When Were You Born?
Five people, five dates, five hundred years between the first and the last. To talk about any of them you need the past of be in all its forms, and the one sound English adds to a number to turn it into a date.
Warm-up
Short answers. Tap a card when you have answered it.
Your own birthday is the first date you should be able to say. It comes up at a hotel desk, at a doctor's office, on a form, in every job interview. Get that one automatic and the rest follow.
Useful language
The eight that are not regular
Most ordinals just add -th. These eight change something. Click a number, then click how you say it.
The months
Click a month in the bank, then click a gap. In English, months always start with a capital letter.
- The first month of the year is _____.
- The shortest month, with only 28 or 29 days, is _____.
- The month between February and April is _____.
- My birthday was on the tenth of _____, the fourth month.
- My sister was born on the second of _____, the fifth month.
- The month after July is _____.
- We were on vacation in _____, the month before December.
- The last month of the year is _____.
Five birthdays, five hundred years
Read it out loud. Every date in it is a sentence you will need for yourself.
Five people, five dates, and five hundred years between the first and the last. To talk about any of them you need two things: the past of be, and the words for the date.
Leonardo da Vinci was born on the fifteenth of April, fourteen fifty-two. He was the painter of some of the most famous paintings in the world.
Queen Victoria was born on the twenty-fourth of May, eighteen nineteen. She was queen for sixty-three years, and her birthday makes her a Gemini.
Marie Curie was born on the seventh of November, eighteen sixty-seven. That makes her a Scorpio. She was a scientist, and she won the Nobel Prize twice.
Albert Einstein was born on the fourteenth of March, eighteen seventy-nine — which is also Pi Day, because 3, 1 and 4 are the first three numbers of π.
People love to say that Einstein was bad at math. He wasn't. He finished calculus before he was sixteen, and he said so himself when the story appeared in a newspaper.
Martin Luther King was born on the fifteenth of January, nineteen twenty-nine. He was a leader, and the cause he worked for was the rights of Black Americans.
Multiple choice
Click an answer and you get the result right away, with the reason.
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In which year was Leonardo da Vinci born?
We say it fourteen fifty-two, in two halves.
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What was his occupation?
Of some of the most famous paintings in the world.
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How long was Queen Victoria queen?
Sixty-three, and the two digits are not the other way round.
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When was she born?
Read the day and the year. Both are traps here.
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What is Marie Curie's zodiac sign?
The seventh of November falls inside Scorpio.
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How many Nobel Prizes did she win?
Which is why the text says she won it in two different sciences — the only person who ever has.
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Was Albert Einstein bad at math?
The most famous false story in the world about a real person.
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What had he finished before he was sixteen?
He said it himself, in answer to the newspaper story.
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His birthday is also:
The fourteenth of March, and mathematicians eat pie.
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Why is that day Pi Day?
Third month, fourteenth day: 3.14. Einstein's birthday is a coincidence.
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What cause did Martin Luther King work for?
He was born on the fifteenth of January, nineteen twenty-nine.
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How do you say the number in "15th August"?
That little -th at the end is the whole lesson.
Was and were: all forms
Last class was the affirmative. Here is the rest. The negative adds n't and the question moves the verb to the front — exactly what am, is and are already do in the present.
- (+) I was born in May. · He was a Scorpio. · They were artists.
- (-) I wasn't at home. · He wasn't a Pisces. · They weren't singers.
- (?) Was I with you? · Was he a scientist? · Were they born in England?
- Short answers: Yes, I was. / No, I wasn't. · Yes, they were. / No, they weren't.
- Born is special: we always say was born or were born, never borned and never just born.
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When ______ Queen Victoria born?
One person, and be never asks with did.
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"Was Albert Einstein good at math?" The true answer is:
He was very good at it. The story that says otherwise is not true.
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"______ Einstein and Marie Curie scientists?" — "Yes, they were."
Two people, and the answer already tells you the word.
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Which sentence is correct?
The phrase is always was born or were born. Two words.
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They ______ at work today, and they ______ at work yesterday either.
They takes are now and were then.
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"Were you at home at seven?" You were. You say:
The question uses were because of you. The answer uses was because of I.
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"He's at the airport this morning" in the past is:
Change the verb and change the time word. Both, every time.
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"Was Queen Victoria born in 1919?"
A hundred years out. Say eighteen nineteen, not nineteen nineteen.
How to say a date
- Write: 15th August, 2023 · August 15 · 15/8 · 8/15
- Say: the fifteenth of August, twenty twenty-three — or August the fifteenth. Both are correct.
- The month can come before or after the day. That is why 15/8 and 8/15 are the same date written two ways.
- Add -th to the number — fifteen becomes fifteenth. It is said like the th in thanks, with your tongue between your teeth.
- Years come in two halves: 1819 is eighteen nineteen, 1452 is fourteen fifty-two.
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What do we usually add to the number in a date?
First, second and third are the three that do something else.
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How do we say that th?
Tongue between the teeth. Portuguese has no such sound, so it needs practice.
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Which is correct?
One word, with the ending attached.
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Are 15/8 and 8/15 the same date?
The United States writes the month first; most other countries write the day first.
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12th is:
The v becomes an f, like in fifth.
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9th is:
Nine loses its e. The third one is 19th, a different number.
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20th is:
The y becomes ie, and so it does in thirtieth.
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How do we say the year 1452?
Two halves, two numbers. The first option is not wrong, only very slow.
Put it in the past, then ask
First six: rewrite the sentence with the new time word. Last four: write the question only — we answer them out loud together.
Example: I'm at home now. → I was at home yesterday. Two things change and nothing else: the verb, and the word for when.
yesterdayThey aren't at work today.
last nightShe's at a restaurant tonight.
two days agoWe aren't at school today.
at 7 p.m.Are you at home now?
yesterday morningHe's at the airport this morning.
yesterdayI'm not tired today.
?Martin Luther King / a leader
?Albert Einstein and Marie Curie / artists
?Queen Victoria / born in 1919
?Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo / artists
Write the date in words
Example: 1st January → the first of January. Both orders are accepted, so January the first also counts.
2nd Feb2nd February
12th Mar12th March
3rd Apr3rd April
13th May13th May
15th Jun15th June
20th Jul20th July
25th Aug25th August
5th Sep5th September
29th Oct29th October
30th Nov30th November
31st Dec31st December
When were you born?
Say every date out loud. If you hesitate, say it again slower — the point is the ending on the number.
Useful language
My own infographic
60–100 words. Write a short profile of somebody in your family, in the style of the five above: when they were born, their sign, their occupation, and one thing they were good at. Write every date in words.
My results
Check your score, then copy it and send it to your teacher on WhatsApp.
Learn one date perfectly this week: your own. Say it fifty times until it comes out with no thinking. It is the single date you will be asked for most often in your life.