How to Say Dates in Russian (Ordinal Numbers + Cases)

To talk about dates and years Russian typically uses ordinal numbers. In English ordinal numbers are first, second, tenth and so on. Russian ordinal numbers behave like adjectives and answer the questions како́й? кака́я? како́е? каки́е? (which one?) and agree with the noun they modify in gender, number, and case.

Ordinal numbers (Поря́дковые числи́тельные)

The ordinal forms for 1–8 don’t follow one simple pattern, so it’s best to memorize them. Two other tricky ones are 40 and 90. For other numbers, forming an ordinal can feel simple: you take the cardinal form (one, two, three…) and add an adjective-like ending -ый (or -ая, -ое, -ые, depending on gender and number). “Could it really be that easy?” — you might ask, and you’d be right 😅

If cardinal numbers still feel new, it's worth reading this first, since every ordinal is built from them: How to Use Russian Cardinal Numbers Correctly.

With tens, hundreds, and thousands, there's a useful pattern: in forms like -деся́тый (-tieth), -со́тый (-hundredth), -ты́сячный (-thousandth), the part before the ending is usually the genitive form of the number.

For tens, this pattern kicks in starting at 50:

• пятьдеся́т (50) → пятидеся́тый (50th)
• шестьдеся́т (60) → шестидеся́тый (60th)
• се́мьдесят (70) → семидеся́тый (70th)
• во́семьдесят (80) → восьмидеся́тый (80th)

20, 30, and 40 are the exceptions here — двадца́тый, тридца́тый, and сороково́й are irregular and just need to be memorized separately.

For hundreds and thousands, though, the same pattern starts much earlier — right at 2 — because две́сти, три́ста, and четы́реста are genuine compounds of two/three/four + сто, so they decline exactly the same way as the higher numbers:

• две́сти (200) → двухсо́тый (200th)
• три́ста (300) → трёхсо́тый (300th)
• четы́реста (400) → четырёхсо́тый (400th)
• пятьсо́т (500) → пятисо́тый (500th)

And it keeps going the same way for thousands and millions:

• две ты́сячи (2000) → двухты́сячный (2000th)
• три ты́сячи (3000) → трёхты́сячный (3000th)
• два миллио́на (2000000) → двухмиллио́нный (2000000th)

So the rule of thumb: for tens, the genitive pattern only starts at 50 — but for hundreds, thousands, and millions, it starts right at 2.

The best part: in compound ordinal numbers, only the last word becomes ordinal:

• два́дцать оди́н (21) → два́дцать пе́рвый (21st)
• ты́сяча девятьсо́т девяно́сто де́вять (1999) → ты́сяча девятьсо́т девяно́сто девя́тый (1999th)

Look at the table and find these ordinal forms. Try to discover the logic described above in the examples — it will make the system easier to understand and remember.

Dates: “When?” → Genitive case

To say a date as an answer to когда́? (when?), when something happened, Russian uses the pattern:

[day in Genitive] + [month in Genitive] + [year in Genitive] + го́да [the word год - year in Genitive]

• on 5.05.1996 → пя́того ма́я ты́сяча девятьсо́т девяно́сто шесто́го го́да

As you can see, Russian doesn’t use a preposition like ‘on’ with dates. The day number is modified by an implied word число́ ("date number") which is neuter and the year number is modified by the word год which is masculine. That's why there is not much to think about, all the ordinal numbers here in the genitive have same ending -ого (or -его after три - третьего). You can find the month names here:

The date can be in Nominative case when we answer the question “What date was it?” (date as a fact on a calendar):

• На календа́ре бы́ло (что?) пя́тое ма́я ты́сяча девятьсо́т девяно́сто шесто́го го́да. - On the calendar there was the 5th of May 1996.

But “When did it happen?” (time of an action):

• Он прие́хал (когда́?) пя́того ма́я ты́сяча девятьсо́т девяно́сто шесто́го го́да. - He came on the 5th of May 1996.

A note on numeric dates

When dates are written in numbers rather than words, Russian uses day.month.year — 05.05.1996, not the American month/day/year order. If you see 05.05.1996 in a Russian text, that's the 5th of May, not the 5th month. Worth keeping in mind before you assume you're reading an American-style date.

Examples:

• on 21.09.2025 → два́дцать пе́рвого сентября́ две ты́сячи два́дцать пя́того го́да
• on 18.06.1860 → восемна́дцатого ию́ня ты́сяча восемьсо́т шестидеся́того го́да
• on 30.04.2012 → тридца́того апре́ля две ты́сячи двена́дцатого го́да
• on 31.12.2000 → три́дцать пе́рвого дека́бря двухты́сячного го́да
• on 26.08.2022 → два́дцать шесто́го а́вгуста две ты́сячи два́дцать второ́го го́да

“In what year?” → Prepositional case

To say “in (a certain) year” — в како́м году́? — Russian uses the Prepositional:

в + [year in Prepositional] + году́ [Prepositional]

• in 1996 → в ты́сяча девятьсо́т девяно́сто шесто́м году́

The last ordinal word in this case will have ending -ом (or -ем for три - в третьем). The same way we can tell in which century something happened. Notice that centuries in Russian are often written with roman numerals. 

• in the 21st century → в XXI ве́ке → в два́дцать пе́рвом ве́ке

(век - century)

Examples:

• in 1901 → в ты́сяча девятьсо́т пе́рвом году́
• in 1945 → в ты́сяча девятьсо́т со́рок пя́том году́
• in 1990 → в ты́сяча девятьсо́т девяно́стом году́
• in 2000 → в двухты́сячном году́
• in 2025 → в две ты́сячи два́дцать пя́том году́

If your head is spinning a little after all these tables — that's fair, this is one of the densest grammar topics on the site. But notice you don't actually need to memorize five separate systems here. You need one skill: turning a cardinal number into its genitive or prepositional ordinal form. Once that clicks, когда? and в каком году? are just the same move, applied twice, with a different case ending at the end.

Start small: do exercises that I provide in the Exercise tab above, then pick your own birth date, today's date, maybe a historical event you care about. Say them out loud a few times. That's usually all it takes for the pattern to stop feeling like a table and start feeling like a sentence.