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Why is it called Juneteenth? Saying dates with ordinal numbers

An A1 ESL lesson plan for saying dates with ordinal numbers, from May first to June nineteenth, the date that gives Juneteenth its name.

Grammar
Ordinal numbers up to thirty-first, with fifth, ninth and twelfth, US dates written month first and said with an ordinal (6/19, June nineteenth), and When is…? It's on…
Topic
Holidays and birthdays, from a Juneteenth picnic in Brooklyn to Galveston, Texas, in 1865, with words such as celebrate, freedom, family reunion and fireworks.
Activities
A picnic flyer, a dialogue and a radio minute, self-checking drills with a table of ordinals, a chat about birthdays, open-box questions and a calendar post to write.

What's inside

  1. Chapter 1Let's celebrate!

    • PictureUnlock
    • Spin the wheel and answerSpin the wheelUnlock
    • Study the words: holidaysVocabularyTry it
    • Look at the pictures and chooseChoose by pictureUnlock

  2. Chapter 2Let's read: a Juneteenth picnic

    • Look at the photo: a Juneteenth picnicPictureUnlock
    • Read the flyerReal-life documentTry it
    • Read and mark true or falseTrue or falseUnlock
    • Read again and choose the right answerQuizUnlock

  3. Chapter 3Let's listen: Juneteenth in Texas

    • Listen to Priya and SamListeningTry it
    • Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
    • Listen and choose the right answerQuizUnlock
    • Listen to the radio: this dayListeningUnlock
    • Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
    • Listen to the radio and choose the right wordChoose the optionUnlock

  4. Chapter 4Grammar: June nineteenth

    • Study the scheme: datesGrammar schemeTry it
    • Choose the right wordChoose the optionUnlock
    • Fill in the gaps: write the numbers as wordsFill in the gapsTry it
    • Fill in the table: write and say the numbersFill in the tableUnlock
    • Choose the right answerQuizUnlock

  5. Chapter 5Let's talk: When is it?

    • Choose the right replies: birthdays and holidaysChatTry it
    • Open a box and answerOpen the boxUnlock

  6. Chapter 6Homework

    • Drag the words into the gaps: say the datesDrag and dropUnlock
    • Match the words and their meaningsMatchUnlock
    • Write a calendar post: my three special daysWriting, checked by the teacherUnlock
    • Record a voice message: my special daysSpeaking, checked by the teacherUnlock

25 exercises in 6 chapters. Start a 7-day free trial to open all of them, copy any part into your own lessons, and teach the lesson live.

Vocabulary

10 words and phrases from the lesson, each with a picture and audio in edio.

+7 more with pictures and audio in the lessonMore words

  • strawberry
  • picnic
  • freedom
  • family reunion
  • barbecue
  • watermelon
  • fireworks

Grammar: ordinal numbers for saying dates

A holiday with a date in its name is a good place to start: Juneteenth is June plus nineteenth. Learners say dates as the month plus an ordinal number, spell the ordinals up to thirty-first, write one date three American ways and ask When is…? about holidays and birthdays.

Dates: June nineteenth, July fourth

Say dates with first, second, third… thirty-first. Ask and answer: When is…? It's on…

Month + first, second, third…

Americans say a date as the month, then an ordinal: June nineteenth, July fourth, May first. A plain number sounds wrong here: June nineteen is a typical slip, because the written form, June 19, shows no ending.

monthfirst, second, third…

June nineteenth

July fourth

May first

Spelling the ordinals from 1st to 31st

After first, second and third, most numbers add -th: sixth, tenth, nineteenth. Some change: fifth, eighth, ninth, twelfth, and twentieth and thirtieth, where y turns into ie. Above twenty, the last word alone becomes an ordinal: twenty-first, thirty-first.

1st, 2nd, 3rd… 31st

NumberWriteSay
11stfirst
22ndsecond
33rdthird
44thfourth
55thfifth (not fiveth)
88theighth (one t)
99thninth (no e)
1212thtwelfth (not twelveth)
1919thnineteenth
2020thtwentieth (y → ie)
2121sttwenty-first
2222ndtwenty-second
3030ththirtieth (y → ie)
3131stthirty-first

first, second, third, then + th

Most numbers: number + th: six → sixth, ten → tenth, fourteen → fourteenth. After twenty, only the last part changes: twenty-first (21st), twenty-second (22nd), twenty-third (23rd), twenty-fourth (24th).

