousand fifteen


3/ «Σήμερα» [ˈsimeɾa] (adv.): today 
    «είναι» [ˈine] (verb): is
    «η» _ (fem. definite article nom.): the
    «εβδόμη» [evˈðomi] (ordinal fem. nom.): seventh
    «Απριλίου» [apriˈli.u] (masc. gen.): of-April
    «δύο χιλιάδες δεκαπέντε» [ˈðio çiʎaðes ðekaˈpende] (cardinal): two thousand fifteen  
(1) and (2) are what we use in every-day speech, (3) is more formal and used mostly in formally written reports or contracts._


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## DearPrudence

In *French*:
*(Aujourd'hui,) nous sommes le (mardi) 7 avril 2015 *| (more colloquial)*(Aujourd'hui,) on est le (mardi) 7 avril 2015*
*(le) (mardi) 7 avril 2015* (in writing, on a blackboard, a letter,...)
*07/04/2015* (in writing, when writing cheques particularly)

aujourd'hui : _today_
nous sommes | on est : we are [that's why "aujourd'hui" (today) is not compulsory in French, since the phrase "nous sommes le..." immediately makes it clear what we're talking about]
le : _the_
mardi : _Tuesday _[never capitalized in French]
sept : _seven_[cardinal number]
avril : _April _[never capitalized in French]
2015 / deux mille quinze : _two thousand fifteen_


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## Encolpius

Interesting and very useful thread...and I am still fascinated Germans and Czechs "have" a date and French "they are", in Hungarian only "there is" 

*Hungarian *- Ma 2015. április 8-a van. [ma - today, van - there is, Ge.: es gibt...]

2015 = kétezer-tizenöt
8-a = nyolcadika

Of course you all know we as Asians use the year-month-day rule...


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## 810senior

In Japanese, we would say it this way:

今日はA年B月C日です。
kyou wa A nen B gatsu C nichi desu.

Vocabulary:
kyou: today
wa: topic marker
nen: year(s)
gatsu: month(s)
nichi: day(s)

For today's date, we would say "今日は*2015年4月8日*です。" _kyou wa nisenzyuugo nen shigatsu youka desu._


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## Armas

Finnish

Tänään on 9.4.2015 or 9. huhtikuuta 2015.

Tänään on yhdeksäs huhtikuuta kaksituhattaviisitoista.
tänään = today
on = is
yhdeksäs = 9th, nominative ordinal
huhtikuuta = April, partitive
kaksituhattaviisitoista = 2015, nominative cardinal

Tänään on yhdeksäs neljättä kaksituhattaviisitoista.
neljättä = 4th, partitive

Tänään on huhtikuun yhdeksäs kaksituhattaviisitoista.
huhtikuun = April, genitive


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## rusita preciosa

Russian:
*сегодня 7 апреля 2015 года
сегодня седьмое апреля две тысячи пятнадцатого года
*
сегодня /segodnya/- today 
[no verb; the verb "is" is omitted but understood]
седьмое /sed'moye/ - seventh
апреля /aprelya/ - April (in genitive)
две тысячи пятнадцатого /dvie tysyachi piatnadtsatogo /- 2015 (in genitive)
года /goda/ - year (in genitive)


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## ger4

Many thanks for all the replies, especially for the word-word-by-word translations, vocabulary explanations etc...


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## Saluton

rusita preciosa said:


> две тысячи девятьсот пятнадцатого


Philadelphia's affected you, I can see...


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## elfinitty

Bugün 10.04.2015
Bugün 10 Nisan 2015

Bugün means Today
On=Ten
Dört=Four
Nisan=April
İki bin on beş=Two thousand fifteen


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## luitzen

West-Frisian:
Hjoed is it 10 april 2015.
It is hjoed 10 april 2015.
Hjoed is it de 10e (fan april 2015).
It is hjoed de 10e (fan april 2015).

hjoed = today
fan = of


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## ger4

Interesting to see that with the exception of Japanese and Hungarian most languages mentioned so far follow the day-month-year order.

