on the fifth of April (necessity of the)

[ademoglu]

Hi,

http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/March

- There's a meeting on March 6th.

- I wrote to my bank on 6th March.

http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/april?q=april

- The meeting is on the fifth of April/April the fifth.

I see no comma in the Longman Dictionary but I see 'the' used in the Oxford Dictionary. Is it a difference between American and British usage or something else?

Thanks.​

 

[MikeNewYork]

In AmE, the following are common:

March the 5th
the fifth of March
3/5

 

[emsr2d2]

There's one major difference between AmE and BrE when it comes to writing dates using numbers. Mike's example of "3/5" is the third of May to BrE users. WE always put the date first, then the month.

The fifth of March would be "5/3".

Despite years of experience of reading/seeing the AmE version, I still have to really think about it to work out what date is meant.

 

[SoothingDave]

It always helps if one of the numbers is greater than 12.