Write June 19, say June nineteenth

A US date starts with the month and can be written three ways: June 19, June 19th or 6/19. All three are read the same: June nineteenth. A year comes after a comma (June 19, 1865), and a day on its own takes the: the twenty-second.

WriteSay
June 19 · June 19th · 6/19June nineteenth
July 4 · July 4th · 7/4July fourth
May 1 · May 1st · 5/1May first
the 22ndthe twenty-second
June 19, 1865June nineteenth, eighteen sixty-five

When is…? It's on…

Ask with When is…? and answer with on and the date: When is Juneteenth? It's on June 19th. What's the date today? is answered without on: It's June 19th. No the goes before a month: on May 5th, but on the 5th.

QuestionAnswer
When is Juneteenth?It's on June 19th.
When is your birthday?It's on May 1st.
When is the game?It's on the 20th.
What's the date today?It's June 19th. (no on)

Common mistakes

  • Juneteenth is on June nineteen.

    Juneteenth is on June nineteenth.

    a date: first, second, third, fourth…

  • When is Juneteenth? – It's in June 19th.

    When is Juneteenth? – It's on June 19th.

    a date: on

  • My birthday is on the May 5th.

    My birthday is on May 5th.

    no the before the month (but: on the 5th)

  • the fiveth, the nineth, the twelveth, the twenty-oneth

    the fifth, the ninth, the twelfth, the twenty-first

    spelling!

Try the ordinal numbers exercises

Try them yourself: these are the same exercises your students do in edio.

More exercises

What's in the lesson

  • 12 auto-checked exercises
  • 2 games
  • 2 teacher-checked tasks
  • 1 real-life document
  • 1 grammar scheme
  • 1 set of word cards
  • 2 audio clips
  • 2 pictures
  • 2 transcripts

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

  • say a date as the month and an ordinal number: June nineteenth, July fourth, May first
  • spell the ordinals up to thirty-first, with the traps fifth, ninth, twelfth and twentieth
  • write a US date month first, in three ways: June 19, June 19th, 6/19
  • ask and answer about holidays and birthdays: When is your birthday? It's on October 3rd.

Lesson 13 opens Celebrations, the fourth unit of English A1.2 · Out and About. It builds on two lessons of English A1.1 · Hello, World: lesson 9, which wrote dates month first as 3/14, and lesson 27, which counted streets with first, second and third; lesson 14 then adds in and on with months, seasons and years. Juneteenth's name is itself a date, so the holiday explains the grammar on its own.

After a spin wheel about favorite months and holidays, students learn ten words, from celebrate to fireworks, with pictures and audio. They read a community center's flyer for a Juneteenth picnic in Brooklyn, with a box on why the holiday is on June 19, and answer true-or-false and multiple-choice questions. Priya and Sam talk about Juneteenth in Texas and their birthdays (an AI-voiced dialogue), and a radio host marks the day. The grammar chapter has the scheme and four exercises, checked as students answer, among them a gap-fill that turns numbers into words and a table of ordinals to write and say. The speaking chapter has a chat with Priya about birthdays and holidays, then open boxes of questions about special dates.

For homework, students drag dates such as 7/4 and 10/8 into sentences and match words to meanings, and both tasks check themselves. A calendar post about three special days and a voice message follow, and the teacher reviews both.

Grammar:
ordinal numbers (first – thirty-first) · saying dates · writing dates (June 19, June 19th, 6/19) · When is…? It's on…
Topic:
Juneteenth · holidays · dates · birthdays · Texas

Teaching tips

  • Line students up by birthday: each one says theirs with an ordinal, My birthday is on March third, and the class checks the order from January to December.
  • Write June + nineteenth on the board before the reading and ask students to guess the holiday's name; the flyer's box then tells them why it's on June 19.
  • Collect the spelling traps first: put fiveth, nineth, twelveth and twenty-oneth on the board and let students fix them before the table of ordinals.
  • Extend the chat with Priya: pairs ask each other about three family birthdays, write them as US dates and read them back, so 4/9 becomes April ninth.