In Latvian the format is often (always?) year-day-month: 

2015. g. 12. aprīlis
_Šodien ir divtūkstoš piecpadsmitā gada divpadsmitais aprīlis
_
_šodien_  today  lit. this day
_ir_  is 
_divtūkstoš piecpadsmitā_  of the 2015th  ordinal number, genitive
_gada  _year's  genitive 
_divpadsmitais_  12th  ordinal number, nominative 
_aprīlis_  April  nominative


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## AutumnOwl

_*Swedish:* 
I dag är det den 12 april 2015.
I dag har vi den 12 april 2015._

I dag (or Idag) - Today
är - is
det - it
den - the 
12 - twelfth
apri - April
2015 - either two thousand fifteen or twenty hundred fifteen or twenty fifteen

har - have
vi - we


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## ThomasK

Dutch: _*vandaag *_(today)_* is het dertien april 2015*_ (tweeduizend vijftien/ 1915 = negentien(honderd) vijftien)


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## Encolpius

elfinitty said:


> Bugün 10.04.2015
> Bugün 10 Nisan 2015
> 
> Bugün means Today
> On=Ten
> Dört=Four
> Nisan=April
> İki bin on beş=Two thousand fifteen



Welle, there is no verb in Russian, either, but actually the date is in partitive or genitive or what you call it in Russian so I do understand it...
Is there no verb in Turkish either?


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## ger4

luitzen said:


> West-Frisian:
> Hjoed is it 10 april 2015.
> It is hjoed 10 april 2015.
> Hjoed is it de 10e (fan april 2015).
> It is hjoed de 10e (fan april 2015).
> 
> hjoed = today
> fan = of





AutumnOwl said:


> _*Swedish:*
> I dag är det den 12 april 2015.
> I dag har vi den 12 april 2015._
> 
> I dag (or Idag) - Today
> är - is
> det - it
> den - the
> 12 - twelfth
> april - April
> 2015 - either two thousand fifteen or twenty hundred fifteen or twenty fifteen
> 
> har - have
> vi - we





ThomasK said:


> Dutch: _*vandaag *_(today)_* is het dertien april 2015*_ (tweeduizend vijftien/ 1915 = negentien(honderd) vijftien)


Interesting that Frisian, Swedish and Dutch use an additional pronoun here. Would it be grammatically incorrect to omit ... it ? 


ilocas2 said:


> Czech (ordered by frequency)
> 
> today - is - thirteenth (genitive) - April (genitive) - two thousands fifteen
> 
> today - is - thirteenth (genitive) - fourth (nominative) - two thousands fifteen
> 
> today - is - thirteenth (nominative) - April (nominative) - two thousands fifteen
> 
> today - we have - thirteenth (genitive) - April (genitive) - two thousands fifteen
> 
> today - we have - thirteenth (genitive) - fourth (nominative) - two thousands fifteen
> 
> today - we have - thirteenth (nominative) - April (nominative) - two thousands fifteen
> 
> For better clarity and transparentness I wrote only English translations.


Thanks a lot. Trying to do the same with regard to German (N=nominative, A=accusative):

today - is - the N - thirteenth N - April N - two thousand fifteen

today - is - the N - thirteenth N - fourth N - two thousand fifteen

today - have - we - the A - thirteenth A - April A - two thousand fifteen

today - have - we - the A - thirteenth A - fourth A - two thousand fifteen


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## Encolpius

*Chinese *--- *今天是二千零一十五年四月十三号/日。 [jīntiān shì èrèrqiān  líng yīshíwǔ nián sì yuè shí sān hào/rì.] [today is 2015 year 4 month 13 ]

*


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## ger4

Many thanks! 


810senior said:


> In Japanese, we would say it this way:
> 
> *今日はA年B月C日です。*
> *kyou wa A nen B gatsu C nichi desu.
> *
> Vocabulary:
> kyou: today
> wa: topic marker
> nen: year(s)
> gatsu: month(s)
> nichi: day(s)





Encolpius said:


> *Chinese *--- *今天是A**年B**月C**号。 [jīntiān shì A** nián B** yuè C** hào.] [today is A** year B** month C** ]
> *


 I added colours to the Japanese version and replaced the date with A / B / C in the Chinese version trying to compare the basic patterns - hope that's alright... 

