How to say dates in Russian?

The most basic way to say the date in Russian parallels the English structure: “the 3rd of November.”

However, in some cases the ordinal number that represents the date will be in the genitive case instead. In this post, we’ll talk a bit more about the grammar you’ll need to know to write about and talk about dates in Russian. By the end you’ll be ready to answer the questions below:

Let’s have a closer look!

In Russian, you can say the day, month, and year using the basic formula below:

Some more notes on the above examples:

• Russian ordinal numbers (words like “first,” “fifth,” or “seventeenth”) can come in different cases and genders. When giving the date, you will always use the neuter form, but you will need to use different cases.

• In Russian, we say the year just like any other ordinal number. So don’t say “1957” as “nineteen fifty-seven(th),” say it as “one thousand nine hundred and fifty-seventh.”

• To make it easier for you to say dates in Russian, you’ll find most of the necessary numbers and words in the Russian months and dates table at the bottom of the page!

The phrase you will need to ask about the date in Russian is the following.

When you answer this question, the ordinal number representing the day of the month will be nominative neuter. This is because the word число (meaning number/date) is neuter in Russian, and we are technically talking about the “Xth day” of a month.

So, for example, you might ask:

If we all already know the month, you can leave out the name of the month.

In this context, you can optionally include число (transcribed chisLO, meaning “number/date”), in the nominative case. This follows the ordinal number for the day.

The questions below are used to ask “when” or “on what date” something happened (or will happen) in Russian.

• Когда?

  Transcription: kagDA

  Translation: When?
• genitive case

  Какого числа?

  Transcription: kaKOva chisLA

  Translation: (On) which date?

To answer either of these questions, you need to use genitive neuter for the ordinal number. This means that you’ll use the genitive for every word in the date! For example:

• genitive case

  Speaker A:

  Какого числа ты уезжаешь?

  Transcription: kaKOva chisLA ty ooyeZHAyesh?

  Translation: What date are you leaving?

  Speaker B:

  Второго сентября.

  Transcription: ftaROva sentyabRYA

  Translation: September the 2nd.
• genitive case

  Speaker A:

  Когда произошёл запуск первого спутника?

  Transcription: kagDA praizaSHOL ZApoosk PYERvava SPOOTnika?

  Translation: When did the launch of the first satellite (sputnik) happen?

  Speaker B:

  4-го октября 1957-го года.

  Transcription: chitVYORtava aktibRYA TYsicha diviTSOT pidiSYAT sidMOva GOda

  Translation: On October 4th, 1957.

If a date is used after a preposition that requires another case (like dative, accusative, or instrumental), then the ordinal number for the day of the month will take on the case required by the preposition.

However, all of the other words in the date (the month, the year, etc.) will still be genitive. For example:

• prepositiondative casegenitive case

  Мы вернемся к шестому апреля.

  Transcription: my virNYOMsja k shistOmoo apRYElya

  Translation: We will be back by April 6th.

  The preposition к (transcribed k, meaning “by”) requires the dative case.
• prepositionaccusative casegenitive case

  Я записалась к зубному на двенадцатое июня.

  Transcription: ya zapiSAlas g zoobNOmoo na dviNAtsataye iYOOnya

  Translation: I made an appointment with the dentist for June 12th.

  The preposition на (transcribed na, meaning “for”) requires the accusative case.

When writing dates in Russian, we always use the order date + month + year, even when writing the date using numbers.

This means that, unlike in American English, the number for the day of the month is always given before the number of the month:

Also, as you can see in the example above, dots are more common than slashes when it comes to writing dates using numbers.

Here are some examples of different ways to write the same date in Russian.

All in all, the genitive case is practically unavoidable when you are saying dates in Russian. You need it when:

• answering the question, “what is today’s date?”

• asking and answering the question, “when? / on which date?”

It’s also important to know how Russians write dates because it is different from how it’s done in English.

Ready to practice saying dates in Russian? Practice your new skills with the exercises on the genitive case with dates in Russian, given below.