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The whole course: English A1.2 · Out and About

32 lessons that pick up where English A1.1 ends, in simple American English, from the present simple with he and she to was and were. Eight units cover shopping, the weather, getting around, celebrations, health, animals and nature, jobs and weekends. Pictures and definitions replace translations, and the practice exercises check themselves.See the course

  1. Unit 1 Shopping

    clothes and colors, he and she in the present simple, sizes and prices, paying in a store

    1. Lesson 1What does she wear on Aloha Friday?Present simple with he, she and it
    2. Lesson 2A basket on wheels?Present simple negatives with don't and doesn't
    3. Lesson 3What size are these boots?What questions and a pair of
    4. Lesson 4Can I try it on? The Santa Fe Indian MarketRequests and permission with Can I and Can you

  2. Unit 2 Weather and seasons

    the weather, seasons and months, the present continuous, how often it rains or snows

    1. Lesson 5Is the Windy City windy?Weather adjectives with It's
    2. Lesson 6Does it rain in the desert?Yes/no questions with does
    3. Lesson 7Baseball at midnight?The present continuous for now
    4. Lesson 8Is it always windy on Mount Washington?Adverbs of frequency and their place

  3. Unit 3 Getting around

    transport, timetables, where places are, tickets with want and need

    1. Lesson 9How do you get to work?By + transport, take the bus and on foot
    2. Lesson 10What time does the ferry leave?Wh- questions with does
    3. Lesson 11Where's the streetcar stop?Between, behind, in front of and across from
    4. Lesson 12Do you need a ticket?Want and need with a noun

  4. Unit 4 Celebrations

    dates and holidays, in and on, party invitations, object pronouns

    1. Lesson 13 · you're hereWhy is it called Juneteenth?Ordinal numbers for saying dates
    2. Lesson 14Never on a Sunday? The Rose ParadeIn, on and at for dates and times
    3. Lesson 15Come to our Lunar New Year party!Some and any with plural nouns
    4. Lesson 16Thank you, teacher!Object pronouns me, you, him, her, it, us and them

  5. Unit 5 Healthy me

    the body, how often, at the pharmacy, steps with first and then

    1. Lesson 17Does your back hurt?Hurt and hurts with parts of the body
    2. Lesson 18How often do you walk?How often questions and expressions of frequency
    3. Lesson 19What's the matter?Have and has for health problems
    4. Lesson 20Clean hands in five stepsSequence words with imperatives

  6. Unit 6 Animals and nature

    there is and there are, what animals are doing, parks, a, an and the

    1. Lesson 21Which frog sings its name?There is and there are for what's in a place
    2. Lesson 22What's the bear doing now?Present continuous questions and negatives
    3. Lesson 23Are there any horses on the beach?Questions with is there and are there any
    4. Lesson 24Where do the baby turtles go?A, an and the for first and second mention

  7. Unit 7 Jobs people do

    jobs and workplaces, the present simple and continuous, job interviews, possessive pronouns

    1. Lesson 25Who makes the sounds in movies?Present simple vs present continuous
    2. Lesson 26Nurses on horses?At, in and on with workplaces
    3. Lesson 27Can you be a lifeguard?Verbs with prepositions
    4. Lesson 28Whose hat is this?Possessive pronouns from mine to theirs

  8. Unit 8 Weekend stories and plans

    was and were, how long and how tall, and, but and or, camping food

    1. Lesson 29Why do we have two days off?Was and were, the past of be
    2. Lesson 30How long is a blue whale?How + adjective questions about size
    3. Lesson 31A cow made of butter?And, but and or for joining ideas
    4. Lesson 32What do you need for s'mores?Containers and quantities with of

