I’m french and I’m learning english and I ??? would like to know how to pronounce in phonetics this date:january 22nd 2003.

Thanks for the answer.

Bonjour!  Bienvenue chez Agora!

I wish I could write French as well as you write English.  I get lost quickly without a dictionary and a grammar book.

Click on each highlighted word to hear it pronounced by the online American Heritage Dictionary.  It’s the best I can do on short notice since I don’t have a microphone at this PC.

January twenty second,  two thousand three.

Sometimes people might pronouce "2003" as "two thousand and three," sometimes slurring the "and" to an "an," "en," or "n" sound.  One might also hear it as "twenty oh three," but not very often that I’m aware of.  Then again, you might frequently hear someone drop the "d" in "thousand" to avoid stopping before pronouncing "three."

"Second" might also be pronounced "sek int," with the "d" becoming slightly nasalized with a very short "t" at the end.  

This is, of course, an American pronounciation.  We’ll have to see if anyone from England or what was once the Empire has anything to contribute.  

À bientôt!

Amitiés//Laurent

January twenty-second, two-thousand and three.

Thanks so much to stargzer and agoraphile and see you soon on the internet.

Hope I’m not being too picky but in Britain we would say "the twenty-second of January, two thousand and three."

all right!I’ll use either the  american version or the brittish version according to my mood.

[quote author=JohnRastall link=board=spell;num=1043254194;start=0#4 date=01/24/03 at 14:42:43]Hope I’m not being too picky but in Britain we would say "the twenty-second of January, two thousand and three."

Would you really read it that way?  What mjduduf wrote was specific.  I realize the dates are written with the date-month-year in the U.K., but would a date written in the American format be read with a British format by someone from the U.K.?

So what you mean tcward,is that if i wrote january 22nd,2003  it’s the american format and I have to read it january twenty second,two thousand three but if Iwrote 22nd january 2003 it’s the brittish format and
I must read it the twenty second of january two thousand and three .
Is that so?

Yes, that’s what I was wondering.  To me, it would make more sense to read it in the format it was written.

I’m not so certain that there is a fixed British way of saying or even writing dates.  For the date in question, I would use, interchangeably:

The twenty-second of January, two thousand and three.

or

January the twenty-second, two thousand and three.

I also admit to writing dates in either format:  22nd January 2003 or January 22nd 2003.

In both cases, I also acknowledge Stargzer’s comments of 22 Jan 03, inasmuch as the "and" in the year number would often be slurred though never completely dropped.

The real problem with US/Brit dates comes when the month is written as a number.  The US format of mm/dd/yyyy and Brit (and most of the rest of Europe) use of dd/mm/yyyy can and does frequently lead to misunderstanding and confusion.

Faced with the date 1/4/2003, I would pronounce it:

The first of April, two thousand and three.

whereas I would expect the US pronunciation to be:

January fourth, two thousand three.

The only country that I know of where dates are normally written with the least chance of confusion is Sweden, where they use yyyy-mm-dd.  But maybe even then a US-minded reader might assume it is to be read as yyyy-dd-mm?

An anecdote (completely true):

A couple of years ago I spent some time working in one of our US offices.  I was discussing this issue of date pronunciation with an American colleague.  He was adamant that the US way of saying dates was 100% consistent, unlike the British approach as mentioned above.  My question to him was "On what date do you celebrate the Fourth of July?", his instant reply was "July fourth"!

To make it even more confusing, even though civilians in the US use the mm/dd/yy format, the US Military used to use the dd/mm/yy format.  Does anyone know if they still do?

I don’t know about the US Military, but I am always surprised when visiting the USA that the Visa Waiver form asks for dates in dd/mm/yy format.

I’ve got two questions?
First,what is a Visa Waiver form?
Second,what about the dates on the Visa Waiver form in England?

I found a page at the US State Department that describes the Visa Waiver Program.  Basically, it allows natural-born citizens of participating countries who meet specific conditions to visit the US for up to 90 days (but not to work or study) without first obtaining a visa.

[quote author=mjduduf link=board=spell;num=1043254194;start=0#12 date=02/09/03 at 09:27:42]I’ve got two questions?
First,what is a Visa Waiver form?
Second,what about the dates on the Visa Waiver form in England?

I guess Stargzer has answered the first in characteristically complete form.

The second needs to be answered by a non-EU and non-Swiss passport-holder.  Being a UK passport holder, I do not have to fill in these annoying bits of paper when I enter the UK.

I would be very surprised, however, if the format is other than dd/mm/yy (or dd/mm/yyyy).

[quote author=mjduduf link=board=spell;num=1043254194;start=0#0 date=01/22/03 at 11:49:53]I’m french and I’m learning english and I ??? would like to know how to pronounce in phonetics this date:january 22nd 2003.

Thanks for the answer.

It is pronounce, but it is not pronounciation. It’s PRONUNCIATION.