Being able to describe time is pretty fundamental in any language, so in this post we’ll introduce the months in Spanish. In addition to learning the vocab for each of the 12 months in Spanish, we’ll also look at grammar rules for talking about Spanish months.

While we’re at it, we’ll even include a section to learn the seasons in Spanish. We also recommend checking out our recent post introducing the days of the week in Spanish, so by the end of this one you’ll be ready to talk all about the year in Spanish!

Are you ready? Let’s get started!

Spanish Months

Let’s get straight to the point. The months in Spanish are:

Are Months Capitalized in Spanish?

As you can tell from the vocabulary table above, Spanish months are not capitalized. This is a fundamental grammar rule which always applies to the months in Spanish, unless they’re at the beginning of a sentence. Let’s see this with a couple of examples:

• My family and I plan to travel to France this December. – Mi familia y yo planeamos viajar a Francia este diciembre.

• In my country, Summer is from June to September. – En mi país, el verano es desde junio hasta septiembre.

Gender: Spanish Months are Masculine

Learning the gender of the Spanish months is easy, since all twelve of them are masculine. Therefore, we need to use el for singular and todos los for plural. Let’s see this in a couple of examples:

• I was born on June 24th, 2000. – Yo nací el 24 de junio del 2000.

• We visit our grandparents every August. – Nosotros visitamos a nuestros abuelos todos los agostos.

How to Talk About Dates In Spanish

There’s a fundamental difference in the way we talk about dates in Spanish, compared with the English standard in the United States: the days always come after the months in Spanish, using the connector word de, and without using ordinals like in the US. This is best shown through some examples:

• My birthday is on October 23rd. – Mi cumpleaños es el 23 de octubre.

• We celebrate Christmas on December 25th. – Nosotros celebramos la navidad el 25 de diciembre.

Another way to think about this is when, in English, you use the same word order as Spanish by connecting the date and the month with the word of. Remember though that we still don’t use the ordinals when talking about dates in Spanish:

• The final match will be on the 2nd of March. – The final match will be on March 2nd. – El juego final será el 2 de marzo.

Abbreviations

Just as in English, we have a standard set of abbreviations for each of the Spanish months:

Seasons in Spanish

Now that you know the Spanish months of the year, let’s learn the Spanish seasons.

The seasons in Spanish are called las estaciones or las estaciones del año.

• Spring break is ideal for going on vacation. – El descanso de primavera es ideal para irnos de vacaciones.

• During the summer I always visit my grandparents and relax in their pool. – Durante el verano siempre visito a mis abuelos y me relajo en su piscina.

• People say that autumn is the best time of the year to visit New York. – La gente dice que el otoño es la mejor época del año para visitar Nueva York.

• I don’t like winters, they are too cold and there is nothing to do. – No me gustan los inviernos, son demasiado fríos y no hay nada que hacer.

Conclusion

Well that was a pretty straightforward lesson for learning the Spanish months, don’t you think?

We covered the 12 months in Spanish in order, as well as their abbreviations, so you have the right vocabulary for talking about all the months of the year in Spanish. We covered the basic grammar rules, namely that the Spanish months are never capitalized and that all the Spanish months are masculine. We saw how to talk about dates in Spanish, always placing the day before the month. And finally we learned how to talk about the four seasons in Spanish.

Are you ready to give it a bit of practice? Great! Then we’ll end our post here with a few questions so you get used to talking about the months in Spanish!

• ¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños?

• ¿En cuál mes se celebra Carnaval en tu país?

• ¿Cuándo es invierno en tu país?

• ¿Cuándo es otoño en tu país?

• ¿Cuándo es primavera en tu país?

• ¿Cuándo es verano?

• ¿Cuál es tu mes favorito?