Questions about this lesson

What are ordinal numbers?
Ordinal numbers give the order of things: first, second, third, fourth. Cardinal numbers count (one, two, nineteen), while ordinals rank: the third street, her twelfth birthday. In English, they also name the day in a date, so June 19 is said June nineteenth. Written in short, each takes the last two letters of its word: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 19th.
How do you write the date in American English?
An American date is written month first: June 19, June 19th or 6/19. A year follows a comma: June 19, 1865. No the goes before the month, so it's on May 5th, not on the May 5th; the comes only with the day alone: on the 5th. The Juneteenth flyer in Why is it called Juneteenth?, an A1 lesson on edio.ai, writes the picnic date as June 19th.
How do you say dates out loud in English?
Out loud, read the month, then the day's ordinal: June nineteenth, July fourth, October thirty-first. That holds for every written form, so 6/19, June 19 and June 19th all sound like June nineteenth. A year like 1865 is read in pairs of digits, so June 19, 1865 is June nineteenth, eighteen sixty-five. When the month is clear, the day alone takes the: See you on the nineteenth!
What are the ordinal numbers from 1 to 31?
From 1 to 31, the ordinals are first, second, third, then mostly number plus -th: fourth, sixth, nineteenth. Watch four spellings: fifth, eighth, ninth, twelfth. The tens change y to ie (twentieth, thirtieth), and after twenty only the last word changes: twenty-first, twenty-third, thirty-first. A table in Why is it called Juneteenth? on edio.ai asks for both forms, such as 23rd and twenty-third.
Is it "June nineteen" or "June nineteenth"?
It's June nineteenth, because dates take ordinal numbers, even when written as June 19. The same goes for July fourth, not July four, and May twenty-second, not May twenty-two. In a date, only the year stays a plain number: eighteen sixty-five. In the chat of the A1 lesson Why is it called Juneteenth? on edio.ai, It's on June nineteen is one of the wrong replies.
Is it "on June 19th" or "in June 19th"?
It's on June 19th: a date takes on. So the answer to When is Juneteenth? is It's on June 19th, and a birthday works the same way: My birthday is on April 9th. A month alone takes in (in June), and What's the date today? needs no preposition at all: It's June 19th.
Where does the word Juneteenth come from?
Juneteenth blends June and nineteenth, the day of the holiday: June 19. On June 19, 1865, the news reached Galveston, Texas, that all enslaved people in Texas were free; people there celebrated the day the next year, and it became a federal holiday in 2021. Said aloud, the date is June nineteenth. The A1 lesson Why is it called Juneteenth? on edio.ai explains the name in a picnic flyer.
What words do you need to talk about holidays in English?
To talk about holidays, start with holiday, celebrate and remember, then add what people do and eat: picnic, barbecue, family reunion, fireworks, watermelon, strawberry. Ask about the date with When is…? and answer with on: When is Independence Day? It's on July fourth. A family reunion is a day when grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins all meet.
How do I teach ordinal numbers to beginners?
Teach ordinals through dates students already care about, such as birthdays and holidays, so every new word has a use: My birthday is on May first. Begin with first, second and third, add -th, then flag fifth, ninth and twelfth. Why is it called Juneteenth?, an A1 lesson on edio.ai, takes that path: a flyer and a dialogue full of dates, the scheme, four drills and a chat about birthdays.
What's a good game for practicing dates?
Try an open-the-box game with a date question in each box: a student opens one and answers aloud, and the class checks the ordinal. Boxes can ask When is your mom's birthday?, What date do you always remember? Why? or Say these dates: 1/1, 7/4, 6/19, 10/31. This lesson's warm-up wheel works the same way, with questions like What's your favorite month? Why?
What's good homework for practicing ordinal numbers and dates?
Good homework is a short calendar post about three special days, each with its date: My birthday is on October 3rd. Juneteenth is on June 19th. Real dates make students choose the ordinal and on every time. In the edio.ai lesson Why is it called Juneteenth?, a drag-and-drop of dates and a word match check themselves first, and a voice message goes to the teacher with the post.
Are there interactive exercises for ordinal numbers?
Yes: online gap-fills and chats that mark each answer suit dates well. Four parts of Why is it called Juneteenth?, an A1 lesson on edio.ai, play on this page without an account: the Juneteenth picnic flyer, Priya and Sam's dialogue, a gap-fill that writes numbers as words (It's on October thirty-first) and a chat with Priya about birthdays. The table of ordinals and the other drills stay locked.
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