Months of the year in Spanish

The table below lists the twelve months in Spanish with a pronunciation guide, the English, and the usual abbreviation. Most look like their English names, which makes them one of the easiest word sets to learn.

The harder part is dates: Spanish puts the day first and uses different small words. The sections below show how.

Spanish	Sounds like	English	Short form
enero	eh-NEH-ro	January	ene.
febrero	feh-BREH-ro	February	feb.
marzo	MAR-so	March	mar.
abril	ah-BREEL	April	abr.
mayo	MAH-yo	May	may.
junio	HOO-nyo	June	jun.
julio	HOO-lyo	July	jul.
agosto	ah-GOS-to	August	ago.
septiembre	sep-TYEM-breh	September	sept.
octubre	ok-TOO-breh	October	oct.
noviembre	no-BYEM-breh	November	nov.
diciembre	dee-SYEM-breh	December	dic.

“Sounds like” is a rough English-style guide; capital letters mark the stressed syllable. Spanish vowels are short and pure: a as in father, e as in bed, i as in see, o as in note (short), u as in food.

Months are lowercase

As with days of the week, Spanish writes the months with a small letter: Mi cumpleaños es en julio (My birthday is in July). Capitalize one only at the start of a sentence or in a title.

Septiembre has a second accepted spelling, setiembre, used in some countries such as Peru and Uruguay. Both are correct.

How to say and write dates

Spanish dates go day, month, year, joined with de, and use ordinary numbers rather than "first, second, third":

Spanish	English
el 5 de mayo	May 5 (May fifth)
el 16 de septiembre de 2010	September 16, 2010
el primero de enero / el 1 de enero	January 1
5/3/2026	March 5, 2026 (day first)

The first of the month is often el primero, especially in Latin America; after that it is always the plain number: el dos, el tres. In short dates the day comes first, so 5/3 is March 5, not May 3.

¿Qué fecha es hoy? What’s the date today?
Hoy es 14 de febrero. Today is February 14.
¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños? When is your birthday?
Es el 20 de agosto. It’s August 20.

In January, next month, every month

Spanish	English
en enero	in January
a principios de marzo	at the beginning of March
a mediados de junio	in mid-June
a finales de octubre	at the end of October
el mes que viene / el próximo mes	next month
el mes pasado	last month
todos los meses	every month

Seasons

The seasons are la primavera (spring), el verano (summer), el otoño (fall), and el invierno (winter). South of the equator, in Argentina, Chile, or Uruguay, the seasons are reversed: December is summer, and Navidad en verano (Christmas in summer) is normal.

Common mistakes

Capital letters: write abril, not Abril.
Ordinals for dates: say el 3 de mayo, not el tercero de mayo.
Month first: 4/7 means July 4 in Spanish, not April 7.
Forgetting de: say el 10 de junio, not el 10 junio.
Pronouncing j: junio and julio start with a strong h sound: HOO-nyo, HOO-lyo.

For birthdays, see happy birthday in Spanish, and for the week, days of the week in Spanish.