>> Two more links to the other thread listing the days of the week and months of the year in Japanese [next to Korean] and Chinese


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## Encolpius

Holger, you asked me waht 号 hào is. It's used in spoken language, in written language you can use 日as well just like Japanese. 
The same situation is in Czech...
Dnes je dne.... [dnes today, je - is, dne - genitive of den day]
Dnes je... [so you can skip the word day]


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## 810senior

To add some things to Japanese, we have different names from 1st to 10th for day, for example, when you mention the first of the month, you can't say _ichinichi_(ichi=1, nichi=day, lit.one day) but _tsuitachi_(first day).

Below is list of day names:
1st tsuitachi
2nd futsuka
3rd mikka
4th yokka
5th itsuka
6th muika
7th nanoka
8th youka
9th kokonoka
10th tooka
*exception 20th hatsuka

I don't know why we call them in a more complicated way...


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## ger4

Thanks for these explanations. Now it's easier to understand why the 8th is translated as _youka_... 


810senior said:


> For today's date, we would say "今日は*2015年4月8日*です。" _kyou wa nisenzyuugo nen shigatsu youka desu._


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## luitzen

Holger2014 said:


> Interesting that Frisian, Swedish and Dutch use an additional pronoun here. Would it be grammatically incorrect to omit ... it ?


You could leave _it_ out, but it sounds a bit weird, though I'm not sure it's grammatically incorrect.


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## Outsider

Portuguese:

7/4/2015 = sete de abril de dois mil e quinze

"Hoje são 7 de abril de 2015."
"Estamos a 7 de abril de 2015."

_hoje:_ today
_são_: are
_de:_ of
_abril_: April
_estamos_: we are
_a_: at


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## Dymn

I've been waiting for this day for many weeks 

*Catalan:*
_Avui és 29 de febrer de 2016 _("Today is 29 of February of 2016")
_Avui som 29 de febrer de 2016 _("Today we are 29 of February of 2016")

*Spanish:*
_Hoy es 29 de febrero de 2016 _("Today is 29 of February of 2016")
_Estamos a 29 de febrero de 2016 _("We are at 29 of February of 2016")


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## ger4

Gràcies, now February 29th has been documented 

I'll try to make some kind of a summary, beginning with the introductions used:

- "Today (it) is...." : German, Greek, Hungarian, Japanese*, Finnish, West Frisian, Latvian, Swedish, Dutch, Chinese*, Catalan, Spanish
- "Today we have... ": German, Swedish, Czech
- "Today we are..." : French, Portuguese, Catalan, Spanish.
- "Today are..." : Portuguese
- "Today..." (no verb): Russian, Turkish

* I guess です 'desu' and 是 'shi' aren't exactly the same as 'it is' in European languages but here they seem to have a similar function

As for the order of the date:
- day-month-year seems to be used in most European languages
- year-day-month in Latvian
- year-month-day in Hungarian, Chinese, Japanese

Grammatically, the day appears as...
- an ordinal number in German, Greek (formal), Hungarian (?), Finnish, Russian, West Frisian, Latvian, Swedish, Czech
- a cardinal number in Greek, French, Turkish, Dutch, Portuguese, Catalan, Spanish
- a special set of numbers up to ten as well as 20 in Japanese
- a combination of cardinal number + 号 'hào' in Chinese

The month, when expressed as a number, appears as...
- an ordinal number in German, Greek, Finnish, Swedish, Czech

The year is...
- an ordinal number in Russian, Czech (Slavic languages in general?) and Latvian
- a cardinal number in most other languages


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## Messquito

Encolpius said:


> *Chinese *--- *今天是二千零一十五年四月十三号/日。 [jīntiān shì lqiān  líng yīshíwǔ nián sì yuè shí sān hào/rì.] [today is 2015 year 4 month 13 ]*


Actually, we don't usually say *二千零一十五年(or 兩千零一十五年, we don't use 二 before 千, we use 兩 instead)*, which is quite weird to my ears. Even in a formal context, people tend to say *二零一五年(èr líng yī wǔ nián)* instead. We simply read the digits in order.
And in an informal context *號(号)/日* can be dropped.


