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American English dates | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5578 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 1 of 10 27 May 2015 at 2:26am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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In a business email, how would you say "I'll be out of the office until the 22nd of June" in American English?
I've been asked by a learner and thought it would be something like "I'll be out of the office until June 26th" but want to be sure before answering. Thanks in advance. Edited by Random review on 27 May 2015 at 2:27am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| basica Senior Member Australia Joined 3331 days ago 157 posts - 269 votes Studies: Serbian | Message 2 of 10 27 May 2015 at 2:35am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Unless I'm missing something, either is fine. The only difference really is if you're
writing the dates as numbers, then it's MM/DD/YY. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4684 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 3 of 10 27 May 2015 at 2:39am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Either one sounds natural to me. I think the second might be slightly more common.
Our work email doesn't even use ordinal numbers. The automatic message on our servers is I'll be out until February 8. Though this might be less 'American English' and more 'I have coworkers who suck at grammar.' 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 3847 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 4 of 10 27 May 2015 at 3:06am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I would say that all three formulations are acceptable today, including kanewai's formulation of until February 8. This formulation has been used in NATO communications and many individual member-states' armed forces communications prior to the widespread use of computers. Can't you just see Monty saying, "We'll be in Arnhem by September 17"?
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| robarb Nonaglot Senior Member United States languagenpluson Joined 4854 days ago 361 posts - 921 votes Speaks: Portuguese, English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, French Studies: Mandarin, Danish, Russian, Norwegian, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Greek, Latin, Nepali, Modern Hebrew | Message 5 of 10 27 May 2015 at 5:39am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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American English speaker here.
a. "I'll be out of the office until the 22nd of June." Correct, but somewhat formal sounding. I wouldn't usually use this. b. "I'll be out of the office until June 22nd." Correct. This would be my preferred form in speech. c. "I'll be out of the office until June 22." Correct, but sounds better in writing than in speech. d. "I'll be out of the office until the 22nd." Correct in informal speech when it's clear what month you mean. e. "I'll be out of the office until the 22." Not acceptable for me. f. "I'll be out of the office until 6/22." Correct, but this is pronounced as one of a-c. I wouldn't read it as "six twenty-two." g. "I'll be out of the office until 22 June." Not acceptable in my dialect. I think of this as a British form. Edited by robarb on 27 May 2015 at 5:41am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| chaotic_thought Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 3337 days ago 129 posts - 274 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Dutch, French | Message 6 of 10 27 May 2015 at 8:04am | IP Logged | ||||||||
For writing this in an American-only context, you would write "I'll be out of the office until 6/22.". However, assuming an American-only context in a business email doesn't make much sense, so instead you should write "I'll be out of the office until 22 Jun." As for saying the above phrase, Americans would usually say "I'll be out of the office until June twenty second," regardless of how it's written. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4328 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 7 of 10 27 May 2015 at 9:09am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I think this is the best too.
As an Australian/British speaker this looks terrible. :(
This on the other hand looks fine. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5170 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 8 of 10 27 May 2015 at 2:21pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I've worked every day of my professional life in an professional office setting in the US and I would say "I will be out of the office until June 26, 2015." That is what I put in my "out of office" email auto reply at work when I am on vacation or something. This is definitely the most common/professional way to write this type of phrase.
When writing a professional letter you would need to write the date this way (including the year) and I see no reason to do it differently in an email. 5 persons have voted this message useful |
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