The months of the year in Spanish, or meses del año are fairly straightforward words that should be pretty easy to learn with a small amount of effort. You may have learned this pretty early on in your Spanish learning journey and just need a refresher, or you may be looking to teach yourself the months in Spanish.
Whatever your reasons for landing on this page, everything you need to know about the months in Spanish, and how to use them, is right here!
What are the months in Spanish?
In Spanish, just like in English, the months take their names from Roman Empire origins. So you will notice that all the months sound very similar to their English counterparts.
- January – enero
- February – febrero
- March – marzo
- April – abril
- May – mayo
- June – junio
- July – julio
- August – agosto
- September – septiembre
- October – octubre
- November – noviembre
- December – diciembre
So, the months of the year in Spanish are enero, febrero, marzo, abril, mayo, junio, julio, agosto, septiembre, octubre, noviembre, diciembre.
A couple of things you may notice about the months in Spanish:
- Don’t forget the pronunciation of “j” in Spanish. So even though the months of the year look quite similar to English in their written form, they can sound very different when spoken.
- Notice the months tend to end in “o” up to August, and then the last four end in “e”. This is due to the different historical origins of the last four months of the year.
How to remember the month names in Spanish
Now you know what the months of the year are, but how do you make them stick?
Some ideas to remember the months in Spanish are:
- Try repeating the sequence a few times. This will help you remember them as a pattern and sound sequence.
- Use Clozemaster to practise using them in sentences. Using the Spanish months in sentences will help you to really get used to them and use them fluently, not just on their own but also within bigger structures.
- Listen to songs which aim at teaching the months in Spanish. This one aimed at Spanish-speaking children, is a catchy number you can really get stuck in your head.
Grammar: Important things to know about the months in Spanish
Masculine and singular
The months of the year in Spanish are masculine and singular nouns. Although you won’t normally use them with determiners and adjectives, if you do need to it is important to remember this. And luckily all the months have this in common.
Spanish months as adjectives
In Spanish, three months can be adjectives as well as nouns. These are:
- abrileño (from abril)
- marzal (from marzo)
- agosteño (from agosto)
These words are not used very often, but they are sometimes used in literature to describe things typical of the time of year pertaining to a given month.
For example:
Las hojas agosteñas comienzan a caerse. | August leaves start to fall down.
You may wonder what happens if you want to describe something from a month that doesn’t have its own adjective. In these cases, you could just use de + (month) to achieve the same effect.
The months in Spanish are not capitalized
Unlike in English, the months in Spanish do not begin with capital letters.
Saying the date in Spanish
When saying dates in Spanish, the day always comes before the month. This is the case in both written and spoken Spanish. Spanish dates always use cardinal numbers, instead of ordinal like we often use in English. The structure of a date in full is as follows:
El + (number) + de + month
For example:
El seis de febrero | The sixth of February
Abbreviating the month names in Spanish
Like in English, in Spanish it is sometimes useful to abbreviate the months of the year. However, unlike in English, in Spanish some of the months are kept at their original length while others are abbreviated.
The abbreviations of the months in Spanish are as follows:
| Jan. | enero |
| Feb. | feb. |
| Mar. | marzo |
| Apr. | abr. |
| May | mayo |
| June | jun. |
| July | jul. |
| Aug. | agosto |
| Sept. | set. |
| Oct. | oct. |
| Nov. | nov. |
| Dec. | dic. |
When writing out dates in day-month-year format, the months will often be represented by Roman numerals, rather than numbers or letter abbreviations. For example, the 15th of June 2020 would be written as 15-VI-2020.
Using the months in Spanish in a sentence
On – en
When talking about months of the year in English, we almost always use a preposition before the month. The most common of these is “in”, as in “in January”. Luckily, this is the same in Spanish, and they use the word “en” when talking about something happening in a particular month.
For example:
Yo me voy a graduar en mayo. | I’m going to graduate in May.
Every – todo/cada
The word “every” is indicated in Spanish by the word todo or cada. If you are wanting to emphasize that something happens every year in a certain month, you can just add the word “todo” or “cada” before the month.
Todo diciembre viajamos para la costa. | Every December we travel to the coast.
Cada marzo compramos ropa nueva. | Every March we buy new clothes.
Before & after – antes & después
To use the words “before”(antes) and “after”(después) in a sentence in Spanish, we need both the word and the preposition, “de”.
So the correct construction is “antes de (month)”.
Examples:
Quiero perder peso antes de agosto. | I want to lose weight before August.
Después de abril tendré 25 años. | After April, I’ll be 25.
Until – hasta
The word for until is hasta and does not require another preposition. So if we want to talk about something happening until a certain month, we simply say “hasta (month)”.
Examples:
Voy a estar en Santiago hasta junio. | I will be in Santiago until June.
Te lo dejo hasta noviembre. | I’ll let you have it until November.
Since – desde
Just like “until”, the word for “since” in Spanish is used on its own. It is followed by only the article when we are talking about the months in Spanish. Hence, you should say “desde (month)”. When you use desde with present tense verbs, it reads like the present perfect in English, so you can use either the Spanish present tense or Spanish present perfect.
Examples:
Estoy aprendiendo español desde marzo. | I’ve been studying Spanish since March.
No vengo al centro comercial desde febrero. | I haven’t been to a shopping mall since February.
Mi hijo ha estado viviendo conmigo desde diciembre. | My son has been living with me since December.
Next – próximo/que viene
Although you generally don’t need an article like “el” before the months of the year, talking about next is one of the few times you do need to include this.
Unlike the above words, next is not a preposition but an adjective. That’s why próximo should appear in between the article and the month, so it will look something like “el próximo (month)”.
Another way to express “next” in Spanish which is slightly more colloquial is que viene. This is an expression literally meaning “that comes”, and in a sentence, it comes directly after the name of the month. So, you should say “el (month) que viene”.
Those two expressions are interchangeable in meaning.
Examples:
El enero que viene comienzo mis clases en la universidad. | Next January I start my classes at university.
El próximo noviembre Juan por fin viene a visitar. | Next November Juan finally comes to visit.
Last – pasado
Just like “next”, “last” is also an adjective. However, the Spanish pasado is a more traditional adjective in that it comes directly after the noun, not before it. So, you will see “el (month) pasado” to mean the most recent time that month has passed.
Examples:
El junio pasado fui a Roma. | Last June I went to Rome.
El agosto pasado mis hermanitas gemelas cumplieron dieciocho años. | Last August my little twin sisters turned 18.
This – este
“Este”, a determiner meaning this, is used before a month to talk about the upcoming month. We use “este” because it is a singular masculine determiner, and as you’ll recall, all the months of the year are singular and masculine.
Examples:
Este julio mi tía va a dar a luz. | This July my aunt is going to give birth
Este septiembre mis abuelos se van a jubilar. | This September my grandparents are going to retire.
More on dates in Spanish
Hopefully this little guide has given you a good idea about what the months in Spanish are and how to use them! If you want to have a practise now using them in context, why not give Clozemaster a try?
Challenge yourself with Clozemaster
Test your skills and see what you’ve learned from this article by playing a selection of sentences with Spanish month names.
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Clozemaster has been designed to help you learn the language in context by filling in the gaps in authentic sentences. With features such as Grammar Challenges, Cloze-Listening, and Cloze-Reading, the app will let you emphasize all the competencies necessary to become fluent in Spanish.
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