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## Encolpius

Hello, Messquito, what if those characters are used in Mainland Chinese?


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## Uriel-

If I see 3/22/16 or March 22, 2016, I mentally think: March twenty-second, two thousand sixteen.


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## Nawaq

To add for* French*, where I am, it's not uncommon to hear, colloquially and maybe lazily "c'est le combien (aujourd'hui) ?" (literally, it is the how much) and the answer could be "c'est le... (aujourd'hui)" (it is the...). But only spoken, you wouldn't write that on a blackboard.


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## ger4

^ Interesting, that reminds me of a thread called  Asking the Value of Ordinal Numbers / whichth? / how manyeth?

In German there is a similar construction which is frequently used and accepted as grammatically correct:
_wieviel_ - "how much" = "how many"
_der wievielte -_ literally "the howmanyeth"
_--> Der wievielte ist heute?_ - lit. "the how-manyeth is today?"
--> _Den wievielten haben wir heute?_ - lit. "the how-manyeth do we have today?"

(Perhaps not quite the same as in French - we use ordinal, not cardinal numbers for the date)


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## merquiades

I have been trying to think of a colorful expression in English for asking the date but really the only thing I can come up with is

What's the date (today)?  What's today's date?  Can you tell me the date?
What day is today?  What date is today?  What day/ date is it?

Oral
Today/It is Friday the 25th of March 2016
Today/It is Friday March 25th 2016
(Twenty-fifth, always ordinal)
(Twenty-sixteen or Two thousand sixteen)  The latter strikes me as more formal.

Written
Today is Friday, 25 March 2016
Today is Friday, March 25, 2016
It is interesting to note that the written version does not coincide with what is said.  The article and preposition are omitted, and we write cardinal but say ordinal.  Months and Days are capitalized.


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## Sardokan1.0

*Sardinian*

*Cantu 'nd hamus hoe? - *How-manyeth have we today?
*Hoe est su 27 (vintisette) de Martu de su 2016 (duamiza e séighi)* *- *Today is the 27 of March of 2016
*Hoe 'nd hamus 27 de Martu de su 2016 -* Today we have 27 of March of 2016
*Ite die est hoe?* *- *What day is today?
*Hoe est Dominica - *Today is Sunday
*Hoe semus in Dominica - *Today we are in Sunday


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## twinklestar

Encolpius said:


> *Chinese *--- *今天是二千零一十五年四月十三号/日。 [jīntiān shì èrèrqiān  líng yīshíwǔ nián sì yuè shí sān hào/rì.] [today is 2015 year 4 month 13 ]
> *





Messquito said:


> Actually, we don't usually say *二千零一十五年(or 兩千零一十五年, we don't use 二 before 千, we use 兩 instead)*, which is quite weird to my ears. Even in a formal context, people tend to say *二零一五年(èr líng yī wǔ nián)* instead. We simply read the digits in order.
> And in an informal context *號(号)/日* can be dropped.


Yes, I agree with Messquito.


Encolpius said:


> Hello, Messquito, what if those characters are used in Mainland Chinese?


Same in the mainland of China.


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## ger4

Thanks for all the additional replies! Interesting that in Sardinian you can also use the verb 'to have', in contrast to the other Romance languages that have been mentioned:


Sardokan1.0 said:


> *Cantu 'nd hamus hoe? - *How-manyeth have we today?
> *Hoe 'nd hamus 27 de Martu de su 2016 -* Today we have 27 of March of 2016


An updated summary:

_Today (it) is_... : German, Greek, Hungarian, Japanese, Finnish, West Frisian, Latvian, Swedish, Dutch, Chinese, Catalan, Spanish, English, Sardinian
_Today we have_...: German, Swedish, Czech, Sardinian
_Today we are_... : French, Portuguese, Catalan, Spanish
_Today are_... : Portuguese
_Today_... (no verb): Russian, Turkish
Grammatically, the day appears as...

an ordinal number* in German, Greek (formal), Hungarian (?), Finnish, Russian, West Frisian, Latvian, Swedish, Czech, English
a cardinal number in Greek, French, Turkish, Dutch, Portuguese, Catalan, Spanish
a special set of numbers up to ten as well as 20 in Japanese
a combination of cardinal number + 号 / 日 in Chinese**
* not always marked as an ordinal number in many languages (e.g. English)
** can be dropped in informal speech

The year is...

an ordinal number in Russian, Czech (Slavic languages in general?) and Latvian
a cardinal number in most other languages
(Corrections and additions welcome)


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## apmoy70

Holger2014 said:


> Thanks for all the additional replies! Interesting that in Sardinian you can also use the verb 'to have', in contrast to the other Romance languages that have been mentioned:
> An updated summary:
> 
> _Today (it) is_... : German, Greek, Hungarian, Japanese, Finnish, West Frisian, Latvian, Swedish, Dutch, Chinese, Catalan, Spanish, English, Sardinian
> _Today we have_...: German, Swedish, Czech, Sardinian
> _Today we are_... : French, Portuguese, Catalan, Spanish
> _Today are_... : Portuguese
> _Today_... (no verb): Russian, Turkish
> Grammatically, the day appears as...
> 
> an ordinal number* in German, Greek (formal), Hungarian (?), Finnish, Russian, West Frisian, Latvian, Swedish, Czech, English
> a cardinal number in Greek, French, Turkish, Dutch, Portuguese, Catalan, Spanish
> a special set of numbers up to ten as well as 20 in Japanese
> a combination of cardinal number + 号 / 日 in Chinese**
> * not always marked as an ordinal number in many languages (e.g. English)
> ** can be dropped in informal speech
> 
> The year is...
> 
> an ordinal number in Russian, Czech (Slavic languages in general?) and Latvian
> a cardinal number in most other languages
> (Corrections and additions welcome)


Colloquially in Greek one could say *«σήμερα έχουμε...»* [ˈsimeɾa ˈexume] --> _today we have_ + option (1) or (2)

*«Έχουμε»* [ˈexume] is 1st p. pl. Present indicative of the verb *«έχω»* [ˈexo] --> _to have, possess_


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## merquiades

The Sardinian structure for asking the date is also possible in Italian.
*Cantu 'nd hamus hoe?*

Quanti ne abbiamo oggi?

How many of them do we have today?


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## Sardokan1.0

merquiades said:


> The Sardinian structure for asking the date is also possible in Italian.
> *Cantu 'nd hamus hoe?*
> 
> Quanti ne abbiamo oggi?
> 
> How many of them do we have today?



Yes, also in Italian "Quanto ne abbiamo oggi?"

Oggi ne abbiamo 30 Marzo
Oggi è il 30 Marzo
Oggi è il 30 di Marzo


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## Encolpius

Sardokan1.0 said:


> Yes, also in Italian "Quanto ne abbiamo oggi?"
> Oggi ne abbiamo 30 Marzo


Interesting. 
Do you find it standard Italian? Is that not regional?


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## Sardokan1.0

Encolpius said:


> Interesting.
> Do you find it standard Italian? Is that not regional?



I think it's standard Italian, but I'm not sure 100%, perhaps I heard it sometimes on tv, but usually it's pronounced without specifying the month

Quanto ne abbiamo oggi?
Oggi ne abbiamo 30

Che giorno è oggi?
Oggi è il 30 di Marzo
Oggi è il 30 Marzo
Oggi è Mercoledì

in Sardinian works more or less in the same way

Cantu 'nd hamus hoe?
Hoe 'nd hamus 30 (trinta)

Ite die est hoe?
Hoe est su 30 de Martu (in Italian "di" can also be omitted, in Sardinian it's always used)
Hoe est Mércuris


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